Tamarind rice comes from South India, famous for its handy, time-saving  rice preparations that are ideally light, all-in-one meals during hot summers. Besides the two main ingredients, several spices valued for digestive properties go into this dish – fenugreek, coriander, sesame and mustard. Dry red chilies are used to spice it up while grated coconut balances the “heat”. A handful of peanuts add crunch and sesame (til) oil gives it a distinctive flavor. Great for picnic lunches or road trips!

Pani puri or golgappe belong to the “chaat” family of Indian street foods, savored for their tongue-tingling mix of flavors. The dish is said to have originated in the holy city of Benares, but is sold widely across north, west and east India under different names.

A plate of pani-puri typically consists of 5-6 small, spherical flatbreads called puris, fried crisp. The vendor cracks open the tops of the puris and stuffs in several ingredients like spiced potato pieces or chickpeas, chopped onions and coriander leaves. The puri is then filled with the “pani”, a thin soup of water, tamarind pulp, roasted cumin and chilli powder, rock salt and plain salt. The fun is in eating the pani-puri, which must be popped in whole, crunched and swallowed – not an easy accomplishment when the spices “explode” in the mouth!

Paranthas are unleavened, whole wheat flatbreads native to Punjab. Parantha dough is kneaded with a little oil as well as water. For a basic parantha, small portions are rolled out into round, triangular or square shapes and cooked on a griddle with a smearing of oil on both sides.

Dhokla is a popular tea-time snack in Gujarati homes and one that’s widely sold in Indian sweet shops and fast-food restaurants. It’s healthy fare too, since it’s steamed rather than fried and is high in protein and fiber.

The basic ingredient which goes into dhoklas is split Bengal gram (chana dal) or gram flour. This is ground into a batter with spices (turmeric, ginger, green chilies) and a dash of sugar added for color and flavor. The mixture is fermented, poured into a thaali and steamed. When done, it looks much like a pale yellow sponge cake. A tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves, chopped coriander leaves and grated coconut is sprinkled on top. The “cake” is cut into pieces and served with tamarind or mint chutney. This is the traditional khaman dhokla.

Variations on the dhokla theme are a rice-and-lentil version called khatta dhokla (khatta = sour) and more modern experiments like vegetable dhokla and cheese dhokla. If ever there was a guilt-free snack, this is it!

Bhel puri is best eaten in a newspaper cone, on Chowpatty Beach, Mumbai, with a salty breeze blowing through your hair. If that’s not possible, try it out at home. You can’t really go wrong with bhel puri!

Assorted vegetables added to a mashed potato, onion and tomato base, form the thick gravy, cooked on an enormous griddle. The 12-spice mix added to it imparts a unique flavor that sends one’s taste buds into a tizzy. The pao is sliced in half, pan-fried with a dollop of butter and served with bhaji.

Flattened cottage cheese (paneer) dumplings are cooked in sugar syrup and then dunked into thickened, mildly sweet milk. The sugar never overwhelms the palate, thanks to the cardamom powder added to the milk. When serving, slivers of dried pistachio are added as a garnish. Rasmalai served chilled makes for a fabulous dessert. A perfect rasmalai is soft and spongy, never excessively sweet and will have you going back for more!

This is the dosa’s less glamorous sibling; it’s easier on the waistline, since it’s steamed, not fried. The rice-and-lentil batter is spooned into an idli stand consisting of plates with built in shallow cavities. The stand goes into a steamer and is allowed to cook for about 10-12 minutes. Once done, the perfect idli is soft and a little springy. The fermentation process makes it nutrient-rich, while steaming makes it easy to digest. An ideal breakfast if you’re recuperating from indigestion or as a solid food for toddlers. Like the dosa, it’s accompanied by sambar and chutney; some favor it with nothing but a little ‘gunpowder’ (roasted and ground red chilies, lentils and salt) and sesame oil or ghee.

Dosa is a South Indian staple that’s travelled worldwide. Neither pancake nor flatbread, the dosa could be best described as a golden brown crepe, crisp and very melt-in-the-mouth! Its ingredients are simple: a 1:4 ratio of split lentils and parboiled rice, soaked, ground into a batter and left to ferment. 

Dosas are prepared by thinning the batter with water and spreading spoonfuls onto a greased, heated griddle. When both sides are cooked, the dosa is folded into a half-moon and served with small bowls of freshly ground coconut chutney and sambar, a sour-and-spicy lentil curry. A heavier version, the Masala Dosa, has a small portion of spicy, cooked potato placed inside the half-moon.

Dosas are traditionally eaten for breakfast or ‘tiffin’ in the early evening, but restaurants serve them as all day food. Variations on restaurant menu are Paper Dosa, (extra crisp, cone-shaped), Rava Dosa (made of semolina) and Uthappam (made thicker, pancake-style, with chopped onion, green chilies and tomatoes). Some restaurants publicize their expertise by making extra long, rolled dosas which can be shared by several people sitting in a row!