Maine races to catch a global food trend.

November 2019

By Sofia Voltin

It’s too late for lunch and too early for dinner. How about a quick chaat? This Indian street food has gained traction in cities like Philadelphia and New York, but it’s still a rarity up here. Chaat combines sweet, salty, spicy, and savory flavors with crunchy ingredients—topped off with trademark tangy sauces.

“Ninety percent of people here don’t know what chaat is, so we don’t put in on the menu,” says Dee Patel, owner of Namaste Indian Food in Rockport. “Chaat is from Northern India. It’s a light dish, kind-of like eating a salad. Chaat’s dressing is chutney, and it can be spicy or sweet. My favorite is Kachori Chaat. It has Indian spices with moong dal (lentils) in flour dough. It’s fried and served with toppings like chutney, sev, tomato, and onion.”

“Sev is a crunchy noodle topping made from chickpea flour. It gives chaat an extra crunch,” says Sai Reddy, manager of Taj in South Portland. The family-owned restaurant is one of the few in Maine to offer chaat. “Almost everyone who comes in here orders our Samosa Chaat ($4.99). We make it from scratch. We cook the samosas and chickpeas in a spicy masala sauce; then the homemade yogurt sauce cools the dish down. It has mint, cilantro, and secret spices only my mother (the chef) knows. We don’t offer more types because we don’t want to overwhelm our small kitchen and risk sacrificing quality for quantity. We sometimes have Panipuri on weekends. They are small, round, deep-fried, crunchy pastries. We poke a hole in the center and fill it with chickpea curry and top it with onions.”

Taj recently removed Bhel Puri from the menu, but Hallowell’s Desi Kitchen still serves this chaat. Mint and tamarind sauces coat chilled boiled potatoes, chickpeas, onions and crispy chips—all sprinkled with puffed rice. The flavor of each bite starts cool then tangy—a tingling spice lingers at the end. The Pakistani restaurant also offers Papri Chaat ($4.99), Samosa Chaat ($4.99), and Pakora Chaat ($5.99).

“In Pakistan, India, and even Bangladesh, chaat is an inexpensive quick meal,” says owner Mohammad Bhatti. “My cousin offers 15 types of chaat at his restaurant in Philadelphia, Mood Cafe. I would like to open a chaat restaurant or food truck in Portland if I could find someone good to cook for it. But there’s a big lack of help right now, especially in restaurants, and it’s very lengthy work.”

“There’s not a big Indian community here, unlike New York,” says Tejinder Jit Taj, owner of Tandoor on Exchange Street in Portland. “In India, when everyone finishes work they go to the village marketplaces—the fun place to go out at night. Everyone meets with their friends, and they walk through the markets, buying small bites here and there. We don’t have that sort of thing here. Maybe it’s the cold. These markets are where you find carts selling chaat. They are set up so you can pick and choose what ingredients you want, like a make-your-own sandwich shop here. I’m from Punjab in Northern India, but every city has these communal places where you go out for a chat and chaat.”