Indo-Chinese relations heat up on the street … and it's tasty

The Chinese impact on Indian food can be traced back centuries, but the latest fusion of the two cuisines is a quirky mix served street-side. It's called Chinese chaat - "chaat" being Hindi for a range of savoury snacks that are usually served from roadside carts or stalls.

On the menu is everything from paneer (Indian curd cheese) with sliced capsicum, onions and noodles, to Drums of Heaven - chicken drumsticks marinated in chilli and soy sauce then coated in a masala-laced batter and fried.

Then there are dosas (rice and lentil flour pancakes) wrapped around noodles and what is known here as Sichuan sauce - tomato purée, ginger, garlic, chilli paste, vinegar and sugar. The popular Mumbai street snack of bhelpuri has also been given a makeover with pieces of crispy fried noodles replacing the puffed rice and tamarind sauce taking over from Sichuan sauce.

One of the stalls at the forefront of the craze is Golden Fiesta in Lajpat Nagar Central Market in New Delhi. Its offerings include fried potato Chinese chaat, which is based on the famous North Indian street snack aloo chaat (fried cubes of potato with spices and chutney). This version's potato is shaped more like French fries - an influence from modern Western food - soaked in a red, MSG- and food-colouring laden, sweet and sour and spicy sauce.

A nightmare for the health conscious, but it sure is tasty. And cheap: at Golden Fiesta, a plate of mixed vegetarian chaat costs 95 rupees (HK$13) while the non-vegetarian dish is 140 rupees.

Golden Fiesta's owners say price was important.

"We wanted to bring Chinese food which was only available in restaurants to street level," says Saurabh Malani, who runs the stall set up by his father, Arjun. "Street food isn't as common in India as it is in other parts of Asia, so we took inspiration from places like Hong Kong and provide easily available and affordable Indian Chinese food."