Chikoo, it's all yummy.

Dear Chikoo,

I write to you with a content smile across my lips and a cool, spicy tingle on my taste buds. Imagine a blissful glaze across my wide-open eyes as I watch the chaat walahs layer my masala puris with nothing but meticulous love.

Turns out, Goa has kickass street food.

You know how Mumbai has those chaat carts on wheels like our bhel walah’s? Goa has them too, but with little fancy embellishments. Each cart has both chaat and pav bhaaji. Mmm. The vendors give you a little bowl full of flat puris sprinkled with chaat masala to chomp on while they prepare your order, no matter what it is. Their sev puris are made in round puris, so they fill your mouth with an explosion of chatpata flavour. Their meetha chutney is tangy and sweeter than the ones we’re used to, but in a good way. In an interesting way. Their pani puris are large, filled to the brim with icy-spicy pani. Their aloo tikkis are soft and filling- making the ragda even more delicious with them.

Now, all this being said, I still prefer the chaat back home. But the pav bhaaji here is a buttery dream. This is the closest it has ever come to tasting as good as it smells. And that’s saying a whole lot.

I think I’m this excited about the street food here because of how low I placed my expectations when I first got here. I was dejected to think that I won’t have real chaat for six whole months, and although I was excited when I first spotted a bhel walah, I was also prepared to be completely let down. But now my cravings will be ever-satiated, and I can fall asleep each night knowing that no matter what goes wrong, there will always be a cart of chaat waiting for me at the end of it.

The road perpendicular to our office is dotted with a series of chaat walahs in the evening and Tanisha and I drive past them all every day on our way home. We are now regulars at the ‘Miramar Goa Spacial’ bhel puri stall and the vendors wave and smile at us even when we don’t stop to grab a bite. In a strange way, that makes me feel like I’m settling down into this place more than anything else.

Now all I need is a sudden gush of monetary wind that will let me gorge every evening and I’ll be the happiest girl you’ve ever met.

Love always,
Poodle

PS: They call pani puri ‘water balls’.