It was the summer of 2002 and the holidays had just begun. As with most of the boys I had a hectic schedule of cricketing season. Procrastinating mornings
used to get energetic as the day progressed because of two reasons; cricket and chats :) Before leaving to the ground in the evening, I had to somehow arrange for 5 rupees, that was my part of the contribution for the evening snacks. And yes, that was all the money we needed then to have one plate of chats. Once the game was complete, we would head to our favorite chats point
Raju Chats, Vijaynagar
With no specific name to the shop, I am taking the owner's name. A small pulling cart on the footpath adjacent to the ground would welcome us for a mouth watering experience. Honey colored meeta,
freshly prepared khara (spicy chutney), crisp ingredients and home baked
Nippattu are few of the unique items that form the crux of the chats we get here. Quantity served per plate makes this joint stand apart from rest of the outlets. Two to three tomatoes served for one
plate of tomato masala stands out as a testimony for that. By his own confession, Raju discards the left over masalas at the end of the day and prepares fresh items everyday.
At the time of writing this blog, all those nostalgic
memories crossed my mind and I decided to have a plate of Nippattu masala right
away and I was able to capture Raju; a part time dramatist doing what he does the best.
My personal pick would undoubtedly be Tomato Slice Masala. Concoction
of the spicy khara, meeta, congress groundnuts, fresh sev along with tomato will not disappoint your taste buds.
The shop is open on all seven days, from evening 5.00 PM to
8.30 PM.
Click on the map below for directions.
