How to keep the Indian foodie alive in you when you travel out!

A few years back I travelled to Europe, with my husband and another couple friend. Now I am a person who loves cheese, butter and anything chocolate, so I obviously had my plans in place to raid the restaurants and super-markets there and try all their pizzas, pastas, lasagna and desserts. The only thing I knew I’d miss there is ketchup! So I picked up more than 50 sachets from the Mumbai airport! So here I was, all set and excited.

Day 1 – pizza and pasta, day 2 – pizza and pasta, day 3 – pizza and pasta…um, and that’s it. I hit my saturation point on day 3, and started craving our very own Indian food. Of course there are many some Indian restaurants, but I decided to do my own for the smaller snack cravings!

So here are 5 simple ideas I put to practice to satiate my Indian taste craving-

1. Khari Patty – I bought butter croissants (yes, they are similar to our very own kharis) from the bakery across the road from the hotel at Venice in Italy. Some potatoes, onions, garlic, all cooked together with basic Indian spices we managed to get from the kitchen. I stuffed the croissants with this and ta da, we had our veg patties ready! I love aaloo :D
2. Desi Bruschetta – I was so bored of eating bread, I pulled out my packet of small bite khakhras and decided to make our very own khakhra bruschetta. Chopped some onions, tomatoes and coriander and added some salt, pepper and Indian spices and a dash of lemon. This was a yummy evening chai snack that all of us enjoyed.
3. Khakhra again – I genuinely think khakhra is one of the most versatile snack. So I bought store bought pesto, spread it on the khakhra, sprinkled some olives and grated cheese and here we had a yummy traditional mein twist! It was so satisfying, that I actually continue to make this back at home for our parties.
4. Greek Yoghurt turns desi – Yes I was lucky I found a small Indian store near our hotel in Rome, where I bought small packs of Indian masalas. I love chhaas and that’s exactly what I made (minus the tadka). Just a simple process of adding water and whipping the yoghurt. Sprinkle some jeera powder and chaat masala and a generous dash of coriander. Add salt and that’s it!
5. Fruit Chaat – I’m never averse to the idea of making a fruit platter one of my main meals. With no dearth of absolutely fresh fruits across the continent I made my own little platter with a mix of various fruits (oranges, apples, kiwi, passion-fruit, banana). Just added some chaat masala and lemon to it. I think I did this at least thrice over the ten-twelve days I was there.

It goes without saying, as Indians, we always love to take our food while traveling, so apart from the ones mentioned above, there’s always thepla, namkeens, ready-to-eat packets of dals and pulaos and of course, the most popular Maggi! Pro tip? ---never ever consider your packing is complete till you add a little kettle to it! It’s useful for all these small room meals you eat, when you don’t feel like stepping out :)

For readymade twists in Khakhra, look no further than https://Snackcharmers.com