Indore needs to be in the same street food conversation as Delhi or Lucknow, but it's missing

Indore's street food story needs more attention. It's got distinct food flavours and a variety that one will hardly find anywhere else. And industry experts agree.

If someone asks you to name India’s best street-food cities, chances are Delhi, Lucknow and Kolkata will top the charts. Hyderabad or Jaipur might as well find a whisper. But have you considered Indore?

For a layperson, Indore’s food association is often limited to a hearty plate of poha-jalebi. That’s a typical Indori breakfast (not street food, BTW). But industry experts suggest that Indore needs to be in the same conversation as Delhi, Lucknow or Kolkata when it comes to street food. It’s got a variety, and the kind that you will hardly find in other Indian cities. And most importantly, the items are so goated that chances are, you will not find it being sold in any other Indian city.

Recently, an old video of Chef Vikas Khanna, went viral, where he openly rooted for Indore as his pick for one of India’s best street-food city, of course, stirring a discussion online.

Just a few weeks before that, we reported on Time Out's list of the world’s best cities for street food, where Mumbai, Jaipur and New Delhi made the cut (in the same order). And one can only imagine what followed after: a spicy food debate. That’s when celebrity chefs pointed out how everyone was missing Indore from the conversation.

Because if street food is about what people actually eat on the streets, the sheer variety, the local quirks and that very important question — “Would I travel for this?” — Indore has a pretty strong case.

Celebrity chefs have often backed the city too.

Indore beyond poha-jalebi

You are not alone if you haven’t considered Indore when it's about food. But guess what, it’s got some serious snacking character.

It has a whole snacking culture. According to Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, “the city is obsessed with snacks”.

Speaking to India Today Digital, Kapoor says, “I can call it a snack-forward city. If you look at khopra patties or garadu (yam) ki chaat, or usal, and sev is there in everything. Sev is not just to be eaten by itself. It goes with everything. You can put it in a burger, you can put it on a curry, you can have it with a paratha and jeeralu masala — you put that and you’ll forget chaat masala.”

When in Indore, Sarafa Bazaar and Chappan Dukkan are a hard pass. The former is actually a jewellery market that turns into a night food market. Kapoor also calls this “midnight food economy unmatched". The latter is the iconic street-food market with 56 shops, each with an array of snacks to offer.

“The whole idea about Indore is that it thrives on street food,” says chef Ajay Chopra. According to him, this city has a lot to offer. “Indore has the most popular Johnny Hot Dog, which is quite crazy. It has the biggest jalebi, which they call jaleba. It has got the fluffiest dahi vada, bhutee ke kees and so much more.”

Now coming to what really makes Indore’s street-food culture different.

You can find Mumbai’s famous vada pav in Delhi, Jaipur or Lucknow. Bhalla papdi chaat, galouti kebabs and several other street-food favourites have travelled well beyond their home cities. But Indore’s USP lies in the snacks that are simply its own. According to Chopra, these are hard to find elsewhere.

He is equally impressed by Indore’s namkeen culture. The city is a hub for savoury snacks, but even the way they are sold is part of the experience. “They treat namkeen as a jewellery business. If you go to any street that has these namkeen shops in a line, you will actually think that maybe this is a jewellery shop, but actually it’s a namkeen shop,” he says.

On the other hand, Kapoor hails how it’s uniquely vegetarian. “They are very, very inventive. Their food can be bold, yet it’s layered. What it lacks in terms of meat dishes and all, it makes up for with the seasonality of ingredients that are used. Delhi and Lucknow largely rely on full meals. Whereas Indore celebrates the art of snacking.”

“I must also say that Indore’s food is lighter. It’s not built only by the kings and regal people. The ordinary people have built that. It’s playful, it’s experimental. So there is a contrast to the heavier traditional food culture of Delhi and Lucknow.”

So, when Indore is unique, offers variety, why does it lack popularity?

Why Indore doesn’t get the same recognition

According to the chefs, cities such as Delhi, Lucknow and Mumbai have one advantage: they have history, nostalgia, documentation and, of course, plenty of marketing behind their food. And when it comes to food, storytelling matters.

Kapoor, Padma Shree awardee, points out that food tourism can only take off when tourism itself is thriving. “Tourism has to become an agenda for travel operators, it has to have that kind of infrastructure, and in some sense, monuments also help.”

Delhi, Kolkata and Lucknow, he notes, have historic monuments that draw visitors in, something Indore lacks to an extent. That, in turn, affects how much visibility the city gets beyond its food-loving audience.

Connectivity is another piece of the puzzle. “Global food rankings tend to favour cities also because of connectivity. Direct connectivity to Indore is a challenge, neither does it have any old heritage to follow. So that is why maybe it has not come on the radar of the international food community,” says Chopra.

Now, Kapoor brings an interesting business POV here too. There’s a bit of economics mixed in. “I’m from the hotel industry. We would often have fam tours, which are familiarisation tours for media, and there is a bigger justification for all to visit bigger cities. The business of bigger cities can justify all the costs. Smaller cities struggle from that.”

Indore's street food calling

With a growing interest in hyperlocal cultures and local eating experiences, Indore might be the perfect fit.

Indore doesn’t need to replace Delhi or Lucknow on the street-food map, it was never about that. It's only about having more conversation. It just needs to be recognised for what it already does best — making a snack out of almost everything, and making you want one more bite.

- Ends