Samosa, tikki here serve a plateful of joy

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 29

Punjabis have great love for ‘chatpata’ street food. The Pappu Chaat Bhandar located at Paras Ram Chowk is a delight and favourite haunt for lovers of ‘chatpata’ food in the city.

This chaat bhandar serves tikki, samosa with chhole, green imli chutneys and fresh curd (dahi). The most tasty dish here is chhole with tikki or samosa, with its strongly flavoured spices enough to make your mouth water and your eyes lachrymose. 

The shop situated in a corner at Paras Ram chowk is easy to locate. During the day time, the shop remains crowded with kids, who come to enjoy the dishes from the neighbouring school and areas. In the evening, people start milling around it for their plateful of samosas and tikki.

The best known dishes of the shop are samosa chhole and tikki chhole. The samosas, which are served at this shop, are not as big as compared to other shops, but it is rightly said that the best things come in small packages. These little samosas are fried to golden perfection and are stuffed with a mildly spiced potato mixture , served with a spicy chickpea gravy, green spicy chutney and red tamarind chutney, a combination that makes for a delightful hot snack.

Gurmeet Singh, owner of Pappu Chaat Bhandar, said, “I started my business five years ago and with time, my business flourished to a great extent.”

“The main reason behind the success of my business is that I ensure quality stuff at nominal prices. I charge Rs 10 per plate for samosa or tikki with chutneys and Rs 20 per plate for samosa or tikki with chhole.”

He added that the main USP of his dishes was the stuffing inside samosa and tikki. He said he mixes many vegetables and masala in the dishes, which make them tastier and different from the other.

Singh also informed that on an average, he sells around 450-500 samosas and around 250 plates of tikki every day. 

Vijay Kumar, a resident of Paras Ram Nagar, said he was eating samosa and tikki from this shop for the last three years, and the taste of samosa or tikki here was different from the others and was very tasty. Most importantly, the tikkis and samosas are light, so you can have more than a single piece at one time easily, he added. 

Another food lover Sukhdev Singh, said the samosa or tikki here was stuffed with a spicy lentil mixture and deep fried to a crispy gold colour and it was perfect to have with the green and imli chutneys.