Like every other state of India, the capital city boasts of a huge street fare too. From golgappes to chaat and bhalla papdis, there is no end to the delectable items that are being sold on the streets of Delhi. Spicy, tangy, sweet and sour, all flavours have a place for themselves in this diverse spread. While some like golgappe are supposed to hit your throats with their teekha paani (spicy water), some others like dahi bhalle are there to soothe them right after.
This reminds me of the time I invited my friends over for lunch one fine afternoon. We all headed to my place after our classes and made ourselves comfortable while my mother and sister lay the table. Since everyone was really hungry, we didn’t wait for any refreshments and straight away settled down on the dining table. In my Punjabi household, we love eating non-veg but since my friends were vegetarian, we had to stick to dal makhni and shahi paneer with jeera rice and roti. Post that, there was a bowl of dahi kept on the table which everyone poured one by one. Just to give you context, most of them belong to UP and Bihar.
Now, this one friend from Banaras took a bite and almost immediately exclaimed, “Is that Dahi Vada?” to which I retorted saying, “No, that’s dahi bhalle”. That’s how the conversation sparked and we discovered the various ways in which it is referred to. While we all agreed to the fact that Dahi Vada is a South Indian dish and Dahi Bhalle is mostly found in northern parts of India like Punjab, Haryana, Delhi etc., it was another friend from UP who uttered the word Dahi Phulki.
At first, we all had a good laugh because the name somehow tickled our funny bone but later, the inquisitiveness trickled in. All of us glued our eyes and ears in her direction as she told us about this quirky-named dish.
What Is Dahi Phulki?
Dunked in beaten curd, the phulki is different from the bhalle or vadas because of its light and airy texture. The pakoras that we are used to, are actually made of fried urad dal or moong dal batter but the phulki is nowhere close to that. It might appear similar at first because it is dipped deep in the yoghurt but the phulki is actually made of gram flour or sometimes even chickpea flour.
The technique of mixing the batter and letting air bubbles form into it, similar to the cake batter, lends the phulki its fluffy and light interiors. This phulki is then dropped into the dahi and finished off with mint and tamarind chutney. Now, that’s where the similarity strikes because the dahi bhalle also follow the same garnishing. The ease of making dahi phulki, without any effort of grinding dals is what makes it so special.
The Far And Wide Connections Of Dahi Phulki
Deep-rooted connections of the dahi phulki can be traced back to Sutra literature that is 500 years old. Dal fritters have been mentioned in their texts as have in the ancient history texts like mansollasa which talk of vadas in the 12th century, wherein they were soaked in milk or fermented curd as per food historian KT Achaya. This hints towards the reimagining of those ancient recipes to form the modern-day phulkis.
Moreover, the phulki is believed to have some Middle-Eastern connections with the falafel (fritters made with chickpeas or fava beans). These far and wide ranging connections of a homely snack became known to me while l I finished my bowl of dahi bhalle and headed to the kitchen to ask my mother for another helping.