Narayan Chat

If you walk around H E C Colony you will eventually find Narayan Chat. We have been serving food here for a long time and the shop is usually smelling like roasted cumin and fried dough. It is not a big place and it gets pretty hot near the big iron pans where we fry the tikkis. Most evenings there is a bit of a crowd standing around on the pavement eating from leaf bowls. We spend a lot of our time in the morning peeling bags of potatoes and mashing them up with spices that we grind ourselves because the pre-packaged stuff never tastes right. The floors usually have a bit of dust on them by the end of the day from all the people coming in and out but we try to keep the counters wiped down. My hands are usually stained yellow from the turmeric and the steam from the peas makes the walls a bit damp. We do not have any fancy seating just a few stools and people seem okay with that. It is a simple life of making snacks and chatting with the regulars who have been coming here since they were kids. Sometimes we run out of chutney early if it is a busy Sunday and we have to scramble to make more while people wait. It is just honest cooking and we stay busy enough to keep the lights on.