Get a Taste of Indian Street Food with Dastaan's New Pop-up Menu

Vincent R. Vinci, Contributing Editor | Jun 2, 2022 2:27 pm | 9 comments | 417 reads

Sanlitun SOHO-based Indian restaurant Dastaan is bringing the colorful street foods of India right to your door with their latest menu offerings.

This ain’t just samosas and the usual snacks you’ll find on Indian menus either. It’s a full on list of the most popular street snacks from regions and cities across all the subcontinent. Here you’ll find Dal vada, fried lentil cakes from Tamilnadu; Chicken kathi rolls from Calcutta; Bheja fry, mutton brains with paratha, and much more.

The reason for this short time menu, says Chef Rabiul, is to introduce the people of Beijing to something that is often missing from most Indian restaurant menus. “If you look at an Indian restaurant in Beijing or all Indian restaurants in China, they mainly keep their menus focused on North Indian cuisine, with a few Southern dishes thrown in.”

Further still, most menus have little to no street food worth mentioning, so a few weeks ago Rabiul had the idea of creating an array of different street foods from across the country, so as to best introduce these quick eats to more poeple.

Each of these specialty dishes comes as a set with extras, ranging from around RMB 58 to 128. I opted for Set G, Cholay bhature from Punjab (RMB 78), spicy chickpea curry with fried bread, chutney and lemon for seasoning.

Not only was it perfect for a simple, filling dinner, but it was like nothing I had ever tasted before; my first foray into the regional foods of Punjab as it were.

Rabiul tells me the most popular sets as of this week are the Pav Bhaji (Set J), Chicken Kathi Roll (Set H), and the Bheja Fry (Set L).

You’d better hurry if you want to try these delicacies, though, as the street food menu will only be available at Dastaan until next Tuesday!

From Chaupati to Your Door: A Taste of Indian Street Food, is available for delivery from Dastaan Indian Restaurant until Jun 7. To order, send your preferred dish, address in Chinese, name and phone number to the restaurant via the QR code below.

READ: Daily Delivery Tour: Journey Across the Middle East with These Dishes

Images: Kalyani Akella (via Unsplash), courtesy of Daastan

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BauLuo's picture BauLuo Submitted by Guest on Sat, 06/04/2022 - 22:13

Giovanni Martini wrote:
BauLuo wrote:
Well there are differing views re: skinning or unskinning of animals prior to their consumption but such views are best discussed privately and out of the acessibillity of an electronic devices. Should you look like a `drowned rat' or just ` a rat'? Should you be a `cat on a hot tin-roof' or merely a cat on a roof? These are deep philiosophihheiheieical questiongs we gotsa considert!
Giovanni Martini wrote:

How about Indiana street food? Last time I was through Gary, Indiana, Skittles, Doritos, and Szzzurp all seemed pretty popular. Not healthy? Hey as long as you got a "rich and vibrant"street scene, youse don't need no stinkin' health.

My good friend homeless Tim had a penchant for street food. On a Friday, Saturday night all the University kids come downtown an get drunk, buy a shitload of pitas, hamburgers and you name it, toss the most of it, which Timmy would recover and have food for a week. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

I ain't et skinned-cat pita in a hound's age. Think TBJ's staff could come up with some plant-based fricassed feline alternatives? "Garbanzo Garfield Burgers" or some such?

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.

BauLuo's picture BauLuo Submitted by Guest on Sat, 06/04/2022 - 22:00

Giovanni Martini wrote:
BauLuo wrote:

Believe it or no, i don't care, but i was a strict vegetarian for about 15 years. Also a guy that slaughtered chickens for a living. I bin a lotsa different folk, over the years.

Giovanni Martini wrote:

How about Indiana street food? Last time I was through Gary, Indiana, Skittles, Doritos, and Szzzurp all seemed pretty popular. Not healthy? Hey as long as you got a "rich and vibrant"street scene, youse don't need no stinkin' health.

My good friend homeless Tim had a penchant for street food. On a Friday, Saturday night all the University kids come downtown an get drunk, buy a shitload of pitas, hamburgers and you name it, toss the most of it, which Timmy would recover and have food for a week. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

I ain't et skinned-cat pita in a hound's age. Think TBJ's staff could come up with some plant-based fricassed feline alternatives? "Garbanzo Garfield Burgers" or some such?

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.

BauLuo's picture BauLuo Submitted by Guest on Sat, 06/04/2022 - 19:29

I want to talk a bit here about cilantro. aka 香菜， It's pretty clear that there are ways to divide and caterogize folks, y'know like our good Lord did with that jazz about sheep and goats. Now personally I like sheep, and I like goats, about pretty much equally. Y'know goats might jump around a lot, sheep might go baaaa a little too much, but ceteris paribus, they're both sorta okay.

But now ya got cilantro lovers and cilantro haters. Clearly these are people not meant for each other. Therefore I propose that people be segregated and kept away from each other according to their like or dislike of cilantro. This is clearly rational and sane. Maybe some of each group may like wearing a mask 24 hours a day, I don't know. Please, though let me be mongst the cilantro eaters.

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.

BauLuo's picture BauLuo Submitted by Guest on Sat, 06/04/2022 - 19:08

Giovanni Martini wrote:

How about Indiana street food? Last time I was through Gary, Indiana, Skittles, Doritos, and Szzzurp all seemed pretty popular. Not healthy? Hey as long as you got a "rich and vibrant"street scene, youse don't need no stinkin' health.

My good friend homeless Tim had a penchant for street food. On a Friday, Saturday night all the University kids come downtown an get drunk, buy a shitload of pitas, hamburgers and you name it, toss the most of it, which Timmy would recover and have food for a week. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.

BauLuo's picture BauLuo Submitted by Guest on Sat, 06/04/2022 - 10:16

BauLuo wrote:

I want now to state clearly and frankly that I am almost completely Anglo-Saxon. Yes almost completely, though there may be a bit of Celt of the Welsh sort back there a few generations. Now i am not sure if I am allowed to so state such things nowadays, so I state them quickly and feverishly.

The reason I state these facts is the fact that within the last week or so, a Canadian politician (Pierre Polievre) was in hot water for using the words `Anglo-Saxon' as, according to some media these were `dog whistle' words to code to right wing fascists that he was their man. Now I use the words `Anglo-Saxon' and `Norman French' regularly when helping students understand the development of the English language, and explain that it ain't the big latinate words that are difficult, it's the itty bitty irregular and phrasal verbs, that are all of Anglo-Saxon derivation that are the problem, and teach that the best way to learn a language is by learning how to LISTEN!

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.

BauLuo's picture BauLuo Submitted by Guest on Fri, 06/03/2022 - 21:50

I want now to state clearly and frankly that I am almost completely Anglo-Saxon. Yes almost completely, though there may be a bit of Celt of the Welsh sort back there a few generations. Now i am not sure if I am allowed to so state such things nowadays, so I state them quickly and feverishly.

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.

BauLuo's picture BauLuo Submitted by Guest on Fri, 06/03/2022 - 21:39

BauLuo wrote:
Giovanni Martini wrote:
Another thing I might mention , is that standard procedure for some foreigners seem to be to get a staff member, or heaven forbid, a student, to act as their Mommy. I know that staff members, certainly students, are hot and sexy, but you should refrain from sexual congress should you so do. Maybe you just need to learn to live without a Mommy? It is called growing up.
BauLuo wrote:

Allow me to relate this tale: Circa 2015 a waiguoren of my acquaintence requested that I assist him in obtaining a train ticket from Suihua, Heilongjiang, to Changchun, there to meet his wife. He had an argument with his wife ( a Chinese woman) who would not talk with wih, and he was thus functionally a 3 year old baby, thus he requested my assistance, ... He had lived in China 12 years, had been married to a Chinese women for 11 years, and could not speak, read, understand or write a word of Chinese. And he was presenting himself as a teacher, a literate, knowedgable person. I have seen this time, and time again. I really don't understand foreign English teachers that have been hear for years and can't understand any f*cking Chinese. I think the Coronafraud virus expelled a buncha them ,

I came to China at age 42. Before that my mom dressed me and came along with me on job interviews and first dates. What's wrong with that? Shoot, she'd have come along on second dates, too. Only I never got any.

Up pops a thought. now thoughts come from hither and yon, so one must best yet look at said thought and be thoughtful about it. Whence came such thought? Be it truthful? Be it satanic? Idono. That is the joy and misery of existing as individual sentient beings.! Suck it up, kiss it on the cheek, or kick it on the cheek whilst out the door. Your choice.

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.

BauLuo's picture BauLuo Submitted by Guest on Fri, 06/03/2022 - 19:59

Giovanni Martini wrote:
Another thing I might mention , is that standard procedure for some foreigners seem to be to get a staff member, or heaven forbid, a student, to act as their Mommy. I know that staff members, certainly students, are hot and sexy, but you should refrain from sexual congress should you so do. Maybe you just need to learn to live without a Mommy? It is called growing up.
BauLuo wrote:

Allow me to relate this tale: Circa 2015 a waiguoren of my acquaintence requested that I assist him in obtaining a train ticket from Suihua, Heilongjiang, to Changchun, there to meet his wife. He had an argument with his wife ( a Chinese woman) who would not talk with wih, and he was thus functionally a 3 year old baby, thus he requested my assistance, ... He had lived in China 12 years, had been married to a Chinese women for 11 years, and could not speak, read, understand or write a word of Chinese. And he was presenting himself as a teacher, a literate, knowedgable person. I have seen this time, and time again. I really don't understand foreign English teachers that have been hear for years and can't understand any f*cking Chinese. I think the Coronafraud virus expelled a buncha them ,

I came to China at age 42. Before that my mom dressed me and came along with me on job interviews and first dates. What's wrong with that? Shoot, she'd have come along on second dates, too. Only I never got any.

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.

BauLuo's picture BauLuo Submitted by Guest on Fri, 06/03/2022 - 14:04

Allow me to relate this tale: Circa 2015 a waiguoren of my acquaintence requested that I assist him in obtaining a train ticket from Suihua, Heilongjiang, to Changchun, there to meet his wife. He had an argument with his wife ( a Chinese woman) who would not talk with wih, and he was thus functionally a 3 year old baby, thus he requested my assistance, ... He had lived in China 12 years, had been married to a Chinese women for 11 years, and could not speak, read, understand or write a word of Chinese. And he was presenting himself as a teacher, a literate, knowedgable person. I have seen this time, and time again. I really don't understand foreign English teachers that have been hear for years and can't understand any f*cking Chinese. I think the Coronafraud virus expelled a buncha them ,

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.

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