Chaap Shaap
JAB SAB APKI LE RAHE HAI TOW AAP BHI KUCH LE LO.
Virtually absent from the country’s culinary heritage, it has emerged a ubiquitous treat, which has gained prominence of late. Not only street food purveyors but also restaurants, cafés, fast food outlets and fine dining establishments, all now employ this rather versatile ingredient. Long-time vegetarians are drawn to it as a welcome diversion from the overexposed paneer (cottage cheese) and new converts to vegetarianism appreciate its meat-like taste and texture.
Barbecue joints serve up sizzling plates of tandoori chaap, and roll-makers frenetically belt out malai chaap rolls by the minute to appease hungry queues. The delectable chaap appears in many gastronomical avatars—in a spicy chaap curry or manchurian dish, as a succulent tikka, in the form of a crispy drumstick, or as ‘meat’ in a kadai chicken or rogan josh rendition.