[sadhuji]

These are two types of snacks that are purely Indian and should have attracted the attention of our indigenous fast food giants - they should have made attempts to spread this culture to the west instead of importing western cultures like the chips.

My memories of chanachur dates back to the fifties and sixties when the chanachur-wallah would hit the streets in the evening with ghungroos (jingle bells) wrapped on his feet. He would be carrying a megaphone type of conical apparatus through which he would announce his arrival and advertise his wares – ‘cahanchur, garam chanachur.’ The ghungroos would jingle to his sing song tunes as he walked down the streets, lanes and by lanes. What is chanachur? It is a type of dry food containing innumerable ingredients like fried fluffed rice, fried groundnuts, small round balls of fried besan, and thin strings of fried besan with dash of chili powder plus salt. Each chanachur-wallah had his unique trade mark taste. The final product had a long shelf life – only, no one wanted to keep them in storage! The general understanding was that it should be oven fresh to be appreciated fully.

Chivda is another form of chanachur – it is popular in Maharastra and there are shops that have grown in a locality and passed on the business down the generations. Here also the main ingredients are fluffed rice, fried groundnuts and are served with chopped onions, coriander leaves and green chilies if you want to relish the taste at the shop itself. A variation is the potato chivda where thin strips of potato take the place of the fluffed rice – there are fried kish-mish, fried cashew nuts and paper thin slices of fried coconuts thrown in for good measure. The combination acquires a special taste thanks to the addition of powdered sugar. The sabu-dana chivda is yet one more variety where large grains of fried sabu-dana is the main ingredient and replaces the potatoes – other additives remain more or less unchanged.

In view of the fact that the west is gobbling up anything that is Indian, it is not too late to work out modalities to promote these unique products – if successful, we could rake in still more US dollars and mint millions by opening production centers in under developed countries where labor is cheaper than ours and where the ingredients are available locally. For a start, there could be a big budget film with guest appearance by fifty plus Bollywood stars past and present. It could be appropriately titled ‘Chivda – the tasty mess’ and could be lobbied for nominated to the Oscars. That way, we could make people pause and ask – ‘I say, what is this chivda all about?’ But, before we go any further, we should get the formula of chivda patented to prevent others from capitalizing on our ideas.

[jyotirmoy]

Sadhuji what about Nakul dana & Share botrish bhaja? Banerjee's chanachoor sold in Hatibagan?

[sadhuji]

jyotirmoy, on Oct 7 2007, 03:07 PM, said:

Sadhuji what about Nakul dana & Share botrish bhaja? Banerjee's chanachoor sold in Hatibagan?

yes, those could also be considered - but the marketing has to be aggressive. who do you think would be the ideal faces in ads for these prducts? no, don't say mithum or tapas pal....

[noflylist]

Try getting today's kids to eat Chanachur, they all want potato chips!

[jyotirmoy]

sadhuji, on Oct 8 2007, 03:55 PM, said:

yes, those could also be considered - but the marketing has to be aggressive. who do you think would be the ideal faces in ads for these prducts? no, don't say mithum or tapas pal....

May be Sri Hari Podder

[sadhuji]

jyotirmoy, on Oct 9 2007, 04:27 AM, said:

May be Sri Hari Podder

did you mean harry potter?