Oriental street food is as exciting and yummy as our much-loved roadside fare, disco..

Of course, you don't find the yummy pani puris, alu chaats and jhaal mooris at an Oriental street food fair, but still, the food's a huge mouth-watering spread. Stir-fries, satays, yakitori, a number of sauces... it's endless, especially when you're trying to mix and match every available seafood with sauces and noodles of your choice!

Now that's interesting, isn't it? Want to explore more?

The Oriental Set-Up

The recently held South East Asian Street food fair at the Lake View Café, Renaissance Hotel, Mumbai, transported me to a typical Far East street. I could have been in the crowded lanes of Old Shanghai - you couldn't tell the difference.

Brightly lit stalls by the lakeside, merry looking chefs constantly frying and steaming - anything from aubergines and tofu to crabs and prawns in huge woks - or cooking noodles and rice of varied colour and sizes, and tiny café tables around each stall completed the scene.

Chef Kalaivaner Munuswamy from Malaysia and Chef Wahyudi from Indonesia took me on a quick tour of street food as well as a cool tasting session.

Typical Street Food Dishes

Stir-fries: Who hasn't heard of stir-fries? Anyone who loves Far East food loves stir-fries. A perfect stir-fry counter will let you choose your seafood - from squid, crabs, prawns, mussels, etc. Then you opt for a sauce or a combination of sauces, varying from spicy chilli to coriander, turmeric and tamarind. Then you watch the expert at the counter at work! Within minutes, you're bound to have a plateful of delectable stir-fry.

Satays: This is a distinctively Indonesian delight. A very popular one is the chicken satay with peanut sauce. This is a traditional Indonesian favourite, where the chicken is marinated in a sweet and sour sauce, chilled and then grilled. There are also the beef and lamb varieties available in plenty on the streets of Indonesia, apart from a range of vegetable satays. Do remember to try them when you visit next!

Yakitori: This Japanese dish is a popular after-work snack. It is grilled chicken speared on sticks.

Noodles and rice: Noodle bars normally stock all varieties of noodles - regular, flat, rice - fried and flat; sauces, vegetables and seafood. You simply pick what you want and they're cooked for you! A Malaysian noodle bar will most certainly serve up a noodle soup as well. Do try the 'curry laksa' if you happen to be near a Malaysian food stall. The delicious potage has noodles stew mixed with spicy curry powder and turmeric.

In Thailand, you will be treated to a host of delicious red and green Thai curries with steamed white rice.

A must-try in Indonesia is Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice). This delicacy from Java is made with spicy chillies, shrimp paste and a whole lot of sauces.

Breads and Rotis: Yes, rotis. You will find the much-loved Malay bread, Roti Chanai (more like our roomali roti), at every food counter on the streets of Malaysia. It is served hot with curry, sauces or some sort of 'dal'. Again, Indonesia is famous for 'martabak' - a lamb and egg-filling roll served with sauce. Sweet martabaks are also very popular.

Barbeques and grills: The Mongolian barbeques are the most popular ones. You can nibble on a wide-ranging assortment of chicken, lamb, fish, bean sprouts, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, fresh beans and many more steeped in sauce.

Desserts and Drinks: You cannot move out of a Malaysian food stall without tasting Teh-Tarik. This is a popular and much loved tea made with condensed milk and served with a lot of foam. Among desserts, you should try Ayir Batu Champur - a thickened milk sweet from Malaysia, Moong Bean Porridge from Indonesia, and Seaweed pudding from China.

There are several yummy delights that are dished out of street stalls in South East Asia. But we'll leave you to discovering more, on your next trip down to the lands of the Orient.

Try This!

CHILLI CRAB

(From Singapore)

100 g crab in shell, steamed

10 g cornstarch

1 egg, beaten

10 g spring onion, chopped

For the chilli crab sauce:

20 g red chilli paste

10 g green chilli, chopped

10 g tomato ketchup

10 g ginger, chopped

10 g garlic, chopped

20 g chicken powder (available readymade. Can also use cubes)

100 ml water

To make the sauce, mix together all the ingredients.

Set aside.

Heat the sauce in a wok and add the steamed crab to it. Cook until the sauce starts boiling. Add the cornstarch to thicken it a bit. Add the beaten egg to it and stir well. Serve hot, garnished with the spring onions.