Cheese bhel, just mentioning it brings a storm of tastes on your tongue. Finding someone who does not know about bhel in India is nearly impossible! A mix of various tasty and tangy ingredients, bhel will sure take you on a joyride of taste.
Bhel is famous all around the Indian subcontinent, and the dish’s origin is hard to find. It is mixed with the culture and lives of people so well that it has become a part of Indian cuisine.
Some say migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh working/living in Mumbai invented it. Another story is that it was invented in a restaurant named Vithal near Victoria terminus.
According to another popular theory, Initially considered a beach snack (Due to its association with Mumbai beaches) it became so famous that communities like Gujarati and Sindhi adopted it and added their flavours.
Not just in Sindhi and Gujarati, but this dish is famous with different names in other parts of India, such as Jhalmuri in Bengal, Churmuri in Karnataka, and belfuri in Assam. This snack even goes international with the name Chatpate in Nepal.
By now, it is clear that the dish is famous and loved. With ingredients such as Puffed Rice, Tomato, Potato, Chaat Papdi, Green Chutney, Red Chutney, Chaat Masala, Onion, and bhel, it will give you a tangy taste. But did you know adding cheese will enhance your experience?
Now bhel has so many variations that adding/replacing even one item will result in a different dish. If you wish to know more about other chaat dishes, then please check out Kurkure Chaat or Kurkure Bhel and Sweet Corn Bhel.
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Now bhel is so famous and has so many variations that if you add anything, you may make one of the variations. But here are some tips to make your bhel better anyway!
Now everyone knows that you should skip the cheese if you want to control your weight. But if you remove the cheese, a snack like bhel is pretty much weight maintaining snack! It has fewer calories, a high amount of protein, and dietary fibre.
You can store individual ingredients separately, which should not be an issue. They will stay fresh for a couple of days. It is advisable to consume them within a week. But if you have prepared and made bhel by mixing the ingredients, you should eat it before the puffed rice and other ingredients in the bhel start soaking the chutney.
We are sure some real mouth-watering Bhel is also available in your city. But here are some places where you can have the most Authentic or/and tasty versions of cheese Bhel with out-of-the-box presentation and taste.
The cities of the following shops are Mumbai (Popularly believed to be the origin place of bhel), Delhi (Believed to be one of the best places for bhel), and Surat (My city and a remarkable city of foodies).
Just Google each of the names, and you will see Cheese Bhel on the place’s menu.