Padma Lakshmi Instagram – Chaat is Indian street food traditionally eaten from a cart, these days you can find it in many restaurants, stalls, canteens and made at home. I grew up eating from all sorts of street stalls when I grew up and I credit chaat for my gut being what it is today! There are many types of chaat with varying ingredients (papdi chaat, bhel puri, and pani puri to name a few), but it is always a beautiful mix of a lot of flavors and textures in one bite. Many of the ingredients repeat but the effect should always be spicy, sweet, tangy, hot and tart flavors exploding in your mouth. When I first started eating nachos in California as a young girl, I thought, “these nachos are just Mexican chaat!”The crunch of the tortilla chips, the wonderful gooey saltiness of cheese, topped with cold, tart, spiky pico de gallo, the sour punch from the lime, the heat from the chiles. I’ve always loved making my own nachos, so it was only a matter of time before chaat-chos would happen!!