What’s a ‘chaat party,’ asked my mum when I spoke to her tonight.
To give context, she had earlier asked me mom in law about how she had spent her birthday and she (MIL) said that we had a ‘chaat party’ at home.
There were samosas, sev puri, dahi vada and pav bhaji. Plus cake of course.
This menu would be the basic archetype of Bombay birthday party menus in the 80s I am told. With chutney sandwiches, chips and orange squash as variables.
For our birthdays in Kolkata, my mum would call for egg rolls, chips, chicken patties, orange squash and cake/ pastries.
This was the basic menu archetype of birthday parties of my school friends too. Variables would include luchi ghoogni, mishti, shingara.
This is before birthday parties were outsourced.
If you are an 80s kid then I’d love to know what the menu would be if you had birthday parties at home for your friends.
Fun fact. I read a meme which said that in 6 years, 1980 will be ‘50 years ago!’
Ps: The excellent samosa, sev puri and dahi vada were from @punjab_sweet_house / Lashkara. The cake is an eggless hazelnut cake from @le15india which is a must have for the family on special occasions. The pav bhaji was rather unimpressive so let it be …