The most authentic cuisine of India is the Indian street food, which can be bought only for a few rupees from the myriad makeshift or portable stalls found in the Indian cities and town. The street vendors offer hot fresh, lip smacking snacks, which are very filling. These foods are popular mainly because they are available at half the price of any restaurant food. Take-out food , junk food, snacks, and fast food are synonymous with street food and all of these can be purchased on the foot path without entering any building.

The Indian Street Food vary from region to region .The typical North Indian street food is Chaat -a generic name for all tangy ,spicy not very nutritious delicacies. The tangy flavor comes from the use of lemon, pomegranate seeds, black salt, tamarind, and various chutneys.Chaat can be prepared with fruits like guava,banana ,papaya,apple etc.Use of paapri ,which is crisp pancakes made from fried flour with some out of yoghurt ,potatoes sauteed with black cumin powder with some amout of "meetha and khatta chutney" (sweet and sour pickle) with a dash of coriander becomes the lip smacking Paapri Chaat.The Pani Puri also called golgappa in some places in India is another street delicacy.Panipuris are hollow crisp balls made from dough, and filled as-you-eat with a spicy concoction of water and potatoes, topped by a choice of sweet or spicy chutney.

Aaloo Tikki are patties made up of mashed potatoes mixed with a variety of spices and deeply fried in oil and served with sweet and spicy chutney. Poori-Subzie(or Bhaajee) is another variety of North Indian street food available mostly in North India, especially in Uttar Pradesh.The curry is usually prepared of potatoes or in some cases a mixture of chick peas and potatoes in gravy and poories which are made from refined flour(maida)or aata fried in oil.The "Chai faen" is tea with a roasted biscuit called faen(because it resembles the shape of a fan) is also very popular in North India especially in Uttar Pradesh in cities like Agra and Mathura. The biscuit is also called "khaaree biscuit" in other parts of the country . Then there is the ever-famous tandoori tikkas (marinated meat grilled in a clay oven). They are steamed, grilled and fried.

In the Eastern part of the country a typical street food is the Chop which is a version of potato patties, dipped in flour batter and again deep fried.They are served with onion ,cucumber slices.It is usually prepared and consumed as an evening snack.Jhal muri which is basically a mixture of puffed rice(muri) with oil,onion and spices is also very popular in Kolkata.The roll is another variety of fast food found in Kolkata.It is actually parathas with a variety of filling which can vary from chicken to egg to paneer for the vegetarians .This road side food is very filling and popular amongst college students and office goers.

Coming to the Western part of the country is the Vada pav which originated in Maharastra and is the cheapest food that can be found in the sophisticated Mumbai metropolis.It is a masala vada sandwiched between two buns. It is often referred to as the "poor man`s burger" .Masala Chai or spiced tea is also found here. Pav Bhaji is another such concotion which had its humble beginnings as street food but is now also available in restaurants. Pav Bhaji is essentially dry buns with a topping butter combined with a mish mash of hot cooked vegetables along with raw onions.It can be made more tangy by adding lime juice and is quite filling.

Another street food of Maharastra is pav-sample. The sample is Sambhar and the pav or the bread is to be had with the sambhar.An extra dish of sambhar is referred to as sample . Although widely used in Maharashtra in roadside eateries, sambar is not native to the local culture. `Sample` could also mean a plate of curry called `Usal`, which is a water based preparation of cooked sprouted lentils. The term `sample` means anything that goes conveniently with pav (usually implying a liquid nature).Maharastra is also famous for it Bhelpuri.It is a mixture of puffed rice with oil ,spices ,chopped potatoes ,onion ,corriander leaves ,green chillies and tomatoes and topped with sweet chutney,dash of lime juice,rock salt ,normal salt and a hint of red chilly powder.Sevpuri which is prepared from hotgrams(bhujia) and chutney is another speciality of Maharastra.

In the Southern part of India, in Kerela there is the thattukada which is a covered cart or van with stoves and utensils.They offer thattu dosa a light rice-flour crepe fried in coconut oil and served with coconut chutney.Other street food include omelettes spicy pork fry, and parottas (like naan, but beaten and mixed with oil).In Tamil Nadu there is the thalluvandi"s similar to Kerala`s "thattukada"s popularly called "Kaiyendhi Bhavans".

Street food which is found all over India and not restricted to the regions is the samosa Although the type of samosas may vary from region to region but the idea of eating samosas with tea is almost same at every region. Samosas are deep fried pastry filled with potatoes. A deep fried sweet dipped in syrup of North Indian origin, is the jalebi which is now found in more or less all parts of the country.In the South it is called jangiri. It is generally very cheap and easily available throughout India. In Indian cities, street vendors also sell a variety of drinks like Lassi which is a yogurt drink and can be found in plain salty, sweet, or fruit flavored.The other variety of drinks are the Sherbet and Jaljeera.

These popular street food have to be eaten as soon as they are prepared and hence do not make them caterable foods .It has a local flavour and even foreigners love to gorge on them making the road side eateries a class in itself. Their cheap cost and instant availability has made them world famous. However the cleanliness and the hygienic content of these foods is often questioned.