Hailing from India, pani puri is one of the world’s greatest vegan snacks.
Vendors poke holes in golfball-sized deep-fried puffs, filling them with a mixture of cooked potato, onion, and chickpeas, seasoned with masala and cilantro. They’re served alongside a tangy-sweet-spicy tamarind sauce.
Pour a little sauce into the puff and fire ’em back. Crunchy, zippy, cheap. Genius.
You know what’s even better? The Bengali version, fuchka.
My love affair with fuchka started on a cold night in November 2023. A failed attempt to turn on several friends to pani puri left us peckish outside the closed stand.
Then my Indian coworker saved the day by looking up from her phone and saying: That’s OK, we can get fuchka. She led us to a little Bengali snack shop on Fillmore, where I found out that pani puri has a richer cousin with better taste: fuchka. Hardboiled egg and lentils beef up the stuffing nicely. The shop closed, and I kept looking.
Until last week, when a Bengali student tipped me that University Heights has fuchka ($5.49) and more, thanks to SpiceBite, a kitchen trailer set up in a parking lot at 3385 Bailey Ave., at Lisbon Avenue.
When I followed the intel to Bailey, I met another lovely spin: Doi fuchka ($6.49), which is all that with a dab of yogurt sauce on each bite.
No wonder people were lining up to order, then eating at the picnic bench or standing around plates of fuchka perched on car trunks.
Several all-stars from the chaat family – sweet, spicy, tangy, crunchy – are well represented. Jhalmuri ($5.50) is a bowl of kicked-up puffed rice and fried chickpea threads tossed with mustard oil, spice masala, onions and fresh chile.
Bhel puri ($5.50) is deep-fried crackers showered in chopped onion, cucumber, cilantro, and spice masala, with sweet-spicy tamarind sauce. The effect is a Bengali version of a Mexican dish you might have heard of: nachos.
SpiceBite describes itself as halal “Mexican-Indian Street Food,” which means that tacos and rice bowls are menu staples. Mexican-style braised beef tacos (3/$9.99) offered tender beef in chile gravy, wrapped in flour tortillas. Shrimp tacos (3/$11.99) were also well received.
SpiceBite’s version of the halal craft classic chicken and lamb over rice ($11.99) has its own Mexican touch, with picked jalapeno and carrots.
SpiceBite is open daily, 5 p.m.-11 p.m. Get your fuchka fix on Rt. 62.
SpiceBite
3385 Bailey Ave., 716-247-8576
Hours: 5 p.m.-11 p.m. daily
REVIEW: In Clarence Hollow, This Little Pig deals comfort food based on American classics and inspirations from all over. The Nashville chicken sandwich is a crispy fried boneless skinless thigh, and that’s pimento cheese mac and cheese. The housemade sauerkraut and spaetzle, browned in clarified butter, is a side dish that could center a table. The bacon-mushroom gravy will have you saying ja to jaegerschnitzel before you know it. But save room for the chocolate peanut butter cup, what every Reese’s aspires to become. (For patrons, later this week.)
ROYCROFTERS FARM-TO-TABLE FEAST: The Roycrofters at Large Association hosts “The Art and Craft of the Harvest Table” Wednesday Sept 30 at the Knox Farm mansion.
The dinner, featuring produce from Thorpe’s Organic Family Farm, marks the group’s 50th anniversary. It’s 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m., at 437 Buffalo Road, East Aurora.
Here’s what’s on the menu:
Heirloom tomato bar with assorted cheeses, flavored oils, vinegars, and salts
Hubbard squash soup, and Sandy’s Famous Cornbread
Bread including sourdough, focaccia and pumpernickel with Knox Farm honeyed butter.
Herb roasted chicken, roasted pork loin with apples and sage, pineapple habanero chutney.
Lentil shepherd’s pie with shredded potato topping, roasted vegetables, and risotto.
For dessert: apple crisp, pumpkin squares, and Bella’s Celebration Cake.
Cocktail reception from 5:30-6:30 p.m., followed by buffet dinner, with musical entertainment by Saxman Slim. Purchase tickets, $175, here.
ASK THE CRITIC:
Q: Who has good poutine these days? Please don’t say Denny’s.
– Harry N., East Aurora
A: Too many versions of poutine show up covered in shredded cheese, which makes them disco fries, the pride of New Jersey.
The last great poutine I encountered was at Schwabl’s, the Hamburg German outpost and roast beef specialist. There, for the first time, when I ordered poutine ($17.99), the server asked how I preferred my beef.
Medium-rare roast, carved to order in the dining room, topped crispy crinkle-cut fries, warm enough to soften the cheddar cheese curds. With beef gravy, it was an outstanding poutine. Normally there’s a sprinkle of caraway seeds – the kummel in kummelweck – but they don’t agree with a member of our party, so they were held on request.
#30#
