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New York City

Kati Rolls

Kati rolls are Indian street food, originally a skewerless kebab wrapped in a paratha, like the chicken off a stick in a hot dog bun that I had in Fordham. They've come a long way since Kolkata, with variants all over India, and in any nation that has Desi folks willing to do the cooking.

I got introduced to kati rolls at a cart up the way from Times Square. The husband and wife team shoehorned into the tiny mobile cookery had an award from the city for their cuisine proudly displayed. They did chicken kati rolls 2 for US$6 (you'll pay US$8 for the same thing today), which was the same price as a chicken over rice.

What the kati rolls lacked in volume against the chicken over rice, they made up for in flavor and intensity. Thin, freshly grilled paratha wrapped around tender chicken grilled low and slow, drenched in a sauce that grabbed me by the tonsils and demanded attention. Messy to eat if you weren't really careful, and worth the cleanup.

I never became a regular, as it was a bit of a distance to walk for lunch, and I was trying to hold down costs and bring my lunch rather than buy it, but I got there almost often enough.

I made a special trip to Greenwich Village, to a kati roll place that was supposed to be the most authentic in NYC, according to reviews on an Indian expat site, but they had indoor seating, albeit only room for two people. It was a permanent structure, so it doesn't count here. Their kati rolls were in fact worth the trip from the Bronx.