Street Hawker - Chinese Food in India

As we drove through multiple villages across eastern Andhra Pradesh, I kept seeing these street hawkers with their funky carts.

Any Indian would recognize them instantly as a "chinese bandi"... and to those who haven't yet figured... this is a chinese food stall. We call it chinese, but it really is Indian-Chinese! All spiced up and 'Masala-ed' to the Indian palette and nothing like the real stuff.

Also this Chinese bandi is very different from the ones we find here in HYD. HYD bandis scream in red colour and have a lot of food hanging behind the counter. This stall is from behind the Taxi Stand, Vijayawada, pretty close to Eluru Road.

More details ahead!

Ok here is a detailed photo to show that the chinese bandi is an excerpt from, well to put it straight, a screwed up fantasy.

Red Dragons with Mer-tails and Green Rhino heads breathing fire. Double humped, spikey Brontosauruses sharing some noodles with either a bird or an orc (depends how you see it). And to top it off, Tantri The-Mantri is knee deep in a swamp waving his sceptre and cooking some huge Momos.

I know I sound like I'm mocking, but I think there is so much more to this art on the street. I hope you see what I see.

And btw.. it's great that a street hawker would give out his name and phone number so openly. Lucky for him if you happen to love his food. I personally love Indian-Chinese and tend to eat out atleast twice a month.