A befits of gaint metropolis like Delhi, the city's street food scene is dizzyingly varied. It's difficult to know where to start. Don't worry we've done the hard work so dig in.

Delhi is known for its street food. From exclusive hawker zones to strict vending timings, from sanitized aloo tikkis (potato cutlets) to clean cutlery. Chandni Chowk, a market street in the heart of Old Delhi, is the ultimate foodie's delight.

Every few meters you pass stalls piled high with deep-fried offerings of savoury parcels filled with green peas and hot chapattis or spicy chaat - a dish that's unique to Delhi.

The simple street eateries are famous in their own right. Many date back to the last century - each has its own recipe and has been in the same family for generations.

At lunch time the narrow lanes are packed with hungry customers. The most basic chaat is the aloo-kabli or aloo-chaat. It is made up of mashed potatoes and the masalas that go into any chaat dish, which is then garnished with broken phhuchkas and boiled chickpeas to be finally laced with tamarind water. Chaat gets its wholesome taste from its basic ingredient, the potato. It goes into the making of most chaats from dahi kachori to sev puri to papri chaat to aloo chaat.

During the Navratri festival in Delhi, one can savor a variety of chaats at the chaat mela, but the best of them all is the aloo ka kulla.

Chaats could either be a cocktail of seasonal fruits or a lip-smacking mixture of potatoes and mixed papris - mostly a stiff, wafer-like 'biscuit' made of wheat or refined flour. Most chaats are garnished with strained curds, which have a cooling effect on the digestive system and partly neutralizes the effect of chillies and spices.

The dish is prepared by scooping out a boiled potato, filling this with pomegranate or chickpeas and garnishing with chaat masalas and lemon. Old Delhi is noted for a dish called the matra chaat. For this, chickpeas are boiled on a slow fire overnight and the next day, they are mashed and spiced up with long slices of ginger juliennes, green chillies, tamarind, lemon and chaat masala.