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Dawn Queue · Crisp Gram-Flour Strips

Fafda

Fafda — street food from Gujarat, India
Photo: Shubhamj29 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

On festival mornings, the lines outside Gujarat's best fafda shops reportedly start forming hours before the shop even opens for the day's first hot batch.

A stiff dough of gram flour, oil, and carom seeds is rolled into flat strips and deep-fried until crisp and pale yellow, then served with fried green chilies, grated papaya, and a side of tangy chutney. It's a fixture of Gujarati breakfast stalls, especially thick on the ground during Dussehra.

Why it's made this way: Fafda's tie to the Dussehra festival turned an everyday farsan snack into a must-have that draws pre-dawn queues once a year, while its pairing with jalebi remains Gujarat's signature sweet-and-savory breakfast combination.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.