Street Snack · Deep-Fried Lentil Fritter

Vadai

Photo: Lubnakarim06 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The lentil batter is traditionally ground on a wet stone rather than a machine, until it turns light and aerated enough to fry into a doughnut-shaped ring instead of a dense, heavy fritter.

Soaked black gram (urad dal) is ground into a thick paste, seasoned, hand-shaped into a ring, and deep-fried until dark and crisp outside but fluffy within, sold hot from Little India's Tekka Centre stalls with coconut chutney.

Why it's made this way: Vadai has roots stretching back to Sangam-era Tamil literature, and South Indian migrants carried the snack to Singapore, where it became one of Little India's standard tea-time and breakfast street foods.