Chatkora’s, Unit 4, 45 Leakes Road, Laverton North. Phone: 0499 333 295

“There’s no furniture so it’ll be great!!!”

Interesting to reflect how my enforced (but now perfectly harmonious) removal from the regular workforce and the ongoing shock of the virus and its various upheavals are impacting Consider The Sauce.

The unfolding CTS future, it seems, looks something like this …

A much less frantic pace – maybe one post a week or every fortnight.

Much more eating at home. And sleeping in.

And, perhaps most importantly, posting only about those places that really, really excite us and that we consider deserve much wider exposure and appreciation.

So, as it stands, there’s little or no chance we’ll be covering any cafes or bars – or the latest “it” place that is being raved about in the other strands of media – during the rest of this year and beyond.

As an indication of that revamped CTS ethos, it’s fair to say that our current favourite places, the subjects of regular visits, are Panjali, Hop N Spice and Chai N Dosa.

Oh yes, street food galore!

It’s that sort of zeal that finds us roaming to Laverton North to try the Indian street food of Chatkora’s.

It being around Sunday lunch time, we are restricted to the brunch menu, rather than the more extensive dinner list (see menus below).

No problem!

As for the lack of furniture, well we make happy with an impromptu car boot picnic just like all the other customers.

Besides which, a Chatkora’s bricks-and-mortar eating house is taking place right behind the current truck’s location and will be unveiled in coming months.

The food here hails more from India’s north than the South Indian fare of Chai N Dosa and, I suspect, from Delhi in particular.

But it’s a long way from being heavy as it’s all-round vegan from top to tail.

We find the food delicious.

The wait times are a little longer than you may expect, but it’s worth it and just everything appears to be prepared from scratch.

They even cook up several different kinds of chick pea curry for different menu items.

This kind of food seems to rely very much on a mix of wet and dry ingredients, the combinations of which simply would not work in a pre-prepared sense. All that zingy crunch would be lost!

Take my Amritsari bheega kulcha ($14) for instance.

How good is this?

Toasted flatbread is anointed with chick pea curry, shredded daikon, red onion, a green minty sauce and coriander.

It’s wonderful!

Bennie is equally as pleased with his Pindi chole bhature ($16).

Given the space limitations of the truck, we can happily live with the breads being pre-made.

They’re still good, as are the rich chick pea curry and the attendant accessories.

So delighted are we with our lunch repasts, we are excited to return a week later to explore the more extensive night-time menu.

My Amritsari nutri kulcha ($16) is fabulous and something a little bit different.

The toasted flatbreads are quite fluffy.

The curry and its wonderfully tasty gravy are studded with soy meat bits – that’s where the “nutri” comes from.

Not really my thing, but it works fine.

The raita has small, soft pearls of … maybe puffed rice?

And the pickle bits are house-made. They have a whiff of mustard oil about them – again, not really my thing, but it’s not too strong.

Bennie’s chole aloo tikki burger ($14) has stuffing of a quite dry chick pea mix and what appears to be a potato patty/rissole.

He likes it fine.

On the side are a tangy tamarind sauce and crisps that come across as a vegan version of prawn crackers.

Having so much fun are we that we top off our dinners with super kulfi icecream-on-a-stick ($5) – mango for him, pistachio for me!

Chatkora’s?

Go on, make that drive.

It is open for dinner Tuesday-Sunday and lunch/brunch of Saturdays and Sundays.

Visit the Chatkora’s website here.