Street cooking in India is dominated by one piece of equipment: a large, heavy iron griddle over a constant flame. Almost everything distinctive about the food cooked on it follows from that.
Mass is what makes it work
A thick iron plate stores a large amount of heat. When cold dough or vegetables land on it, the surface temperature drops only slightly and recovers quickly.
A thin domestic pan loses its heat immediately to whatever is placed in it, so the first minute is spent recovering rather than cooking.
That recovery difference is why street versions of the same dish brown properly while home attempts steam in their own moisture.
The surface is divided into zones
A single large griddle is never uniformly hot. The centre sits directly over the flame while the edges run considerably cooler.
Cooks use this deliberately, searing at the middle and holding finished or slow items at the rim. Nothing needs to leave the surface while it waits.
Several orders at different stages therefore occupy one pan simultaneously, which is the whole basis of the stall's throughput.
Why seasoning builds over time
Continuous use with fat at high temperature polymerises oil into a hard layer bonded to the iron. That layer is what keeps dough and eggs from sticking.
It accumulates over months and years, and cooks avoid anything that would strip it, cleaning with a scraper and water rather than detergent.
A griddle in daily service is therefore a better cooking surface than a new one, and stalls treat theirs accordingly.
What constant heat allows
Because the flame never goes off, the cook never waits for the pan. Orders are started the moment they arrive rather than after a preheating gap.
It also allows techniques that need sustained high temperature, such as pressing and re-pressing a bread while adding fat at each stage.
The cost is fuel and the discomfort of standing beside it, which is why the format suits a business cooking continuously rather than a kitchen cooking in bursts.
Why the food looks the way it does
Dishes cooked this way share a set of features: flattened shapes with maximum contact area, generous fat applied at the surface, and heavy scraping and chopping with metal spatulas.
Those are all adaptations to a flat plate rather than a pot, and a dish designed for a griddle rarely transfers well to a saucepan.
Home versions of griddle dishes usually come closest when cooked in a heavy cast iron pan left to preheat for far longer than feels necessary.