Jyoti Veeramony opened Mumbai Street Food at Beaverton's Xplore food cart pod in March, serving chaat, pani puri and vada pav made fresh to order.

The cart at 16365 NW Twin Oaks Dr. is one of 11 active vendors at the pod, which opened in February behind the Xplore indoor play center near Cornell Road and Bethany Boulevard. Veeramony, owner of Mumbai Street Food, built her path to the cart through pop-ups, market stalls and a stint as chaat chef at the now-closed Lentil Garden Indian restaurant in Beaverton.

Her signature is the live pani puri experience. Veeramony fills crisp fried shells with potatoes, chickpeas and tangy spiced mint water, then passes them through the window one by one. Customers eat each in one bite. It's the same ritual performed at street stalls in Mumbai.

"I feel like I have a purpose now … I just wanted to bring the taste of Mumbai, where I grew up, to Portland and share it with the Portlanders," Veeramony told OregonLive in a profile published Wednesday, Aug. 26.

The menu centers on chaat, a category of Indian street food combining sweet, salty, spicy, tangy and sour flavors. Another staple is the vada pav, sometimes called the Mumbai burger: a deep-fried spiced potato patty in a soft bun with garlic, sweet and spicy chutneys and fried chilies.

Veeramony grew up in southern India and Mumbai, where she began cooking at age nine. After moving to the Portland area, she donated a beginner's Indian cooking class to her child's Montessori school auction. Demand from families grew into regular catering work.

She originally listed dosas on the menu but dropped the crispy southern Indian crepes after finding five nearby restaurants already served them. Everything at the cart is made fresh, and Veeramony fries the vada pav to order with no frozen ingredients, she said in the profile.

The Xplore pod lists Mumbai Street Food as active with online ordering through the cart's Square site.

Pod hours vary by source; the Cedar Mill News reported 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily when the pod launched, while the Xplore Instagram page lists 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Management also plans to add an indoor bar with 30 taps and an outdoor beer cart, per the Cedar Mill News.

Customers should check with the pod directly for current hours and cart availability.