Hailing from Kolkata, a person is introduced to the joy of good food, pretty early in his life. At the cost of a very sensitive constitution, a bong easily appreciates joys of gastronomical pleasures. What makes it satisfying for a bong is that you don’t need to go to a fancy eatery to sample all this delectable ware. Street foods of Kolkata are a joy in itself.
An early winter morning offers two unique Kolkata breakfasts. Phulkopir singara or samosas made of a mix of potato and cauliflower and Karai shutir kachuri and cholar daal which is essentially a fried bread of green peas stuffing and pulse gravy mixed with coconut.
A mid work snack can be a jhal muri and tele baja. Puffed rice mixed with various masalas, chopped onions, green chillis, and mixed with mustard oil and served in paper packets or paper cones is what is famously known as jhal muri. Slices of brinjal, or potato or even a branch of spinach dipped in a batter of besan and then deep fried is a telebhaja with subnames like beguni, alur chop and palak pakora. This works as an ideal accompaniment to the jhal muri or can be enjoyed on its own.
When you miss out on bringing your lunch and not in the mood to go to a restaurant, step out to the streets for a bit of chowmein. All office areas and educational areas are dotted with stalls selling this. Essentially stir fried noodles, they come with a mish mash of veggies, eggs, chicken strips and even shrimps, depending on your taste. If you are in the camac street area, toasted bread with a dash of butter along with veggies, or chicken stewed in a starchy broth is a wholesome option. If you are the veggie kind of foodie then south Indian options like dosa, or north Indian ones like chole bhatura are equally popular as the ever green pav bhaji. Pav bhaji originates from the west and is essentially bun bread served with a serving of a tangy spicy mixed vegetable cooked till it is almost a paste. Street biriyani is also available but the quality of meat and origin of meat is at your own risk.
Bengal runs on cha, the typical sweet tea laced with a little less milk then north india, but usually spiced with a bit of ginger and cloves. And if you want to add something to it then a rusk biscuit is ideal, though telebhaja is again favoured. Another just like that food for Bengalis is the famous Bengali rolls. A roll is basically a flat bread which is fried with our without an egg, and then rolled around and bound by a paper with a stuffing inside. What tickles your taste buds is what decides the stuffing, it could be paneer or cottage cheese chunks that have been spiced and grilled on a skewer for a paneer roll, or a mash of vegetables for veg roll. It could just be onions inside the egg fried to offer you an egg roll, or chicken on mutton chunks, spiced and grilled on skewers to make you a chicken or mutton roll.
Just as Chinese food is a favourite of Bengalis, the Tibetan steamed momos or dumplings of vegetable or chicken served with a piping hot bowl of soup made with chicken or vegetable stalk and spicy chutney is an ever favourite of Bengalis. A Thupka or noodle soup is also fast getting popular.
A Bengali housewives life is incomplete without a shopping spree at gariahat or newmarket, and what fuels her there is her choice from the alu kablis, churmurs and phuchka. Popular in other parts of india as golgappe, the phuchka is similar in that it’s a puffed crispy cover that holds a mash of potato and served with a sweet water. But the reality is it’s an explosion of tastes sweet, tangy spicy hot all customizable to your taste. Mash the crispy cover, and mix it with the potato mash and spices and you have a plate of churmur. If you want to avoid the crispy, just take the boiled potatoes, make chunks of it and spice it up as an alu kabli and pick ‘em of your plate with a tooth pick.
A Bengalis life is incomplete with two things, fish and adda. So how can we ignore these two while talking of food. No adda is complete without food, in fact it is said in Bengal no meeting is complete without eating and beating. While the beating might be hypothetical and may be a beating of the table with fists or one’s point f view being beaten down on the others, there is nothing hypothetical about the eating. Fish fry, where fillets of fish are crumbed and then deep fried, batter fries where the crumbs are replaced by a batter of egg, flour and besan is an ideal fuel along with the omnipresent cha, always served with a dip made of mustard called kashundi. A moghlai paratha and a kabiraji cutlet are special mentions in this long list of street food. Dough is balled and spread flat, then covered with an egg, and then a filling of choice varying from mashed vegetables, minced chicken or minced mutton is centred and then wrapped carefully by the dough. Deep fry this and serve with kashundi, onion rings and some sauted potatoes as a moghlai paratha. Kabiraji or coverage cutlet is essentially a cutlet which is fried without crumbs but in a egg batter.No food journey in Kolkata is complete without a visit to the sweet shop. But we will keep that as a story of its own making from some time later.
