The humble street sweet shop in Sealdah

In an abandoned entrance of an old building, just ahead of Loreto Day School, Sealdah, a middle-aged man dressed in white dhoti-punjabi and tilak on forehead sets up a stall early morning selling sweets. He sells still stocks last, which is early or mid-afternoon. The sweets are from Krishnanagar, which sounded new to my ears (though the said town is famous for certain sweets) as I am familiar with street shops procuring sweets coming from Chandannagar and Howrah. I have also heard of sweets from Katwa (of Bardhaman district) selling on the city streets. So, in this shop, you shall get to sample the famous 'Sorpuriya' of Krishnanagar as part of a decent range on offer (given the small space).

I have been noticing the shop, named 'Amrit Keli', for many years now as I have been going to Loreto to fetch or drop my daughter(s). The name is another unique aspect of it as street shops are nameless. The sweets look tempting and are testimony to the amazing range of street food Kolkata offers in desserts which has no match in India.

I finally tasted the fare today. Firstly a kheer-covered syrupy sweet (My second favourite category). The thick, kheer-enveloped sweet was so tender, it broke and fell off my finger. The sweetness was moderate, just as I like it. Next was a large lyangcha. It's not often that you get a good quality of this fried sweet on the street. I still went for it as the one I had before was impressive. The lyangcha tasted good! It didn't feel maida (refined flour) much as is the case often.

I got chhanar payesh (Kheer made with tiny chhena balls) packed for my post-lunch dessert in office. It was thickly creamy and good in taste! My personal preference would be a bit less sweet though.

The prices are much reasonable given the quality. My bill was Rs 47.

This calls for more visits to check out the other goodies.


#Sweets #BengaliSweets #KolkataSweets #Sorpuriya #StreetFood


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Chaats of ISKCON #1

Due to hygiene issues I cannot have phuchka on the street as per clinical advice. I haven't had it for long despite a weakness for it. So after I spotted it being served in the ISKCON temple premises at Albert Road, a much unlikely place for it, after we shifted our office to Camac Street, I went for the phuchka one evening as I was feeling like a snack break from work. 

The phuchkas were finger-licking good and the tamarind water was perfectly strong! They were more or less uniformly sized, crisp, with adequate filling and the tamarind water with chopped coriander leaves was served in a full glass. So, you pour the water in the phuchka just as you like it before putting it inside the mouth. The filling had boiled potato, boiled chickpea, boiled moong mixed with spices. The man at the counter asks how hot the customer would like it- normal (moderate) or very hot. He uses chilli powder/ green chilli/ both accordingly in the filling. Thankfully, like it happens in central Kolkata and with phuchka-sellers having mostly non-Bengali customers, the tamarind water did not have a strong taste of cumin powder. It was pure tamarind water like they serve it in north Kolkata and actually a better version of that. Also, considering tamarind water is the most sought after ingredient of phuchka and customers often ask for a free refill after their serving, a glassful of this just for you is tempting! 

The phuchkas are made in-house and are better than roadside ones which are not of uniform size, are sometimes overfried and invariably fried in cheap cooking medium which gets burnt in the process. These phuchkas untick all these points. At Rs 38 for eight pieces, it is definitely at a premium than its roadside cousin but worth it because of the hygiene, overall quality and taste.

There are iron benches and tables to have your food in a serene setting on Albert Road, with the Victoria Square park opposite it.

I am definitely going back for the dahi phuchka, papdi chaat and dahi vada. Watch this space for the series to continue.

#Phuchka #KolkataFood #StreetFood #IndianStreetFood

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The aftermath of the double blast in food scene

As if the fear of dead and formalin-preserved chicken in our favourite chicken delicacies was not enough, the carcass meat scam dealt Kolkata a mighty blow last month.

Suddenly we are suspecting our favourite chicken roll, chicken momo, chilli chicken, mutton biryani and kawsha mangsho and being on the alert about everything with chicken or meat in it, be it roadside eateries or well-known restaurants. We want to be sure we are not eating carcass meat or formalin-laden dead chicken in drool-worthy dishes.

The other day, I saw that the tawa earlier busy frying parathas now idle, the heap of chicken drumstick and chilli chicken displayed outside now noticeably shrunk and just a handful of customers sitting at a popular street eatery on Arabinda Sarani at Karbagan which I’ve always found crowded. A few feet away, the biryani handis which I always used to find open for filling boxes now covered and the staff waiting for customers in two popular roadside biryani shops. This is a representative picture of the city. Biswanath Ghorui aka Mangsho Bishu, the arrested carcass meat kingpin, has scared the daylights out of Kolkatans.

Kolkata would like to look away from such a sight now

Egg roll in snacking and dim-bhaat/ machh-bhaat or khichudi in working class lunch are suddenly seeing an Uber-like surge in demand, beating their respective eternal rivals- chicken roll, chicken-bhaat and fried rice-chilli chicken combo hands down. A sizable population is now preferring egg, fish and prawn (those who can afford) over chicken and mutton even if it is a compromise with the palate. The trust is shaken and customers aren’t taking chances.

Restaurants and eateries are seeing an unprecedented free fall in orders for chicken and mutton dishes and a relatively higher demand in prawn and fish options. As a natural reaction, restaurateurs are now desperate to prove the freshness of their meat and poultry and some of them are even putting up their suppliers’ names and phone numbers on display subjecting them for public enquiry and inspection to earn back customer trust. I read that small restaurant owners from Hatibagan who shop for their chicken and meat themselves and are demanding that chicken and goats be cut before their eyes as a condition to buy.

A huge food group on Facebook is now seeing posts of mostly home-cooked dishes whereas till recently the feed used to be balanced by posts of dining out- predominantly chicken and meat dishes besides fish. I assume paneer jokes circulated by hardcore non-veg Bengalis (Like ‘paneer biryani’ is a joke by itself) are dipping now.

This social boycott is being reflected in Bengali papers publishing recipes of versions of popular non-veg foods made with green jackfruit and green plantain because people are now even wary of buying raw chicken/ mutton that is already cut and insisting on getting it cut before their eyes. I am sure earlier hardcore non-vegetarian Bengalis would quip that Enchorer Kebab (Green Jackfruit Kebab) was an oxymoron but they are possibly mellowed enough not to react now though they may still be far from accepting those options.

Is it a passing phase for a largely non-vegetarian city that loves eating out like few other cities in the country, or will it change Kolkatans' food habit in the long term? Will the Bengali be back with a bang to his favourite chicken roll, mutton biryani and chilli chicken in this year’s Pujo? Time will tell. I will be curious to know. All that I feel is that this will clean up the food chain to some extent and improve people's judgement of food (Like anything that's cheap is not good to go for, because cheap indicates compromise).

#CarcassMeat #Chicken #Formalin #Mutton #Kolkata Food

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Street food: Chana tikia and mango lassi

This chatwallah near the AC Market end of Lord Sinha Road makes a mean chana tikia, as I found out on an official visit to this area. It had the right tang of tamarind sauce and spiciness with crunchily tawa-fried double aloo tikia.

It made my day! At Rs 40 a plate, though not cheap (not anyway expected in this part of the city), it’s worth every rupee. Will visit again as I dig good chana tikia.

Now comes the perfect follow-up! It didn't happen on the same day, though. But that's pretty much possible on a foodwalk as the two places are not far apart. Just two metro stations.

The top of the beer mug is covered with dry fruits, cherry and khoa. Thick mango lassi inside (lassi mixed with mango juice, not syrup). 

Sheer bliss! Especially as a dessert after a hearty meal. 

Available at Esplanade East. From KC Dass to Dacres Lane, on the right (a few steps from Bhojohori Manna). There are a few lassi & juice shops selling it for many years, but the corner shop seems to be the most popular. As you draw close, the stuff of the shops will call you aloud to try their mango lassi. The only other lassi available is plain lassi, which is the same thing without the mango bit.

The corner shop

#Chaat #Lassi #StreetFood

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Street food: Bread omelette

Mumbai has vada pav. We have dim pnauruti (in Bengali).

It’s called bread omelette in Indian English. I saw it called ‘eggy bread’ by a blogger from New Zealand who discovered it on her trip to Kolkata.

It is one street food which can make your light breakfast, gives you an option for a quick lunch, is the perfect afternoon snack, even a late evening snack when you are going home from work late and every place is shut. Whenever one is terribly hungry, it is one option that can be availed right away. I once heard from a colleague that it made the dinner for their family midnight at Shyambazar when their invitation had gone wrong. It is that versatile!

It is available in many other Indian cities. I am not aware of the popularity of this dish or the residents’ dependence on it elsewhere, but Kolkata survives on it. There will hardly be places in Kolkata where you can’t find it. Typically tea shops that keep bread and egg make it, and there are standalone shops making it as well.

Yet it is absolutely underrated! When it comes to recalling popular street foods, it never pops up. It’s so possibly because it’s such a simple food that we don’t consider it worthy of mentioning. It’s that younger son in the family who earns less and runs errands for the family. The family depends on him heavily but won’t ever recognize his contribution. Look at the cult status vada pav has attained in Mumbai, then look back at the humble bread omelette in Kolkata.

It is one of the simplest foods to make- an omelette is made in a saucepan and two slices of ordinary long bread are (the cheapest commercial bread in the city) put on it when it is just set. Then it is turned over for a minute or so. The omelette is folded around the bread and served with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Customization instructions from customers include not to put chilli or sliced onion in the egg before beating it. It is generally cut into pieces before serving or packing. It is routinely taken away to offices as it’s popular among officegoers.

 Dim Pnauruti aka Bread Omlette

Don’t confuse it with French toast. It has its independent identity.

It indeed is what we fashionably call ‘Health food’, which we hardly realize, and is an easy option to get when we rack our brains to find a healthy food to eat.

And it is inexpensive. Anyone from any economic class can afford it. Little wonder its popularity cuts across sections of people- from the school student to the daily wage earner to the executive with a laptop. It sells at around Rs 14 on the streets. Because of its wide availability especially in tea shops, it can save your day at the time of a strike while all eateries are shut but an odd tea shop is open.

So, for all this and more, here is a salute and lots of love to our very own dim pnauruti aka bread omelette. Long live!

#StreetFood #KolkataFood

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Street-side sweets of Kolkata

The street food of Kolkata is well cultivated, but the street version of sweets is surprisingly the poor cousin. The sweets sold on the streets of Kolkata not only offers a wide range to please customers with varied tastes (like those who have a sweet tooth and those who don’t, like me, but have a sweet craving sometimes), and have a value-for-money pricing, they can give many sweet shops (including popular ones) a run for money in terms of quality vs price. One point- the prices are not cheap at all, unlike street food, but completely justify the quality. The stalls are generally seen in office areas as sweets post meal are favoured by foodie officegoers. Typically sweets are laid out in aluminium trays covered with glass sheets.

The sweets are sourced from many places- all outside Kolkata as far as I know. The vendor I prefer to go to, to satisfy my post-lunch sweet craving at times, sources from Howrah, and partly from Chandannagar. There are sellers who get the stuff from Katwa and other places in Bardhaman district.

This vendor’s stall is at this tiny patch called LIC Gully- basically the connector between CR Avenue at Chandni Chowk metro station to Madan Street, along the Hindustan Buildings (starting from its one end and ending at the other). The old, toothless man in shirt & trousers sets up the stall everyday (except Sunday) opposite the post office entrance at Hindustan Buildings. He keeps a no. of bhaja mishti (fried sweets) like golap jaam (gulab jamoon), chhanar jilipi, pantua, kalo jaam, lyangcha; a no. of sandesh, both kawda paak and nawrom paak (hard and soft versions respectively) and a no. of rosher mishti (syrupy chhena-based sweets)  which prominently includes cream-based sweets- my favourite category. I like the sweetness mellowed my sweets. 

The golap jaam he sells is top class, biggish and comes at Rs 10 (it used to be Rs 8 not so long ago). It looks the perfect shade of golden brown and has the right mix of sooji and maida (flour) with the cardamom at the core (essential in a good golap jaam), which is rarely seen in many well-known shops. I bet the quality matches that of any popular shop selling quality gulab jamun, say the Ganguram’s across the road. He brings a sweet from Chandannagar called Rasomadhuri (a cream-based sweet), which I can put in one word- sublime! I hardly get to taste it as it is exhausted before 4 pm and I mostly come at that time. When I asked about it in recent past, he said with deep empathy “You come so late…..it doesn’t stay long in the tray”. Rasomadhuri happens to be one gem from Chandannagar which is famous for its sweets. The stall is wrapped up by 5 o’ clock. He has customers from officegoers who have at least three-four varieties everyday. I also love the chhana bhaja, kalo jaam and chhanar jilipi.

If I’m too late, I have another place to go. It’s on Ganesh Chandra Avenue, which can be easily called the food street. It’s just before Lalani’s IT World, between CR Avenue and Bentinck Street, at the left (towards Bentinck St). This vendor with a glass box keeps a good variety as well, except cream-based sweets. But once in a blue moon he offers a yummy rasomalai served cold (adding to the taste).

Few days back boss treated me with sweets from roadside as we felt a wee bit hungry after visiting a prospect at central business district. This stall was at Lyons Range sells a mind-boggling range. I sampled a chhanar cake followed by a cream-based sweet. Both were good, but the former was class apart with its artistic play with a thin layer of cream inside.

The stall at Lyons Range. Photograph by Suvendra Mukherjee.

I have been eyeing one such stall at Sealdah, a little before Loreto Day School (set up at the entrance of a building), approaching from Moulali, for a long time. The fare is slurp-inducing. Have not had an opportunity to visit it at the right time. 


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