Calcutta Cuisine ( Part I)
“Bengalis love to celebrate their language, their culture, their politics, their fierce attachment to a city that has been famously dying for more than a century. They resent with equal ferocity the reflex stereotyping that labels any civic dysfunction anywhere in the world 'another Calcutta.’"
It has been rightly and quite appropriately mentioned by the American-Bengali author, Bharati Mukherjee, who although has travelled to many a land, has stated that there is something wonderful in the air of Kolkata. It is true, that Kolkata is not a new city. Previously known as Calcutta, it has a vibrant and rich history much before the British made it their Capital for close to two-hundred years. Kolkata or Calcutta(the Calcuttans still lovingly call it that) was formed by the merging of three villages, Sutanuti, Gobindapur and Kalikata. The East India Company had got their main administrator, Job Charnock, who is mainly credited with the founding of Calcutta after which the East India Company made this culturally vibrant city its center of trade and commerce, development.
Since the inhabitants of the city were essentially from three villages, there habits and customs were significantly different from one to the other. They were by essence Bengali’s but the divide was their food. Cut to modern day Kolkata. One of the key aspects which attracts people over the world to this gorgeous city is its heritage of food. Hospitality is key in this city. Be it eating from a Hawker on the streets or at a posh Park Street restaurant, there is a little Bengaliana(or the Bengali way of life) in every morsel of food, distinctly different from anywhere else in the country.
Yet, Kolkata has seen the mixture of all cultures. From the Hindu Bengali Kings, to the Brahmin purohit families, to the Persian culture, to the English opening up the English Café’s and eateries, to the Zamindar families who upheld the traditional bengalines with the addition of the British culture to their everyday life, to the Marwari population finding their home in Kolkata, this place is a potpourri of cultures.
To understand Kolkata in its true essence, you have to understand its nerve, its true spirit, its narrow lanes and stone block roads, its rebellion to its calm, but one thing that binds it all together is the simplicity by which each facet is sutured in harmony. Each individual in this soulful has a story to tell and food is one of the best medium to put that’s story across.
In a normal Bengali household food adapts itself with each season. There are traditions in summer which are vastly different when winter comes along or when the rains decide to be grateful on the humid July afternoons. Now traditions vary from North Kolkata to South Kolkata as well. North Kolkata is more rustic, is more traditional, is more Kolkata in its true essence, while South Kolkata was the British hub of gathering, merry making and was the place for their social involvement with the Bengali elite society. South Kolkata is more sparkly, more modern and more contemporary. This divide is very apparent in the Kolkata culture today and as an outsider it may seem the same, but once you dig in deep, the differences are wonderfully unique.
Hailing from North Kolkata means Luchi and cholar daal or aloor dum(Luchi is the Bengali version of a Poori without the asafetida in it. Its is essentially a flat-bread fried in hot oil and served with Chola which is a lentil and a spicy potato curry) for Sunday breakfast. This food is considered as the quintessential Bengali Breakfast and has been the same for years and years. Although these days where most people are quite the health buffs, this tradition may have gotten reduced from what it was twenty years back but once in a while, this breakfast is a must, especially if there is an occasion of any sort. During the week, at a north Kolkata household, all the members who leave for school or work have piping hot rice, with butter or ghee and aloo sheddo or mashed potatoes. I know some people, who have been eating this for breakfast for 20 years of their life, and imagining anything contrary is not only difficult, but mundane and strange. The mothers and wives who don’t work, after the members who are off to work have left generally eat muri or puffed rice with a potato curry or last night’s side dish. It is a means to utilize whatever food is cooked and not throw it away.
Lunch in a Bengali household has to comprise of Fish. Fish is considered to be the most important protein in Kolkata. As a Bengali child, if your mother has never brought to light that if you skipped on your fish you would have bad eyes for the rest of your life. Life seems a little distraught without fish, in this part of the world. Most of the times it is one kind of fish, which is a gravy with vegetables, including but not restricting to Potatoes, Potol(the Bengali mother has no clue what the English name of this vegetable is), beans and Bottle gourd. My mother prefers adding Brinjal and carrots with this list too. This meal is by far the healthiest meal of the day because not only do you get the adequate protein required, the vegetables are part of the entire list.
But on a Sunday, this meal can be stretched to a four-course meal. So you start of with machcher tel, which is essentially the natural oil that the fish comes with, which is eaten with piping hot rice and a green chilli to add that required flavor. Followed by this are the different kinds of sheddo, which is basically vegetables which are boiled with the rice. These vegetables are mostly but not restricted to potatoes, bitter-gourd, pumpkin, snakegourd. There is another vegetable which in colloquial Bengali is known as oal. This is a vegetable called Elephant’s leg or Suran, in Hindi, in which pickles and only spicy condiments are added to mix into a fine paste which is eaten with ghee and rice. After this you have the various bhajas which are essentially various vegetable, fried in mustard oil, which include various leafy vegetables, brinjals, pumpkin and of course, fish. There may be more than one kind of fried fish at a meal. The most common fish fry is the Rohu fish, which has
a nice sumptuous and fleshy body, which is marinated in turmeric and ginger-garlic paste. Some people prefer having dal with the fry. Following which is posto, which is poppy seeds made together with potato and snakegourd. This is mainly followed by a gravy of fish and then mutton. Mutton is a Sunday special in most Bengali households. This is a special Mutton, which is called Gota Masala Mangsho, which translates as Full Spices Meat. This is a special preparation wherein the masala’s are all put together in the meal without them being crushed or turned into a powder. The meat cooks in the flavor of these spices and leaves with it a nice tender dish, which is very healthy. The last course is the ‘tok’ of the mango chutney or tomato chutney which is eaten with a papad and then the mishti doi. It has been said that if a meal ends without mishti doi or sweet curd, the meal is said to be incomplete.
Sunday dinner is a much lighter affair, considering the intensity of the meal served at lunch. Two roti’s with either a phoolkopi or cauliflower curry, made generally with turmeric and jeera powder or a chicken stew is all that is required for a start to a long and busy week ahead for the individual.
Kolkata has flavor and essence in its very soul. Once you leave the traditional Bengali house for a walk down the main road of Hati Bagan which is located in north Kolkata, your taste buds will be satisfied with a traditional evening snack in the most rustic Bengali way possible. A line of shops which date back to 1800’s are present there selling muri or puffed rice with about 20 different types of chanachur or mixture that you could add to it. This is very different from the jhalmuri which is famous here, since jhalmuri is moist after the spices are added to the muri. Here, the chanachur is dry and one can choose from a list of spicy, to sweet spicy to sweet. If your chanachur muri is spicy, one can try a packet of narkel naru, which is a ball of coconut shreddings held together with jaggery.
Another very popular evening snack that is almost as popular as the place is Shingara or samosa and Lyangcha which is a cyndrical gulab jamun texture from a sweet shop known as Putiram. Putiram is one of the oldest sweet shops in North Kolkata and every evening a fresh batch of savory and sweet items are made. One of the best there is their authentic Shingara which when eaten hot tastes like no other Samosa in the world. Pick out any of the multiple sweets on display and all of them are made of fresh khoya and chena.
About 300 metres from Putiram is one of the oldest Sherbet houses in Kolkata, in the heart of the city at College Square. Paramount is legendary for its sherbets. My mother used to elucidate to me stories from her childhood about her experiences there and frankly not too much has changed. At any point of any day, its very difficult to find the place empty. Their specialty is their daab sherbet which is coconut water with malai and water and laden with ice. It is glorious and a refreshing recourse during scorching the scorching summer. Most of their sherbet is made of natural fruits so the flavor is to the ‘T’.
Moving further down the city, one can find themselves near New Market. One of my favorite joints in New Market has to be the rustic authentic Anglo confectionary, Nahoums. Their Rum Balls and Chicken Patties are to die for. They make some of the greatest pastries one can try in Kolkata and they stick to their traditional tastes as opposed to the newer tastes coming up in the city.
Another comfort food that one can find in and around the city is the Tibetan delight, Momo. They’re sumptuous dim sums, filled with chicken for the non-veg eaters and veggies for the veg eaters. Served with a nicely flavoured soup and a secret sauce that they vouch to take to the grave with them, momo’s are frugal eat and are healthy and filling. They cost about 20 rupees for four and never question them about the authenticity of the meat, because then you’re in for a story which usually ends with an earful about the good will of the shop.
Anywhere you go, food follows is probably the motto that Kolkata believes in. Any road you take, it is always laden with food. From simple roti and vegetable curry, to sweet shops selling delicate sweet meats to tele bhaja or pakore which can be enjoyed with puff rice to biryani and other mughlai food to south indian and chinese, Kolkata presents itself with numerous choices for the hungry. And the most surprising part is the affordability of it all. I’ve been to different cities and tried street food, but the affordability here is like nowhere else. One could finish their lunch in 25 rupees which would comprise of one large serving of rice, one brinjal fry, one serving dal, aloo fry, one serving of fish and one serving of vegetable gravy, all healthy and hygienic. At the same time you could choose the next stall to try some healthy chicken stew with healthy veggies and two pieces of toast.
To conclude, Kolkata and food are synonymous to each other. They like the spirit and body of the city, pulling it together and carrying it forward. And every time I take a food walk around this gorgeous city, my co-writer who’s written this piece with me, was envious to not be able to experience the gloriousness of what this city has to offer, first hand. There’s a little mystery in each corner, there’s a little unique hawker in some other corner, there’s a little tale about the origination of the story in some other corner and these stories keep the essence of this city alive and you feel that joy with each bite that you consume, not of the f