Month: August 2020

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KOLKATA EATING EXPERIENCE: PICE HOTEL, GOLBARI KOSHA MANGSHO, LADYKENI ETC.

 

This post is brings you a medley of popular traditional Bengali delicacies from some of the renowned and legendary eateries across the city of Kolkata. In this expedition, we were accompanied by our young and gracious host Pamela Das who guided us with useful insights and snippets regarding the same.

We started the food tour from a very special place called Suruchi self help restaurant. It’s the city’s oldest Bengali restaurant and is completely owned and operated by women. These women are a league of brave hearts who have battled grave adversities and have emerged strong and resilient. They are the inmates of shelters run by All Bengal Women’s Union, an NGO that works with disadvantaged women and girls. Due to their diligence and skill, Suruchi has earned a name among the masses with its easy on the pocket, home style food. Here we tried a basic combination of steamed rice with dimer jhol (egg curry) followed by a couple of pithe (rice flour based desserts) with payesh (rice and milk pudding). Though the egg curry was thin, light on palette yet it was extremely delicious. Among the desserts we loved the cardamom flavoured patishapthas.

Meeting the resilient womenfolk in the kitchen and hearing about their stories of struggle and success was a inspiring experience. From there we went on to try a massive Bengali spread at the iconic pice hotels named Swadhin Bharat Hindu Hotel whose origin dates back to the British rule. Situated near the College street, this place was frequented by legends and stalwarts from different fields. Pice hotels are humble eateries that serve traditional Bengali cuisine at affordable rates. They have a pretty extensive lineup of traditional fish based Bengali dishes. We ordered 11 items including rice, dal, fish curries and chutneys. The food was fresh and delicious. We loved eating it from the banana leaves. The service was prompt and satisfactory. The crowd over here included traders, office goers and shoppers.

After that heavy scrumptious meal we headed to have some classic sweets from the legendary Bhim Chandra Nag which is believed to be the birthplace of the popular Bengali sweet called Ladikeni. It is a syrup laden deep fried sweet made of chenna or native cottage cheese. As per the legends this sweets was created as a tribute to the  lovely and charming Lady Canning who was the wife of Lord Canning. Along with the ladikeni we also tried sitabhog and misti doi. Sitabhog is like a sweetened rice flour based vermicelli while misti doi is sweetened curd. Everything, especially the ledikeni, was outstanding.

After that sweet rush we went to Princep Ghat, which is one of the oldest recreational spots in the city. Watching the magnificent structures like the Vidyasagar Setu and the palladium porch at Princep Ghat over a cup of invigorating lebu cha (lemon tea) and ghoti gorom (savoury snacks) was a comforting experience. We spent some time on the banks of river Hooghly admiring it’s majesty.

After that leisurely break we reached our final destination for the day i.e Golbari in Shyambazar. It is one Kolkata’s legendary eateries that has been around for over a century. We were there to try their iconic mutton kosha with porota. The dark brown, slow cooked rich mutton gravy with oil floating on the top was heavenly. It lived up to its reputation though the amount of oil might scare away the health freaks. This journey was a special one for we got to try some of the real flavours of Kolkata.

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A GLIMPSE INTO BENGALI CUISINE, LIFESTYLE AND CULTURE

 

During our Kolkata food tour, our quest to understand the Bengali way of life a little more closely through its food, cultural anecdotes and references led us to the warm, genial and amusing company of a wonderful Bengali couple who were clearly ardent foodies. Restaurateurs Piyali and Sunando Banerjee, have translated their passion into profession through their culinary venture named Hanglaatherium. So brace yourselves for some amazing insights, great company, endearing interaction and of course some delicious food. The agenda for the day was to visit to a local market to learn about the Bengali cuisine essentials and to try a usual Bengali meal. Hence we started with a visit to the Gariahat fish and vegetable market. It is one of the city’s oldest and biggest market. Fish is the star element of the rich and vibrant Bengali cuisine. It is an indispensable part of the daily meal and such is the craze that more than one preparation graces the average Bengali lunch platter. Their cogent love for fish gets reflected in the busy and the chaotic scene at a fish market where their enthusiasm peaks as they select the best catch for the day. As we stepped inside the walled precincts of the Gariahat Fish market with our host Piyali, a regular visitor to this place, we were thrilled by the sight and smell of the mind boggling variety of live fishes. Piyali walked us through the common spices that preferred for daily cooking. There were Rui, Katla, Pomfret, Bhetki, Tryangra, Illish, Magur and many more. Piyali’s deep knowledge about the nitty gritties of the cuisine and her enthusiasm to acquaint us with the same made us fall in love with the experience. As we made our way through the sea of fishes, we got enlightened about their uses and benefits. Apart from getting familiar with the identities of the fishes, we also came to know about some socio cultural contexts involving these fishes. For example we learnt how the rui or katla fish is a mean of cementing the ties between the bride and the grooms family. In due course of the conversation we also came to know about the two categories of Bengalis, i.e the Ghotis and the Bangals, their prolonged underlying rivalry that has spilled even onto the football fields and their different culinary preferences in spite of having the common ingredients landscape being the same. From fish section we went to the vegetable section to learn about the favourite picks of the people of Bengal. We came to know that the Bengalis are equally fond of vegetables and the cuisine has iconic range of vegetarian delicacies too. Piyali showed us some of the usual fares like Pumpkin, it’s flower, plantain stem and blossom and some of the unusual yet coveted fares like maan kochu, different kinds of leafy greens vegetables etc. After that insightful market visit it was time to head to her home to taste a basic breakfast fare of luchi, sada aloor tarkari, begun bhaja and rosogolla. But before that Piyali’s spouse Sunando took us to a nearby crowded eatery selling an interesting thing called Patai Porota. As the name suggested, it was a flatbread that had borne the brunt of ruthless palm beating. The resultant fluffy and flaky mass is eaten with yellow pea curry or some sweet stuff. It was tasty but not outstanding. On reaching their home we were joined by one of their close friends Avijit dada. All the walking had made us quite hungry. Piyali quickly whipped up the sada aloor tarkari using just three to four ingredients. Sunando fried the luchi and soon the table was set for the meal and a hearty conversation. The subtle and soulful meal was accompanied by an amusing conversation about some of the quintessential traits and idiosyncrasies of the Bengali people. So there were the references to Borolin antiseptic cream, Dim paruti, Sunlight detergent bar, Horlicks health drinks. We are so grateful for this endearing encounter full of food and cultural connotations.

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CHINESE FOOD TOUR IN KOLKATA

Kolkata is a melting pot of cultural diversity. It has embraced migrants from different parts of the world and made them its own. One such community is the Chinese community that first set foot in the city during the British rule. Since it was the capital of the country, many Chinese families got attracted to settle here. And that is how the Chinese settlement came to existence in the central part of Kolkata. In this blog we will take you on a journey to explore some of the popular street foods across the Chinese settlements including Tiretti Bazar and Tangra. To guide us about the locality, cultural scenes and the food, we were joined by our gracious and dynamic host Pamela Das.

We started the tour early in the morning from Teritti Bazar. The place is known for the daily morning street market where one can find numerous traditional Chinese breakfast items. These are mostly prepared and sold by the Chinese families living across the locality. On Sundays the crowd swells up with food enthusiasts thronging the place for pork baos, sui pao, sauces and condiments etc.

Our picks included pork bao, rice pudding, fried rice balls, sweet crispy rajma stuffed bun, pork pastry, meatball soup and prawn papad. Of these the best thing was the sweet rajma stuffed bun and the least pleasant one was the meatball soup as it was too bland.

After the heavy breakfast we moved to Tangra which is known as the new Chinatown. Apart from the numerous factories and units, this place had earned the reputation of being a hub for great traditional Chinese food. Most of the iconic eateries over here are family run. Though their ambience is unpretentious, their food is much coveted. Here we tried wonton noodles or the singhara chow as the Bengali’s call it at two different places. At the first place Ahyusen, we saw how the noodles were being using a tedious, ancient noodle making technique which was so fascinating. At the second place, Ah Yung, the wonton noodles were bit more flavourful and robust.

After that hearty wonton trail we arrived at our final destination Eau Chew which is deemed as the oldest family run eatery in the city. Here we tried two of their hot selling dishes named Chimney Soup and Josephine Noodles. The sensational names got us excited.

Chimney soup was a lightly seasoned broth containing eggs, chicken, prawn and vegetables. The unique thing about this dish is the brass vessel in which it was served. It has burning charcoal inside it. There was a chimney-like outlet through which the heat dissipated. Josephine noodles on the other hand was pan fried noodles that had miscellaneous ingredients. Both the dishes were super yummy. With that hearty meal and warm conversations with the owners at Eau Chew, we came to the end of this delightful tour. 

 

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