Kolkata Cuisine

  Kolkata cuisine emerged from the already rich and complex Bengali cuisine but added many distinct new notes, some invented but many derived from the communities that chose to settle down in the city and adapted their foods to local tastes. The eating habits of people in Kolkata and of course West Bengal, has changed to great extent. The cheap eating places or houses that could be seen in large numbers in Old Calcutta, thirty years ago, can hardly be seen today. The street sellers, who were into selling raw commodities earlier, are presently selling prepared food items. Transportable stands have now replaced the small shops. Street food in Kolkata have now come into picture and are being adopted hugely and gladly by people because they are cheap .

A variety of gastronomic delights are available on the streets of the capital city, and that too, for cheap. Even at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, a lunch of rice, dal and sabji, can come for as little as Rs.7 in Kolkata. The city displays a special attitude towards food, cooked and served hot on the streets. Every nook and corner of the city has stalls serving lipsmacking dishes .Despite the mushrooming of lavish restaurants and food courts, Kolkatans, ranging from poor daily-wage labourers to MNC executives, take pleasure in trying out the road-side delicacies. No one is embarrassed of picking up a quick bite on the streets. 

  Rather, it's a tradition to gulp down foochkas (golgappas ) or munch jhaal-muri by the side of the busy crowded roads of Kolkata. Sometimes even Bengali cine-stars and celebrities are seen enjoying the roadside food. It's part of Kolkata's traditional culture to eat out on the streets. 

It is because of this strong culinary culture that a lot of people have named the city as the Gastronomic Capital of India. Street vendors with tasty delicacies to serve can be easily encountered in and around the schools, colleges, office areas, and at other places where people congregate. But, how they manage to sell food so cheap is still very much a mystery. The street food is of a wide range. Students and office goers get bread-butter toast, omelette, puri sabji as breakfast. And for lunch, one can start with vegetable soup, and end a four to five course meal, with sweets.

The latest entrants on the street stalls are the Tibetan delicacies- Momo and Thukpa. Momo is a type of dumpling from Tibet. It is similar to Mongolian Buuz and Chinese Jiaozi. Though the filling in Momo is traditionally done with yak meat, Kolkatans have learnt to replace yak meat with chicken and vegetables. Similarly, Thukpa is a Tibetan noodle soup, usually served with meat. It is popular in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, and in the Himalayan ranges in India. Both vegetarian and chicken Thukpas are in high demand in Kolkata. In fact some of the Tibetan refugee families sustain themselves on these stalls. With Kolkata being a melting pot of cultures, city dwellers have shown a remarkable trait of lapping up alien culinary habits. Be it Chinese food or Tibetan cuisine, there is no prejudice in the City of Joy.

Natasha Dutta

PGPMC

2nd sem