It is festival time in Kolkata with Navratri and Durga Puja

West Bengal and its capital Kolkata are famous for the large-scale, opulent pujas. The organizers work night and day to present artistic creations that attract people from not just different parts of Bengal and from all over the country, but even globally. This has been made possible because of the recognition accorded by UNESCO in 2021. It has granted recognition in the form of Heritage Status to 'Durga Puja in Kolkata.' This is inscribed in its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Those who plan a trip to Kolkata during the festival can expect memorable experiences of gorging on yummy food, praying to Goddess Durga, pandal hopping, and loving every bit of the festivities. These are what Durga puja is all about. Eat, pray, love! 5 things to do while visiting Kolkata during Durga Puja 2022; visit THESE top 20 pandals. It has to be remembered that pandal hopping translates into crowds and hot and humid surroundings. It is better to wear comfortable footwear because you might have to walk long distances and remain in queue for a long time to get a darshan of the idols and the magnificent pandals.

There is a craze among some people to visit 'Bonedi bari' puja. These are family pujas dating back to centuries and involve aristocratic households. There is no commercialization and they do not go in for glamor and glitz of the baroyari pujas. The number of such families is few and the uniqueness is that on this annual festival, members of the family come together from far corners of the world. These turn out to be unforgettable homecomings. Of course, food lovers enjoy street foods, sweets and eating out at the city's famous restaurants. From fuchka (or the gol gappa or pani puri) to jhal muri (puffed rice with special spices) and the famous Kolkata roll – the list is a long one. In many restaurants, food lovers may have to wait in queues for their turn.

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TV reality shows, social media and food festivals like Khaibaar Pass have helped give an impetus to the culinary scene in Kolkata. Hotels and restaurants go all out to woo the food lovers with exotic dishes and food festivals keep creating new varieties of well-known products. Fuchka is a household name in Bengal and is known as golguppa in other places. These fall in the category of cheap fast foods. However, in Khaibaar Pass this has multiple varieties like chicken fuchka, ice cream fuchka, chocolate fuchka – the price range is several times more than that in the roadside stalls. ABP Ananda is a major media house in Bengal. It arranges an annual three-day food festival ‘Khaibaar Paas.’ This is where foodies arrive to taste unique culinary dishes from restaurants and food outlets in Bengal. The 8th edition of this food festival took in the city in March, 2022. ABP Ananda launches Khaibaar Paas food festival.

At this festival, those who love food can sample delicacies from innumerable food stalls and sees thousands of footfalls every day. The festival offers business opportunity to all those involved in the world of food and includes restaurants and food joints. There are major well-known brands who sponsor the event. Products include Biryanis, Kebabs, traditional Bengali dishes, sea food, sweets and snackable items to Mughlai, to Chinese and Lebanese dishes. In addition, there are fun games to maintain the festive mood. As an official of the network said - “Khaibaar Paas has been able to carve out a niche for itself in the Bengali food space.”

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Preparations for Durga Puja 2022

Durga Puja is the greatest festival of Bengal and Bengalis all over the world. It has become a mega event for Kolkata and there are hundreds of Pujas held at various locations in the city and its suburbs. Normally, the organizers begin the preparations much in advance – some of them have a lead-time of several months. In order to attract the people, they identify themes for the design of pandals, arrangement of lights and decorations. Huge sums of money are involved and the source is usually through sponsors. Few of them are prominent names and they make their presence felt through banners. These display their products. Already it is August and this year, the dates for the festival are in the first week of October. Obviously, work is on in full swing in Kumartuli where artisans create the idols. They make use of moulds for the faces and most of the material used are environment friendly like bamboo, straw, clay. Many of the idols go overseas where Bengalis want to retain the tradition even though they might be thousands of miles away. Durga Puja 2022: Goddess Durga idols ready for export; artists from Kolkata’s Kumartuli hopeful for more orders this year

Durga Puja is a festival when people buy new clothes, ornaments, jewelry and footwear. With very little time left, shops have begun to work overtime and stock up their inventory. Many of them dispose their old unsold stocks at reduced prices and there are buyers. This is a craze among a section of Bengalis. They usually cannot afford to spend too much money. Most shops of this category occupy space on footpaths. As a result, traveling on foot becomes a nightmare. These shops are at Gariahat in South Kolkata and Hatibagan in North Kolkata. Alongside them, there are the fast food vendors who are assured of a steady stream of customers during the festive season. After all, in order to strike a bargain, the customer has to check out different shops and move from one to another. Therefore, once they have purchased what they need, they search for a food outlet and relax with egg roll or mughlai paratha or samosa or kachuri or chicken chow or momo. Alongside eatables, there are tea, lassi, ice cream and a huge variety of sweets from rosogollas to sandesh. The choice is huge provided one has the means

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The fast food culture in India

People eat food for various reasons. They do so when they are hungry, when they are in a celebration mood, or when they want to let down their hair and experiment with new cuisine and food outlets. The street food culture has spread because at times, people get fed up of dining at home or in hotels or restaurants. They want to enjoy their foods in the open and in the company of strangers. Thanks to the social media, this variety of food has flourished. You name it and they have it. They have very little overheads, hence can offer foods at unbelievable prices. Their patrons love to go to the street-side food outlets with others in queue. The menus offer South Indian items like dosa and idli to North Indian items like chana bhature, and biryani to egg based snacks. There are also the universal favorites like golguppa or fuchka and bhel puri or jhal muri.

The popularity of fast foods has encouraged them to set up their own and unique business models. Any person who operates one of these outlets tries to offer something unique. He wants his customers to keep coming back. He does not need to rope in PR teams – his foods do that. He has the uncanny ability of maintaining an inventory that will never run short of the ingredients. Each of them is a successful businessman or a business woman. Yes, many women are also into these ventures.

Bengalis rolled out the egg-roll culture

If I remember correctly, the egg-roll culture rolled out sometime in the mid-1960s and it caught the fancy of Kolkattans like wild fire. It must have been some bright eyed Bengali who discovered this method of keeping himself gainfully employed and earn a decent living. All it needed was the willingness to toil for six to seven hours in front the oven – and dish out egg rolls by the dozens to everyone from a school child to the grandmother.
It was a time when these trollies could be seen at eve street corner and the trollies would be stocked with trays of eggs, cans of cooking oil and ready-made paratha-like stuff made of a dough of maida. Plus, of course, the chopped onions, and chilies for the omelet.

There would be a huge frying pan placed on top of the stove and, once a customer arrives, one paratha would be placed on the frying pan and a little bit of oil would be applied at the edges. Then the beaten egg mixed with chopped onions would be poured over it. The combination would be rolled, wrapped in a paper and served- ready to munch.
It was a good and honest business and once the fad caught on, the demands branched out to mutton roll, and, occasionally, chicken roll – these depended on clientele.
Anyway, as long as these were individual initiatives, they went along fine until local goons descended on the scene. They began to demand a cut of the profits and followed up with threats to create problem if they were not kept happy. Needless to say – they had the backing of local political leaders.
Still – the enterprising individuals carried on and, over a period of time, they formed small groups and added other fast foods to their menu – fast foods of Chinese origin like chow mein, noodles, chili chicken, momo etcetera. And, began to operate all through the day – in shifts. They had a huge task to keep feeding the Kolkattans. (to be continued …)
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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The days of mughlai parathas

When I see the way fast foods have invaded our lives with outlets of international brands of pizza and chicken products proclaiming their wares via hoardings and ads in every conceivable media, I long for the days of mughlai parathas and kabiraji cutlets.
Both these used to rule the roost before the egg rolls, chili chicken and noodles snatched the customers and the restaurants that used to offer stuff like the mughlai parathas and kabiraji cutlets had to look for alternate items to retain the customer base. Therefore, most of them embraced the new age foods while many others had to shut shop.

I remember a couple of restaurants that held pride of place as far as Mughlai parathas were concerned. This eatable is a simple preparation of a paratha made of maida and stuffed with minced meat. It was not the ingredients but the method of preparation that held center stage. The lump of dough of maida was flattened to near paper thickness on a large marble slab. Once the cook, an artist by any means, was satisfied with the shape, he would put the requisite amount of stuffing of minced meat in the center, apply a light coat of beaten egg and then fold the ends to create the shape of a rectangle.
And – all these would be done in full public view because he would occupy a glass cabin located at the entrance of the restaurant. Once the paratha was ready, he would place it on a plate and the waiter assigned to the table would snatch it up and rush to serve it to the customer.
They would work with clockwork precision and come rain or shine, the cook would never leave his station – he was proud of his work and his owner was proud of him.
Unfortunately, those artists have vanished as have their creations. This is the age of buy-1-get-1 free where individuals do not count. (to be continued …)

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School days – the fast food culture

In my school days, fast food range was limited and would end with singara (or samosa), a triangular shapes shell made of kneaded flour and stuffed with mashed potato. Then there was the jilebi – a sweet item that required expertise to create. The mixture would be released directly into boiling oil and the creator would keep on twisting his wrists to ensure that the link never got broken.

Another fast food was the kachuri – these came in the form of flat casing of kneaded flour stuffed with a paste of dal. In winter, the stuffing would be of kadaishuti or green peas. Here again there were two varieties – one was with the peas made into paste and the second was with the peas boiled and left whole but seasoned with spices.
The second variety was a specialty of Dwarik Ghosh – these would be fried in pure ghee and the taste would be heavenly. The number of items was always limited every day and would be available only in the evening - unless one arrived on time, one would have to leave empty handed.

Then there were the high end fast foods like Mughlai Paratha or the vegetable chop or mutton cutlets or Kabiraji culets – these were not meant for children hence, I had to wait till college to taste these forbidden fast foods. (to be continued…)