Eggs are an integral part of street foods

Over the years, street foods have invaded our lives. Any city in India or abroad boasts of a large variety of eatables and usually eggs play an important if not vital role. Eggs have always been a part of the menu right from the bachelor days. From simple boiled eggs to omelette and poach with the bright yellow undamaged yolk side up, eggs have always been the attraction. Boiled egg is the easiest to prepare – all it needs is a container to hold the egg, water and a heating medium like the gas stove or an electric heater. The omelette is a tasty dish – apart from the egg, there has to be additives that make the final product more tasty and attractive. These are usually onion, green chili, salt, coriander leaves and of course oil to fry. When it comes to the regular kitchen, eggs transform into scrambled eggs or egg curry or egg do-piazza.

Then there are the egg rolls one can find on display on trollies at street corners in Kolkata. Once upon a time, these used to be a craze but with the entry of other options like South Indian fast foods (the idli, dosa, upama, uthappa etcetera) and Chinese fast foods (the noodles, mo-mo chili chicken etcetera) there has emerged variety. Many have become self employed and these have solved the unemployment issue to a large extent. Coming back to eggs, one cannot ignore the delicious but difficult to prepare mughlai paratha – these require expertise. There is also the vanilla flavored egg puddings that are wonderful desserts. Of course, one cannot imagine cakes minus eggs. At times, the egg whites are beaten up and go to make the icing on cakes.

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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…)