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Street Food

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Kolkata is a gastronomic delight for food buffs. Just last weekend I decided to take a stroll around the city’s must-see places. I had had a nice lunch of boiled white rice, curried “Katla” fish , “masoor dal” brinjal “bhaja”[fry] ,tomato “chutney” and a good helping of Amul curd. But as you know by now I love my post lunch siesta for at least one or two hours listening to my Philips Bahadur transistor radio tuned to 98.3 Radio Mirchi.

Siesta over, seeing my wife asleep I put on my lightest clothes, donned a pair of leather “chappals” and went out with a hundred rupee note in my pocket. There is a big water tank close to my home where a man and his wife sells tea @ Rs.3/- a cup[plastic] The quantity is very small [scarcely 100 ml.]  But the tea was scalding hot on that last day of February. A puffy crunchy biscuit came for Rs.1/- apiece which I nibbled with the tea which skimmed away my siesta hangover.

I boarded an autorickshaw (my share Rs.6/-) and reached the nearest bus stand whence I sat beside a unwashed glass window in a 3B bus. After paying Rs.8/- bus fare to Park Street I still had a tidy sum in my pocket. The bus sluggishly drove through the sultry evening streets and by the time I alighted the streetlights were on.

I had a half-liter PET bottle of drinking water from which I took a small swig and strolled lazily along the jostling footpath enjoying looking at the street-food on display. The aroma which they gave off made me salivate despite the fact that street-food can be very very injurious to health. But I didn’t care. The “phuchka” vendor pulled me like a magnet. Soon my tongue and palate was on fire but my taste buds were in a ravishing orgasm. Squashed boiled potatoes mixed with “kabuli chana” and chopped green chilly stuffed into crunchy phuchkas dipped in salted tamarind water served on tiny “sal” leaf platters were delightful. I ate Rs.20/- worth followed by another swig of water after washing my palms with water offered by the nice friendly vendor.

My next stop was the “dahibara” stall. OMG !! Delicacy indeed !! Soft fluffy queen sized vadas soaked in sour curd and garnished with mint leaves, red chilly powder and crunchy“saew” and sweet mango sauce. This was followed by a generously sized “coolfie” which tasted like heavenly ambrosia sweeping away the hotness of chilly. After this I lazed about Chowringhee Road thumbing through old second-hand paperbacks and boarded the metro train on my return journey. Metro is quicker than a bus ride in Kolkata.I was back home satiated and happy in my mid-section and soon was transformed into a couch-potato before the television.

Kolkata is delightful for its cheap street-food. But always keep a bottle of clean drinking water with you or else….