Gautam was often making great suggestions of neat stuff for me to buy, taste and play around with. Here’s some more odds and ends I found, most of it with his guidance.
In Bangalore, I posted a snapshot of the sour-salty-sweet-hot treats called churan. On the left is another, looks like a bottle of pills but they’re actually snacks. This was tamarind flavor, available even in farflung Portland. Also, lemon drops. I wonder what the fore-runners of these treats might have been, if any…
And this is a variety of parsley unique to the area, called Kolkata Parsley I believe.
I couldn’t resist these plump stuffed-chili pickles.
I got this snack mix, a chivda, at a namkeen shop, cool place offering all sort of fried treats.
I bought these flowers from a produce stall not knowing what they were. Gautam eventually translated for me: white egret flowers. We fried them up into light pakoras, just a touch bitter. You just have to remove the stamens first.
I bought these, too, not knowing what they were:
A friend of Sam’s eventually told us: kokum. This fruit is pretty common down South of Mumbai, used for its sourness to compliment fish. I followed Sam’s friend’s simple recipe: peel and use the outer layer only, pop mustard seeds in oil, toss in some jaggery, melt, then lightly simmer the peels. Made a very tasty chutney:
Eaten with Bengali-style mashed potatoes, this was hybrid Thanksgiving food!
Jefferson took this photo of banana stems at Jagu Babu bazaar. I guess I’m including it just because it’s a great photo.
Here’s a local lime, the gandharaj, fragrant as Thai limes, not very juicy. I loved these. I squeezed their juice on all sorts of food a Bengali probably wouldn’t:
I went to Koley market in front of the busy Sealdah train station to buy fish. I bought a bag of mourala, like whitebait:
Fried ’em up crisp:
At New Market I bought some mutton patties and a warm loaf of plain cake.
Insided the puff pastry turnovers was simple, delicious minced mutton. The plain cake came from a famous shop, Nahoum’s.
In the middle of town is a great sweet shop, Bhim Nag. Next door, I bought these cauliflower-stuffed samosas. I can’t help but wonder if these snacks didn’t know better days.
Another fruit I’d never eaten previously, the sada jamun. Mildly sweet, somewhat plain.
And lastly, a couple kachoris, stuffed savory pastry snacks:
March 29, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Hi. if you liked the Kolkata food, you will find Dhaka even better! try it. Cheers.
March 31, 2008 at 5:47 pm
The red sour fruit is Hibiscus sabdariffa, known by various names, including koondroo in parts of Bengal. It is the same stuff that Jamaicans make their sour “sorrel” tea out of. This is related to the okra and even has mucilage. A fiber is extracted from the stems, and it is an important fiber crop.This Hibiscus is an annual or short-lived perennial.
Kokum it is NOT, for that comes from a tree related to the mangosteen. Kokum thrives only in very tropical [Konkan coast] or near-equatorial climate like Kerala and belongs to the genus Garcinia.
April 29, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Dhaka, someday, Shruti!
Thanks for the correction, Gautam. During a confusing search for wood apples across Calcutta’s markets I was once triumphantly presented with…turnips.