Ask Kolkata what it remembers of a Puja and the answers are often about food: the khichuri at the neighbourhood pandal, the queue at a famous roll shop, a grandmother’s mutton on Nabami. For five days the city eats differently, and there are really two kinds of Pujo food: what is offered to the goddess and shared, and what the city eats on the street between pandals.
Bhog
Bhog is food cooked for the goddess, offered to her, and then shared with everyone as her blessing. In community pujas the classic bhog is khichuri, rice and lentils cooked together with ghee and spices, served with labra, a mixed vegetable dish, a fritter such as beguni, a sweet tomato chutney and payesh, rice cooked slowly in milk. It is usually served on plates of sal leaves or in clay bowls, by volunteers from the neighbourhood, to people sitting in long rows.
Many pujas serve bhog to visitors at lunchtime, especially on Ashtami. If you are offered it, accept: it is a blessing as much as a meal.
Ashtami: a vegetarian day
Many Bengali Hindu families keep Ashtami vegetarian, out of respect for the day’s rites. The morning is for anjali, the offering of flowers to the goddess, and many people fast until they have given it. Lunch afterwards is often luchi, puffed fried bread, with cholar dal, Bengal gram cooked with coconut, and a potato curry.
Nabami: mutton
Nabami is the opposite. In many homes it is the day for mutton: kosha mangsho, cooked slowly until the dark gravy clings to the meat, or a lighter curry with potatoes.
On the street
Between pandals the city lives on street food, and the stalls near the big pujas stay open until the crowds go home.
- Phuchka: hollow, crisp shells filled with spiced mashed potato and dipped in tangy tamarind water. It is Kolkata’s version of pani puri, and the city will argue that it is the best.
- Rolls: a flaky paratha wrapped around egg, chicken or mutton with onion and chilli. Nizam’s, near New Market, is often credited with inventing the kathi roll.
- Mughlai paratha: a large paratha stuffed with egg and spiced minced meat, fried and cut into squares.
- Telebhaja: fritters of vegetables, fish or egg, eaten hot from a paper bag.
- Biryani: Kolkata biryani is milder than most and comes with a potato, and often an egg. The usual story is that the potato arrived with the cooks of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, who was exiled to Calcutta in 1856.
- Chowmein and chilli chicken: Kolkata’s own Indian-Chinese food, with roots in the city’s Chinese community.
Dashami: sweets for Bijoya
After the immersion, the sweets come out. Bijoya is the season for visiting family and friends, and every visit comes with a plate: narkel naru, sweet coconut balls, crisp nimki, ghugni, a curry of dried peas, and sweets from the neighbourhood shop. Do not expect nolen gur, the date-palm jaggery that flavours Kolkata’s best winter sweets, until later in the year: it arrives with the cold.
Eating well on a long night
- Eat early in the evening. Stalls near the biggest pandals get very busy after dark.
- Choose busy stalls where the food is cooked fresh in front of you.
- Carry water, and some cash in small notes.
- If your stomach is sensitive, go easy on phuchka water and anything that has been sitting out.