The huge variety of food items, high on taste and low on price, makes Kolkata a food lover’s paradise. Well-known mostly for its bhaat-maachh (rice and fish) and non-vegetarian food, Kolkata is a heaven for vegetarian food lovers as well. We list the best street food items in the city.
Jhaal Muri
This all-time favourite snack is essentially puffed rice mixed with peanuts, fresh chopped onions, tomatoes and chiles, drizzled with mustard oil. This is an omnipresent snack available almost anywhere in Kolkata. If taking a train ride to Kolkata, you can find hawkers selling jhaal muri on the trains and stations en route to Kolkata.
Chop, Telebhaja
‘Chops’ are deep-fried treats either stuffed with chopped veggies like carrots and peas, or with egg or minced chicken. The Telebhaja, which literally means ‘fried in oil’, are an amazingly lip-smacking and soulful group of food items. There are made by coating the key ingredient with a besan batter and deep-frying it. The main ingredient can be a brinjal (making a beguni), onions or potatoes.
Phuchka
The phuchka is a larger version of the golgappa, as North
Indians call it. It is lighter, bigger, and crispier than its rest-of-India variant. The filling is mostly potato, unlike those found elsewhere.
Radha Bollobhi, Luchi with Alu Dum
This is a breakfast favourite of the locals, and stalls end up selling all their wares even before the end of breakfast time. It is a dal-stuffed puri served with either chana dal or dum aloo.
Luchi is a variation of puri, made with refined white flour or maida. A lunch plate of four luchis accompanied with dum aloo can be purchased from road-side hawkers at Rs 20!
Shingara
The shingara is a Bengali version of the well-known samosa. They are either baked or fried and mostly come with a potato/peas/cauliflower stuffing. The non-vegetarian version can include a stuffing of minced meat. Shingara and tea is one of the most popular evening snacks in Bengali homes.
Ghugni
Ghugni is an extremely flavourful dish made of boiled white peas, mixed with chopped onion, chiles, tomatoes, coriander, coconut, and tamarind juice. It can be had with luchi, radha ballabhi, or simply on its own.
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Source: Internet
