Kolkata, the city of joy which is referred to as a food hub by many, has secured its place among the best food destinations in the world.
Kolkata is a treasure trove for gastronomes from around the world and has a rich street food culture. The culinary culture has been influenced by the Mughals to British culture and gives the taste of food globally.
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Food plays an important role in all Bengali occasions. Bengalis are mostly involved in infusing food along with other cultural activities. However, with the changing of time, lifestyle and work pressures, spending hours making a chop with cha or the preparations of dhokar dalna or chitol muitha are consigned to special occasions now.
Earlier, when guests used to visit a Bengali household a table of feast including fish, meat and shaak-sobji were prepared but now with the changing of time, people go to restaurants to eat authentic Bengali food rather than cooking food cuisines at home.
As per the prominent food website ‘Eater‘, Kolkata has been included in the best 11 culinary destinations in the world. It is to be noted that this is the sole city in India to feature in the list.
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Other cities which are on the list of the food website, are, Tamaki Makaurau (New Zealand), Asheville (North Carolina), Albuquerque (New Mexico), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Cambridge (England), Dakar (Senegal), Halland (Sweden), Sardinia (Italy), Manila (Philippines) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam).
The announcement was made recently via social media. As per Eater, “In picking 2023’s dining destinations, we thought not just about hit lists and must-try dishes, but also the aspects of meals that make them feel immersive: the people, environment, culture, and history behind foods that force us to pause and tempt us from pre-planned paths.”
Now that Kolkata has been declared a food destination for the world, here are some restaurants which you should try when you visit Kolkata.
Mitra Cafe
One of the most iconic cafes of old Calcutta, the century-old Mitra Cafe now has several outposts in the city. People queue up for the signature diamond-cut fish fry prepared with filets of fish bhetki and kabiraji cutlet. Offal lovers come especially for the brain chop: breaded croquettes made with spiced goat brains.
Girish Chandra Dey & Nakur Chandra Nandy
The 177-year-old shop, located in a quiet north Kolkata neighbourhood, is revered in the city for its sandesh, a genre of Bengali artisanal sweetmeat made with fresh chhana. The shop has innovated and expanded its repertoire of sandesh to include a mind-boggling variety of flavours, including mango, dark chocolate, mulberry, black currant, butterscotch, and so many more.
Badri Ki Kachori
The area is Calcutta’s busiest commercial district and one of the country’s largest wholesale and retail market complexes. It’s also a hub for the city’s Marwari community, which started migrating to Calcutta from Rajasthan in the 18th century. Naturally, the lanes and alleys are strewn with shops selling the community’s favourite snacks and sweets, including one favourite, Badri ki Kachori.
Swadhin Bharat Hindu Hotel
The history of this hotel is closely associated with India’s struggle for freedom. In addition to serving homely, budgeted meals to students and workers, in the pre-independence era the eatery doubled as a hideout for revolutionaries. The menu is studded with fish roe fritters, though the array of vegetarian dishes also challenges the notion that Bengali cuisine depends entirely on fish and meat. The pui chorchori includes Malabar spinach cooked with assorted vegetables and the fried fish head and has been the best-selling item for nine decades now.
Sufia Restaurant
A small, working-class Muslim eatery that stands in the shadow of the majestic Nakhoda Mosque in Chitpur, Sufia offers a meaty spread featuring dishes like beef bhuna and daal gosht along with bread to mop up the gravies. The restaurant is best known for wintertime breakfasts of steaming bowls of nihari, and beef shanks in a spiced broth enriched with bone marrow, simmered on a mellow flame all night.