7 Traditional Dishes From Kolkata You Must Try
Kolkata, the capital city of West Bengal is also called the cultural capital of India because of the diversity in the city’s culture. No surprise that even the traditional dishes are very varied and diverse with extremely delightful and heartwarming flavours. When it comes to traditional dishes from Kolkata, there are endless surprises for everyone. With a whole lot of vegetables, seafood, meat dishes and plenty of mouth-watering desserts, Kolkata food is uniquely rich. Kolkata is known for its wide variety of gastronomical delights and the following is a list of what to eat in Kolkata.
Macher Jhol or Fish Curry
Also called Macher Kalia in Bengali, this traditional dish is a spicy fish curry made with potatoes and tomatoes. It is usually seasoned with turmeric, garlic, onions & grated ginger. Fish is an important part of Kolkata cuisine and among all the traditional dishes fish curry is a must try for all seafood lovers. To prepare the dish a type of freshwater carp called rui is most commonly used. Salmon, pomfret, sea bass, r or catfish can also be used depending on availability. In this Kolkata food unlike most of the fish preparations the fish is first deep fried or pan fried to enhance flavours and cause the fish to absorb the spices in the gravy better. Fish curry tastes best when served with staple rice.
Special Mutton Curry or Kosha Mangsho
One of the famous traditional dishes from kolkata Kosha Mangsho is a curry cooked with mutton (goat) and a wide range of vegetables topped with spices and mustard oil. The curry along with mutton pieces is cooked slowly on low flame which gives the curry a rich thick brown colour and soft mutton that melts in mouth. Kosha mangsho is made in “kadhai” rather than a pressure cooker to give a thicker, more gelatinous curry. Hours of slow cooking and patience makes this food of Kolkata made for almost every special occasion and savoured with luchi or rice is loved by all.
Bowl Of Veggies or Shukto
This is one of the best traditional dishes for vegetarians. This food of Kolkata consists of a variety of vegetables like potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, drumsticks, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, White radish, and hyacinth Beans and more. A variety of vegetables, cooked with unique spices in a creamy gravy with the a slight hint of sweet taste and a core flavour of bitterness this dish can be paired with rice or a traditional flatbread. There are many different preparation styles of shukto as well. In one of these preparation styles milk is used to remove the bitter flavour of the dish. Some cooking methods are made with various types of fishes. Such recipes of Shukto commonly use turmeric powder which is usually absent in the vegetarian recipes. In some preparation styles the bitter vegetables like bitter gourd are not used. Instead, fenugreek seeds are used to preserve the bitterness.
Mochar Ghonto
The ‘Mochar Ghonto’ is one of the best traditional dishes. In it’s preparation, banana flowers are cooked along with aromatic spices. First the flowers are cleaned properly. This demands a lot of time and patience. Then, the petals are removed. After that, the flower is cooked in a pressure cooker. Then the spices are added to give it an extraordinary flavor. This dry curry tastes best when eaten along with steaming hot rice and ghee. There are a few non-vegetarian preparation styles of the Mochar Ghonto, the best of which are Mocha Chingri and Macher Matha diye Mocha. Mocha Chingri is made with great amounts of prawns or shrimps added to banana flower, the Macher Matha diye Mocha is cooked with fish heads of big freshwater carps like Rohu (Rui Maach in Bengali) and Katla.. Mochar Ghonto is the most unique yet flavourful among all the traditional dishes from Kolkata.
Mishti Doi
Mishti Doi is one of the most well-known and popular desserts of Kolkata. The creamy and super tasty dessert is the best among all Kolkata famous food items. The preparation requires a blend of thick milk and “Nolen Gur” which is Bengali for jaggery from dates. First the milk is boiled till it is reduced to half its original volume and thickened. Then caramelised jaggery is added. This also helps in evaporating the milk. With curt or yogurt as a starter it is then left for fermentation in a dry warm place. This gives us thick creamy Mishti Doi. There are different variants to Mishti Doi. One of the styles in which this dessert is garnished with nuts is called Bhapa Doi.These Kolkata famous dishes taste the best chilled and straight from a refrigerator.
Luchi and Aloo Dum
Luchi is a deep-fried traditional dish. It is made from maida or refined white flour. It’s round about the size of one’s palms and has a golden glow. These crispy and fluffy Luchis are served along with Aloo Dum. Aloo Dum is an extremely tasty dish made from potatoes usually in a thick red tomato gravy. There are various different methods of preparing aloo dum.
Shondesh
A relatively dry Bengali Mithai, Shondesh can come in many forms and are the most widespread traditional dishes of Kolkata. This Kolkata famous dish is made with Condensed Milk, Sugar and/or Jaggery. This dessert can be molded into different shapes, designs, and sizes like shells, discs, balls or diamonds. There are many different types of shondesh like the Nolen Gurer Shondesh, which is made with a special kind of jaggery. Another variant is the Jol Bhara Sandesh, which is filled with sweet liquid inside. The variant Kacha Golla is famous for being lightweight with a tender and moist texture. This is obtained by adding condensed milk to the properly kneaded milk chenna.These sondesh are the most abundant snacks in Kolkata and following modern trends variants like, Chocolate sandesh, Strawberry sandesh etc are also very popular.
Traditional dishes of Kolkata are so full of surprises that it’ll leave everyone spellbound after every bite. From vegetarian food to seafood meat and desserts, Kolkata has a variety of lip smacking, irresistible dishes to offer in a platter that leaving them would be impossible.