Magic in a kulfi!

What comes out of an orange? An orange you would say, yea? But how cool is it when you cut the orange and get some malai kulfi (Indan version of frozen ice- cream) inside! I accidentally asked for some orange flavoured kulfi on the streets of Kolkata and he broke a round earthen mould. Out came an orange. Then he cut it into parts and I was pondering as to why he would give me an orange instead of an orange 'flavour'! only when I ate it did I realize that the actual orange inside was scooped out and replaced with malai kulfi which had a taste of orange. This is what we call 'natural'.

Meet Mr. Dosa's cousin

One of the most poplar dishes here is 'chilla'.
It's like a dosa/ wrap with a different base and the fillng varies.
Mine had grated cabbage. tomato, onions and it was accompanied by a red and green chutne paste. Simply outta the world!  I'm hooked on to it. 

Slushed

I was attending my best friend's wedding in Kolkata and I was tempted to eat some of the street food as Kolkata is a food place. Her cousins took me to a place called Vardhaan' near Park Street where there is a wide variety of food ranging from aloo tikki (potato pattie) to 'jhaal' (garnished puffed rice) to kulfi (Indian ice- cream).  I completely freaked out and was amused at the same time, because we don't get the same street food in Bombay. What we also had was 'khus' sherbat. I did not know what 'khus' means in English, so I just asked Google Uncle, "what is khus called in English?" and it said "Poppy Seeds". Now the thing is, 'khus' isn't a very cool thing and the reason why I liked this drink was because I did not know what it was made of. When I was told it was this 'not- so- cool- thing', it was too late to change my mind! lolz...besides, I was pleased with the style of presentation- in an earthen glass! We do care about the earth around here. I actually asked for 10 of these glasses and the owner happily obliged :)

What can you get for five rupees?

Here's a guy selling flattened peanuts. This is the best explanation I can give for those who do not know what 'chana jor garam' means. I saw loads of these guys selling peanuts on the streets with a white bag tied on the shoulder which contains a cane basket full of the nuts, a shaker, some lemon, a tin with brown masala and small paper packets. mmm!

The "Ka- Ku- Ta!" song

Here's one of the songs I really liked and this song kept ringing in my head every time I hopped into the car in Kolkata. Here's the video.

Packakkk!

If you're in Kolkata, this is one of the must- do's! You have to have 'puchka' on the streets- else you need to re-visit! The puri's are huge and its delicious with the tangy and spicy mint water and potato filling with the sweet and sour chutney.