Best Kolkata street food, places to visit in Kolkata

Kolkata, capital of Indian state West Bengal is the heart of Eastern India. It was also the capital of India during the British colonial era. This city is known for its culture, music, literature, food and people. This hundred of years old city, Kolkata is also famous for its delicious street food. You may be surprised once you walk through a busy city road. You can see various roadside stalls of mouth watering food across the city. Kolkata street foods are very less costly as compare to any other metropolitan city in India.

Best Kolkata Street Food

Singara (samosa)

Singara or samosa is very popular food in Kolkata. You can see almost all the sweet shops are selling singara. But it is generally selling at evening. Singara is flour made food which is deep fried in oil. Spiced potatoes, onion, peanut etc are used as filling items of singara.

Chop | Tele bhaja | Pakoda

Telebhaja (stuff deep fried in oil) is most common evening snack. People love to have tele bhaja at evening with a cup of tea. Vegetables or egg or meat are used and coated in batter and then fried in oil. Chop itself a telebhaja but you need to mix more ingredients (vegetables, ginger, garlic, chilies etc) and then batter coated for deep frying.

Kachuri | Kachori

Kachori is known as kachuri in Kolkata. Hing kachuri, chickpeas filling kachuri or green peas silling kachuri are very popular in this city. Kachuri is served with chickpeas dal or potato curry. This is one of the most popular Kolkata street food.

Egg Roll

Rolls are very famous and Bong people love to eat rolls. Veg roll? Nope! Bongs don’t prefer veg roll, only egg roll or chicken roll. 🙂 Egg rolls are very popular and very cheap too (Rupees 15-20 per egg roll)

Chowmein

You never can have chowmein like in Kolkata. It is totally different in taste. Kids and young people like this food. You can see local street food stalls selling chowmein in different corners of this city.

Mughlai Parota

Mughlai parota (or paratha) is pride for Kolkata food lovers. If you have not visited this city then probably you may not have heard about this super delicious food. It is a special character of this city that most of its residents are non-vegetarians. So here you can see such non-vegetarian paratha with a spicy filling. It is served with dry spiced potato, tomato sauce and a lot of salad.

Phuchka

Phuchka is nothing but pani puri or golgappa. So you may be familiar with this food. But something is different here. Here water is made of tamarind, extra flavored lemon juice (gandhoraj lebu), red chili powder, salt etc. No mint (pudina) is used in water. Dates & jaggery made sweet chutney is not served with phuchka. Spiced mashed potatoes are used as filling.

Ghugni

Ghugni is actually sun dried white peas curry. You may have tasted earlier this food but preparation is a little bit different and spicier than you have ever eaten. You can see food sellers selling this food near a park, market, office area, factory area. Some people also like to have this with bread.

Biriyani

Is it a street food? I mean how biriyani (Not biryani, haha) can be a street food? Ha ha! But in Kolkata, it is possible as almost every people in this city are non-vegetarian (Not really?). You may see many food stalls alongside road who are selling chicken biriyani and mutton biriyani. Never dare to ask them for vegetable biriyani. 🙂

Momos

Momos are tasty and available at very cheap rates. This city has momos with its own flavor. Chicken momos are most selling among other momos. This is served with special chutney (sauce). Some shops are also offering soup along with momos. They call it thukpa but the taste is different.

Lassi

Lassi is widely accepted by people. It is very delicious and healthy. During the summer it becomes a more effective drink to control body temperature. You can see many stalls of lassi across the city.

Chaa | Tea

Chaa means tea. It is most common drink in India and Kolkata is not an exception. But nowadays people like to drink lemon tea or red tea. Even you can see people ask for lemon tea at a tea stall too. Processed tea leaves are boiled in water, then sugar is added. Finally, few drops of lemon juice and black salt are spread over cup and mix before serving to people.

Jilepi | Jilebi

Jilebi is equally popular as it is in northern India. It is a crispy sweet dish which is juicy inside. This sweet dish is very easy to make and available at a very less price. You will definitely see one or two jilepi sellers at each marketplace in this city. People who sell snacks, telebhaja, samosa they often sell jilepi also.

Idli, Dosa &  Sambar

Idli, dosa and sambar are no more just south Indian dishes. These food are equally popular in many other parts of this country and Kolkata is also in that list. Bengali people like this food very much and you can easily realize this while you will visit Kolkata. Plenty of food stalls you can see where Idli, dosa and sambar are being sold. Mendi vada is also in this list.

Jhal Muri

Jhal muri is a special street food which is very own food of east India. From a rural location to an urban area and from villages to cities, everybody like this and it is a very much affordable desi food. Traditional puffed rice, mixture namkeen, chopped onion, ginger pieces, chopped green chilies, coconut slices etc are used to make jhal muri.

Aloo Kabuli

It is nothing but spiced salad. Some vegetables along with boiled potatoes & chick peas are used to make aloo kabuli. Cucumber, onion, tomato are in the list of vegetables. Black salt, red chili, green chili and lemon juice are mixed with all other vegetables.

There are so many other popular food (like ghoti gorom, churmur, veg momos, chicken momos, paneer momos etc) are available in Kolkata. So this list of Kolkata street food can be longer than this. So if you think any particular dish of your favorite is not mentioned here, then let us know.

Places to visit in Kolkata

Kolkata, a metropolitan city which has a history of hundreds of years long. So this city has so many historical & cultural places, religious places, the essence of modern city for you to offer. Kolkata has many parks & gardens which are basically lungs of this city. So you will get an opportunity to come closer to nature also. There are many tourists spots near this city which attract many national and international tourists to Kolkata. Sundarban (Mangrove forest) is on the top of that list. It is in a very short distance from Kolkata.

Historical  & Cultural Places

Victoria memorial, Fort William, Writers Building, Jorasanko Thakur bari, Howrah Bridge, Shaheed minar, Indian Museum, Shobhabazaar Rajbari, Marble Palace Mansion, Town Hall, Mother House, Tipu Sultan Palace, Princep Ghat

Religious Places

Dakshineshwar kali temple, Birla Mandir, St. Paul’s Cathedral, South Park Street Cemetery, Pareshwanath Temple, Nakhoda Mosque,  Kalighat Kali Temple, St. James Church, Japanese Buddhist Temple etc

Esence of a modern city

Science City, Metro Railway, Trams, Shopping Malls, Birla Planetarium, Mother’s Wax Museum, Tangra China Town etc

Nature & Park

Maidan, Bidhan Sishu Udyan,  Eliot Park, Nicco Park, Eden Gardens, Eco Tourism Park, Aquatica Water Park, Millennium Park etc

Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal state. So tourists also visit heritage administrative buildings (Rajbhavan, Calcutta High Court, General Post Office, Bidhan Sabha etc)  in this city also.

Places Near Kolkata to Visit

Sundarban (Mangrove Forest), Henry Island, Bandel Church (Bandel), , Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Botanical Garden (Shibpur), Belur Math (Howrah district), Digha (Midnapore district) etc

Are you local residents in Kolkata? Do you have any plan to visit Kolkata in near future? Did you ever visit this city ever? If yes then you must have realized all these. You must have filled your stomach with so many yummy Kolkata street food. How many have you tasted in above list of Kolkata street food? Which Kolkata street food did you find most delicious?