Foodies look for food everywhere. My friends tell me that I live to eat!!! With winter setting in, it is that time of the year when your family gets to drill a hole in your pocket by taking you to fairs (in desi terms you say “mela”). Of course, it is also an occasion for “always hungry, food loving fanatic” like me to get hold of some different kind of food. Karigar Haat fair is takes place at Central Park grounds (near Karunamoyee), Salt Lake City. It is primarily a fair for handicrafts and decorative items which are created by small scale artisans. While the rest of the family went exploring for clothes, bags, jewellery, show pieces etc. (I don’t even know what all were there…), it was time for me to explore the world of food.
The food court was located at a side of the fair ground (right next to the cultural programme stage). What a sight it was!!! Lots of yummy, tasty food of different variety was present. There were different stalls for different items.1. Fish, chicken & momo counter
This counter had everything starting from fish items to chicken dishes and also momo. Most of the food items were fried. In fish, you had the following choices to choose from:
a. Fish Fry( lotte fish, pomphret fish, topshe fish)
b. Fish finger
c. Fish kababd. Fish butter fry
e. Fish pakora
f. Fish diamond
g. Fish paturi
h. Prawn cutlet and prawn pakoda
In chicken items, you had:
a. Chicken pakoda
b. Chicken kabab
c. Chicken fry
d. Chicken lollypop
e. Chicken butter fry
In momo, of course you had a choice of fried or steamed momo. You may not find all the items everytime but most of the items were available. Fried food is always tasty but you have to ensure you get it hot from the wack.2. Only veg counter
This was an all vegetarian counter. I am not a big fan of veggie food but definitely they had a lot of choices and variety.
a. Dhosa
b. Pao-bhaji
c. Chanabatorad. Dahi vada
e. Dakai parota
Very few of my friends have tasted Dhakai Parota. I remember my father had taken me for a Dhakai Parota treat some place at north Kolkata (I was too young to remember the details) and I still remembered the taste. Dhakai Parota is not readily available at all areas. The taste is not similar to what I had originally, but at least you get to taste it. The price is Rs. 50/- for one piece and is served with dahi and chatni.
3. Ghugni and phuchka counter
Ghugni (an item prepared by daal) is one of my personal favourite. There are two varieties of ghugni on sale – Mansher ghugni (chicken variety) at Rs 20 per plate and Normal ghugni (Vegetarian variety) at Rs 15 per plate. The taste was awesome. I had three plates of ghugni (would have prepared a bit more quantity in what they said were plate).Fuchka (or ******) were of two varieties – Dahi fuchka and normal fuchka (plain version). Dahi fuchka is another personal favourite and it always lives upto the expectation.
4. Very very sweet counter
This was a counter which was selling primarily sweets but at one side they also had offerings of Gobindo Bhog Rice Khichudi (with Begun bhaja, papad and chatni), polao (with Kashmiri aloo r dum), Radhaballabhi (with Kashmiri aloo r dum) and Koraishuti kochuri (with Kashmiri aloo r dum).In sweets, they had lots of variety.Some of these are typical Bengali sweets which were prepared by grandmothers at home during winter season:
a. Patishapta
b. Doodh poolic. Gokul pithe
e. Langcha from Shaktigarh
f. Sitabhog and mihidana from Bardhaman
g. Hot gulabjamun
h. Hot malpua
i. Hot amrita
j. Chana bhaja
There was also a live pithe making counter where they prepared pithe on-the-go right in from of you and gave it to you. They even had the Dheki (rice grounding machine made of wood used in villages). Too cool!!!!
5. Apno Rajasthan counterFinally, you had the Rajasthani counter where you could get the rajasthani food. Options were large:
a. Rajasthani Thali (I missed finding out what was in the thali L)
b. Daal Baati
c. Choorma
d. Pyaj Kachori
e. Moong Daal ke Pakode
f. Moong Daal ka halwa
g. Rajasthani Dahi Bade
h. Pavbhazii. Mirchi Bada
j. Jodhpur Mawa Kachori
k. Aloo Paneer Tikki
l. Daal ka Chilla
m. Rajasthani Mawadi Kulfi
I just tried the kulfi (how much can one man eat in a day) and it was really nice.
When we were ready to return, it was around 8:45pm. While the rest of the family boarded the car with multiple packets of shopped booty (I don’t even know what all they bought), myself and my son were exceptions. My son was loaded with balloons and toys and I had a loaded stomach J.
You cannot expect quality food in a place like this. Some of the things are very good to taste but others are pretty bland. And of course, the price of food in a mela (irrespective of quality and taste) is always high. Still it is a place where you would get to taste lots of varieties of food which you normally would not get in the market. In the end, coming out of a mela, everybody is happy (except my pocket)….
Cogitations of a Bengali 