After falling in love with India during my first trip to the country in February of 2018, I knew I had to go back as soon as possible, so I planned an epic, 18-day trip for November of that year that would take me through the cities of Pune, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad. It was an unforgettable trip that was packed with incredibly diverse food, unforgettable cultural experiences, and trips to fascinating historical sites. Best of all, I got to explore the country with my good friend Sam from Samuel & Audrey!
To kick off our fourth and final day in Kolkata, I linked back up with my friend Navpreet from Fun On Streets, a company that offers tours that highlight Kolkata’s food, history, architecture, arts, and culture. She took us on a spectacular, yet intimate, breakfast food tour of the city’s Little Rajasthan locality that I won’t soon forget. Come along with me, Sam, and Navpreet as we begin our day with some of Kolkata’s most mind-blowing Rajasthani food!
I started with a dish called Hing Kachori (5 rupees per piece), an aromatic dish made with round, flattened wheat flour balls stuffed with Urad Dal, potatoes, and lots of spices. The kachoris were crispy, hollow, and a little doughy, and the gravy was minty and packed with soft, spice-filled potatoes. It was a delicious snack to start my day with!
We walked through the oldest part of as we headed to our next destination, Krishna Bhandar, where I tried a Singara, a fried and stuffed dish that is considered the East-Indian version of the Samosa. It was crunchy and filled with vegetables including potatoes and carrots, and even though it wasn’t very spicy, it had a nice kick to it.
I followed that with a sweet made with cottage cheese called Chumchum, which is dunked in a sugar syrup and rolled in a dry milk powder called mawa. It was super dense and a little hard on the outside, but was still very sweet and tasted exactly like the Rasgulla I’d tried two days earlier.
Our next stop was Brijwasi Sweets, where we had a medium-sized chai (8 rupees), which was so delicious we went for a second round! From there, we stopped at another stall and tried the Kadhi Kachori (20 rupees), a Kachori dish with a yogurt-based curry with lentils along with turmeric, red chili powder, garam masala, coriander, and other spices. It was sweet, savory, and spicy and had a nice crunch due to the crunchy, fried noodles in it. It kind of reminded me of a samosa chaat and was so delicious and filling! I couldn’t get enough of it!
As late morning approached and the temperature rose, we visited Kaligodam for some Jalebi (12 rupees), a crunchy and extremely sweet fried dough dish that is covered in a gooey sugar syrup. It’s similar to an elephant ear in America.
Our next dish was Chena Toast (60 rupees), a buttery toasted sandwich that contained cottage cheese (chena), onions, tomatoes, and chilies. It was almost like a grilled cheese sandwich if it were made with cottage cheese. The onions were really crispy and the bread was nice and fluffy. My favorite toast dish in Kolkata!
We ended our breakfast food tour with a banana milkshake (40 rupees) that contained khus syrup, which is a thick, greenish syrup that is made from the roots of khus grass. It added a nice sweetness to the bananas. The shake itself was full of pure banana flavor and was incredibly refreshing!
This was my favorite breakfast food tour of all-time! Everything I had blew my mind and I loved it all. If you’re ever in Kolkata, contact my friend Navpreet to go on a fun, authentic, and informative street food tour where you also learn about the history and culture of this amazing city!
I hope you enjoyed our incredible breakfast street food tour of Little Rajasthan in Kolkata! If you did, please give it a thumbs up and leave me a comment below. Also, please subscribe to my channel and click the notification bell so you don’t miss any of my upcoming food and travel content!
Kachori right there, look at that.
Big bite, big bite.
I look Indian or what?
Very.
Good morning everyone, this is David Hoffman from David Finhule, my good friend Nafri from
Fernand Streets.
And today we're in Little Rajasthan in Kolkata, India.
And we're going on a breakfast food tour to try some delicious taste that the Rajasthanis
brought to Kolkata like 100-200 years ago, right?
Absolutely.
Around 18th century.
Okay.
Yeah.
So they came here, set up shops because they wanted their own food here when they came
here.
So they set up their shops, they set up the places where they could get their own kind
of food.
So this entire place is full of such joints.
And it's like more veg, right?
Because Rajasthanis are more veg.
Absolutely, absolutely.
More veg.
Awesome.
So we're starting right here.
Let's go eat some food.
First dish is Hing Kachori.
And as you can see right here behind us, they're making the kachoris in this humongous furnace.
I mean it's like sizzling, got really up close.
My arm actually lost some hair.
It got burned.
But it's amazing.
And this really feels like I'm eating a dish in Delhi.
But what is the part on the bottom?
Yeah, so these are the kachoris.
These are basically cooked in flour and there's a hint of a spice called hing.
So it's called Hing Kachori.
Hing Kachori.
And it is served with this gravy which is made of potatoes and a lot of spices in it.
Wow.
So this is potato sabji with Hing Kachori.
So it's potato sabji with Hing Kachori.
Yes.
Oh, it's still super hot.
It's going to be a hard one to bite.
It's just right out of the furnace.
I know, I know.
It's actually hollow inside.
So basically it's super crispy on the outside.
On the inside it's hollow, it's a little bit of dough.
And the reason they do that is so you can get the gravy and pack it all in there.
Oh, it's hot.
Minty.
A lot of different spices in here.
I love it.
Bani puri or something.
I'm going to have to go for one more.
Yeah.
Dip it.
It actually feels like a...
It almost feels like a bani puri but obviously not with the tamarind and the chutney.
Yes, yes.
But it's a sabji.
It's a gravy, yeah.
Oh.
Mmm.
It's like a perfect little snack to start the day.
So that kachori was delicious.
I really, really loved it.
And it only cost 5 rupees per...
Per piece.
Yes.
Wow.
So we had 6, so that's just 30 rupees.
So 30 rupees, so 50 cents for 6 pieces.
And a really, really cool thing about this place is you can see the architecture is really old.
How old is that building right there?
Probably like 200...
More than 100 years old.
More than 100 years old?
Absolutely.
Oh my god, what's happening here?
Sorry, but it's...
This is the hustle and bustle of Calcutta right now.
Yeah, so now it's going to get intense.
It's going to get intense?
Yeah, I'll just try to take you through the lanes and bylanes of one of the most important
trading centres of Calcutta.
Where close up, you know, business is done but then you can see the streets are narrow
and they are very congested because this is the oldest part of Calcutta.
So we are standing in front of a cart which you can see is full of clay cups and these
are called bhaar in the local language.
We serve tea in this, we serve gravy in this and they are made by taking out the clay from
the river and they are cooked in the sun.
So no furnace, nothing.
Natural.
To get the proper...
It's a proper price.
Proper price.
For the kind of, you know, snacks to go with the thali.
So now we sat in front of this shop called Krishna Bhandar.
This is again in Bazaar, very famous for its singharas.
Now what are singharas?
Let's see.
This is the samosa's cousin.
Samosa's cousin.
Singhara.
So it's called singhara.
Okay, so the shape is the same as the samosa but the taste of the North Indian samosa
and the Calcutta singhara is very very different.
This is sweeter I'm sure.
Just dig in, it's spicy.
Not so spicy.
Not so spicy, okay.
Not yet.
Add a little kick to it.
What else is in here?
It's mashed potatoes with a lot of spice.
With a lot of spice, that's it?
It looks like pieces of meat but obviously it's a vegetarian dish.
It's vegetarian.
No, you won't even find eggs in this place.
It's pure vegetarian.
So many good spices here.
Lots of it.
I mean the whole thing is covered.
There's also a little carrot in there.
Oh, it's crunchy, hot still.
Oh, I'm in love with it.
Samosa, goodbye.
Okay, so the funny thing is they eat sweets all day here in India.
And here we're going to try, what is this?
This is a sweet called cham cham.
Basically, it is cottage cheese.
Again, it is somewhat like the rasgulla.
So made of cottage cheese, dunked in sugar syrup and then rolled in dry milk.
Which is called mawa.
So what I'm seeing is that it looks like the rasgulla but in a croquette shape.
Yes, it's harder than the rasgulla.
Yeah, it is harder, I can feel it.
And it is rolled in dry milk.
Wow.
Yes.
It's a little hard on the outside, super dense.
But it tastes exactly like the rasgulla.
That's good, I guess.
Wow.
It doesn't have the syrup though.
Yeah, it doesn't have that syrup.
That funny syrup, it doesn't have.
Yeah, that's good, that's good.
It's a little less, but still a lot of sugar.
Yeah, a lot of sugar.
Very sweet.
Yes.
Like having this for breakfast, I don't know.
Oh, it's so good.
The most amazing part about being here is that you really see how locals live.
And this is a Saturday morning, she's telling us because we're here really early.
We're here at 9.30 in the morning.
She's saying around 11.30 this place gets super congested.
And really, really impossible to walk through.
But, I mean, I'm loving the experience so far.
It's just incredible to see, what do you call it, human horses with the stuff on their heads?
Yes, human horses.
So they're carrying absolutely everything on their heads.
So, human horses.
Next up, we're having chai here at Briwasi Sweets.
Is that what it's called?
It's similar.
Okay, that's what it's called.
And this guy, so he has a few different mud cups.
You get the smaller one or the bigger one?
And then, what's the price?
Price is 7 rupees.
For the small one?
For the medium.
For the medium, it's 7 rupees.
So you can have...
8 rupees.
So you can basically have 10 of these for 1 US dollar.
Alright, so now we're going to have some chai.
Wow.
Nothing like chai.
It's great in the morning.
It's great any time of day.
Piping hot.
As per usual.
Because we love this chai so much we're getting a second round.
No, you're not piping.
It's very good.
Oh, so hot.
Always time for a second round friends.
Always time for chai.
Chai, chai, chai.
Chai, chai.
Next dish we have is Kuri Kachori.
Which is basically curry kachori.
Another kachori.
But what is the sauce here?
Okay, so the sauce is...
It's a kachori which is bigger in size.
And which is thicker.
Again, stuffed with spices and lentils.
And...
But the base is...
It is kadhi.
Which is a yogurt based and gram flour based kadhi.
Which is slow cooked.
And it is served...
It is...
You know the kachori is broken into pieces.
Dunked in the kadhi and...
There's potatoes in here.
Yeah, a bit of that.
This looks like hard noodles in a way.
Yeah.
Something very Chinese.
Oh, and I like this red sauce.
What is the red sauce there?
It's a topping which is done with...
It's called a tadka.
Okay.
Is it hot?
Oh, it's a big chunk right now.
Hot right there.
I mean, super savory.
Spicy.
Very crunchy.
Because you have these like little...
I guess...
What do they call it?
The little strings?
Pujia.
It's a little crunchy with that.
The spice just kicked in from that chili sauce.
Yes.
Wow.
But it's delicious.
I like that it felt a little sweet at the start.
Yes.
And then it just went straight spice.
Another delicious snack.
It almost feels like a samosa chap.
Like it has the very same consistency.
But different flavors in here.
This is the...
Yeah, and this is the difference as well.
This.
I haven't seen that before.
I'm gonna get a big...
Kachor right there.
Look at that.
Big bite.
Mmm.
A lot of potatoes, spices.
Crunch.
It's soft.
Wow.
This is a must try.
Must try.
If you like chats.
Can't get enough, huh?
Dude.
This is just too good.
Wow.
That kachori chat dish was so freaking good.
So many flavors.
So filling, man.
So filling.
I mean, we had to only eat half because we still had like three or four more things to go.
I know.
And it only cost 20 rupees each.
I know.
What a deal.
What a steal.
And the best thing about this food tour, and I gotta thank NAFRI for this, is that it's
so like intimate.
You know, you're in this locality.
You're seeing everybody in their day life.
Right now it is almost eleven.
It is like now there is a lot of people.
Starting to pick up a bit.
Starting to pick up.
The shops are setting up.
People are coming in.
Exactly.
The city is sort of waking up.
You know what David?
This feels like the most local street food we've done on our whole India trip.
Like this is just.
This experience has been incredible this morning.
I've absolutely loved it man.
So as I told you guys before here in India cows are gods.
Literally gods.
Wow.
Chilling.
It's amazing.
It's like getting fat and yummy.
After visiting the sacred cows, we're now continuing our food tour and it's starting
to really heat up.
It's 11am.
It's 11am so we have three more stops to go.
One is the jalebi.
The quintessential heart jalebi.
And then we move on to a very nice kind of Indian sandwich which is called the chhena
toast and a milkshake.
Okay so since we've had a lot of savouries so it's time for some sweets now.
So we are here at Kali Gotam which is very famous for its jalebis.
And in the evening you get sweet boondi.
Like you know which is a smaller version of jalebi.
But in the mornings you have these hot jalebis being fried.
So we'll have that.
Here we have jalebi.
I actually tried it for the first time when I landed in Delhi.
My first day in India in Chandni Chowk and I was blown away.
This one is basically like dough that's fried then they put it in sugar syrup right?
So it's extremely fatty, delicious.
It actually tastes like an elephant ear if you've ever been to the carnival in America.
Look at this guys.
Wow.
I really love this dish.
I love it.
And this shop is especially famous for this.
This is Kali Gotam Bazaar.
And it is especially famous for jalebis in the morning and sweet boondi in the evening.
Yeah boondi is like the one that is half the size right?
Yeah.
Oh my gosh it is so good.
Crunchy, super sweet, lots of sugar.
Oh I just can't get enough of this.
You dropped the jalebi dude.
Dude go get it.
Jalebi is probably the most delicious sweet in India.
It is so crunchy.
Oh the sugar.
So gooey when you bite into it.
That liquid melts in your mouth man.
Yeah and it was only 12 rupees.
And the difference from this one and the one I had in Delhi is the one in Delhi they have
like a white sauce.
Rabri?
Rabri.
And yeah this is just phenomenal and it is a great way to continue the day because it
gives you a sugar rush.
So now we are standing in one of the most busiest part of Bazaar.
It is called Jamunalal Bajaj Street.
And up here we have this tiny store where we have been coming since childhood.
And this serves one of the most amazing chhena toast.
Chhena is cottage cheese, curdled milk and it is served with a variety of vegetables
and spices.
And it is something which I've been having since childhood and I could even have this
on a full stomach.
So here we have the last thing we're eating on this food tour.
It is called chhena toast.
Wow.
Oh my god look at this.
So basically we have chhena.
Chhena toast.
Or cottage cheese which is paneer.
Same thing right?
Absolutely.
And then we have some chilies, tomato, onions.
Oh my god and the fluffy bread.
Mmm.
It is almost like a grilled cheese but with fluffy cottage cheese.
Mmm.
And the spices there.
I like how the onions are really crispy.
Oh this is amazing.
And I think the reason in Kolkata there is so much toast is because of the British right?
Yes absolutely.
So the British brought that toast influence because I've had I think four or five toast
dishes here.
My favorite is this one so far.
Second favorite was the one I had yesterday which is egg with toast or toast egg.
Oh this is too much.
This is amazing.
So delicious.
Mmm.
Love it.
Like I say I love it too much but really like I'm falling in love with every plate.
And to end this epic breakfast food tour we have a banana shake but not any banana shake.
They actually put like some green syrup.
Yes.
It's called khus syrup.
Khus syrup.
Yeah.
Oh my god.
So refreshing.
Mmm.
And that syrup gives it a very sweet taste on top of the bananas.
Oh my god.
It's like pure bananas.
Basically it's bananas, ice and khus syrup.
Absolutely.
This is amazing.
How much was this?
40 rupees.
40 rupees for this?
Yes.
How about the sandwich?
Sandwich is 60.
60.
Yes.
So 100 so.
100 rupees you're on full stomach.
Yeah.
But it's funny because that was like after I was full three stops ago.
Hahaha.
Well guys this has probably been my favorite breakfast food tour of all time.
I mean we tried so many different things.
My favorite thing was that kachori chat.
The second one right before the chai or after the chai.
I forgot what it was.
Before the chai.
I mean it was so like spicy, crunchy.
Just a great chat.
I love chats in India.
And this thing is just the perfect way to cap off this breakfast food tour.
Thank you so much to Nathree from Fun on Streets.
Next time you come to Kolkata and you want to have fun on the streets.
Visit her.
Follow her on Instagram, Facebook.
Here's everything.
And subscribe to my channel.
Sam and Audrey's channel.
Give this video a thumbs up.
Leave a comment below if you want to come to Kolkata or if you've been to Kolkata.
Wow.
I love this city.
City of joy baby.
Thank you.
