CALCUTTA street food has been introduced at Café Chourangi, the Indian restaurant near Marble Arch in central London.
What began as a “Calcutta street food festival” has now become the regular lunch menu.
The West Bengal capital is spelt as “Calcutta” rather than “Kolkata”, its official name.
On the menu is a snack called jhalmuri which is beloved of Bengalis.
Jhalmuri is a popular Calcutta street food snack consisting of puffed rice tossed with mustard oil, spices, onions, tomatoes, green chilies, and crunchy add-ons like peanuts. The name trans lates from Bengali as “spicy puffed rice”. It is usually served in paper cones (like fish & chips in the old days).
Not to miss a trick, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi made a point of snacking on jhalmuri when campaigning for his Bharatiya Janata Party in the run up to the West Bengal assembly elections in April this year.
Narendra Modi enjoying jhalmuri during an election campaignANI
Modi celebrated the BJP’s landslide win over Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party by distributing jhalmuri, instead of the usual laddoos and jalebis.
The UK now has a wide variety of Indian restaurants, but north Indian Punjabi cuisine is the most common on offer. Although “Indian curry” was introduced and developed to suit the English palate by Bangladeshis from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh, there has been a gap where genuine Bengali cuisine is concerned.
When I dropped into Chourangi last week with a friend, Sundaram Tagore, the restaurant’s general manager, Manas Das, explained: “Basically, we are trying to bring the most popular Calcutta street food to London. And what can be better than jhalmuri? We are trying to make it exactly the way street vendors will sell it to you. It is abundantly available from trains to buses to street stalls.”
He went on: “Then we have the kathi rolls, the Calcutta egg roll, lamb seekh kebab roll, and the egg chicken roll. We are also doing a paneer kathi roll. Then we have egg & chicken fried rice with chilli chicken.
“Since we are located very close to Ox ford Street, where people are busy with their shopping, they can come to our restaurant, and grab the food – which will be delivered in real quick time. The turn around is 30 to 40 minutes. We make the price very pocket friendly.”
Kathi roll Café Chourangi
Manas remembered: “My father was a government employee who used to work close to Strand Road. Just under his office were the street vendors.”
Sundaram, who grew up in Calcutta and knows its cuisine very well, recently opened an art gallery in London to add to the one he owns in New York, where he lives. He is on a mission to acquaint him self with Indian food in London.
Manas suggested some items for us: “You can go with luchi with hing jeera aloo dum, and then some mild railway lamb curry with rice. I would also recom mend some chicken egg rolls. Of course, you should start with jhalmuri.”
Instead of fish fry, we shared a prawn cutlet, and for dessert, mango yoghurt brule and baked rosogolla.
In the evening, Chourangi reverts to its normal à la carte menu.
Sundaram Tagore (left) and Manas Das at Café Chourangi Amit Roy
Sundaram said he would bring a party of 15 to 18 of his clients for a Calcutta street food lunch. Manas offered to serve every thing on a thali, but Sundaram thought his guests, especially the Americans, would prefer a starter, main course and dessert.
According to Chourangi’s co-owner, Anjan Chatterjee, who runs a chain in India under the “Speciality Restaurants” brand – this includes Oh! Calcutta in Calcutta, Mumbai and Delhi – “for a Calcuttan, street food is not something we discover. It is something we grow up with. It lives in our memories as much as it lives on our palate. A paper cone of jhalmuri after school, a fish fry on a Sunday evening, or a hot kathi roll shared with friends after college are not merely meals. They are markers of time, place and belonging.
“Calcutta’s street food is deeply layered, incredibly diverse, and shaped by generations of vendors, neighbour hoods, and everyday life. From the iconic kathi roll, born in the bustling lanes of the city as a convenient meal of skewered kebabs wrapped in flaky paratha, to the comforting plates of luchi and aloo dum served in humble morning eateries, every preparation carries with it a story of place and people.”
Mushroom bhaji Café Chourangi
He said: “In the narrow lanes of north Calcutta, the tradition of tele bhaja – sea sonal vegetable fritters fried fresh and enjoyed on rainy evenings – continues to thrive. In Tangra, Indo-Chinese classics such as chilli chicken and fried rice tell a remarkable story of cultural exchange that has become uniquely Calcutta’s own. Delicacies like mochar (plantain flower) chop, fish fry, and prawn cutlet reflect the city’s enduring love for seafood and its vibrant snack culture, found equally in historic coffee houses and roadside stalls.”
He emphasised: “Among all these flavours, however, one preparation continues to stand out for its simplicity and emotional resonance: jhalmuri. For many of us, jhalmuri is one of the purest expressions of Calcutta’s street food philosophy. It is not defined by complexity or elaborate presentation, but by intuition and rhythm. Puffed rice is mixed with mustard oil, onions, green chillies, coriander, spices, and a squeeze of lime – freshly tossed to order, always slightly differently, and always unmistakably familiar. Yet what truly defines jhalmuri is not merely its ingredients, but the moments that surround it: the sound of a local train passing by, an evening walk across the maidan, endless conversations with friends, or a gathering around a street cart watching the vendor expertly mix each portion. It is food that belongs to memory as much as it does to taste.
“There is something wonderfully demo cratic about jhalmuri – it belongs to everyone. Whether enjoyed by a student on the way home, a family on an evening outing, or an office-goer taking a brief pause from the day, it carries the same sense of comfort, familiarity, and connection.
An assortment of dishes from Chourangi’s new lunch menuCafé Chourangi
“No two servings are ever exactly alike, and perhaps that is its greatest strength. Every vendor leaves behind a small signature through the balance of mustard oil, spice, and lime. It never strives for perfection; it simply captures a moment and makes it memorable.”
He commented: “At Chourangi, we are not merely recreating dishes – we are trying to recreate moments. The flavours that linger after a family outing, the aromas that accompanied childhood journeys, and the simple joys that have connected generations of Calcuttans. Every dish on the menu carries a story, and every story begins on the streets of a city that has always expressed itself through food.”
Anjli Paul, daughter of the late Lord Swraj Paul, who happened to be passing our table with a friend, was, of course, invited to share our jhalmuri, which they were happy to do.
Incidentally, Chourangi also had a three-day festival offering “Jamai Shoshti specials” to mark occasions when a visiting son-in-law is overfed and spoilt rot ten by his in-laws.
