When you’re gloomy, you’d like to gather your friends around some comfort food. When you’re happy, you’d like to rally them around celebratory food. For street food, though, you need no reason. Just friends, or family.
Between January 29 and 31, Food & Friends in association with t2 put a sweet smile on those who walked into City Centre Salt Lake and tried out the grub from 15 stalls.
“We received an excellent response as the food outlets provided loads of options. The three-day food festival witnessed 1,70,000 patrons,” said Ramesh Pandey, GM (marketing and events), Ambuja Neotia Group.
“The aroma of delicious food enveloped me as soon as I walked in,” said actress Rituparna Sengupta, who grew up eating the best of Bengali food like malaikari and and luchi-alur dom but later developed a taste for Continental. “These days I like the lighter flavours and I can also cook steamed fish and grilled prawns. But my comfort food is salted popcorn. My son (Ankan) and I often share a bowl of popcorn while watching movies at home.”
We love three-year-old Archisha’s chocolate moustache, a remnant of the Triangle Special Brownie from Cakes. “Yes, when it comes to junk food she likes sweets more than fries,” said dad Saptarshi Niyogi, whose family loves to have Indian food when eating out.
It was family time for Sanjana Mukherjee (right) and her aunt Jaba Chakrabarti who “go out to eat sometimes and like tasting new dishes”. Chicken Steamed Momos from Wow! Momo were not new though, and the Daab Sherbet was a “favourite from Paramount on College Street”.
Dan Karpinsky is a photographer from Moscow who works for a publication in Mayapur. Which means he’s no stranger to Indian food, but the Raj Kachori Chaat from Bandana Chat Centre was his first taste of Calcutta street food. “I like it,” he said after the first bite. “I like Calcutta. It’s developed well.”
T2 PICKS
Text: Ramona Sen
Pictures: B. Halder and Chanchal Ghosh
