British Prime Minister David Cameron, who bakes his own bread for breakfast at 10 Downing Street, had his evening snack at a Calcutta roadside food cart on Thursday.

He stopped for five minutes or so at Chauhan Victoria Vada on the Vardaan Market pavement and tried Victoria Vada — the stall’s moong daal speciality priced at Rs 30 for six pieces and served on a tree-leaf plate.

That he enjoyed the savoury, disc-shaped fritters was evident from his tweet: “Loved the hot, spicy lentil cakes in a Calcutta market after a busy day of meetings.”

Cameron’s “street food stop” was on the itinerary but not at Anurag Chauhan’s cart. The buzz since morning was that he would visit sherbet-and-snack shop Shibuji off Camac Street on the way to the British deputy high commission from IIM Calcutta.

But Chauhan got to host the most famous customer in the stall’s 25-year history because of the premier’s “sudden schedule change” after some members of the British press accompanying him took a fancy to the title of the food cart, named after Victoria Memorial which again is called so in honour of Queen Victoria.

Before Cameron’s cavalcade arrived, a few foreign cameramen reached around 7.20pm and started filming the stall. About 10 minutes later, the PM reached.

“He got down and walked to our shop. He said he is very happy that we are still carrying the queen’s name. Though there are many street food stalls in the city not many use the queen’s name,” said Chauhan, who suddenly became a celebrity among his peers as well as the beat constables who had “evicted” him about three hours ago to clear the road for the VIP visit.

He remained modest and business-like, though. “Unsey bhi tees rupaiya liya. Daam nahin barhega (I took Rs 30 from him. There will be no price hike),” Chauhan said and ruled out any possibility of renaming his house speciality to “Cameron Vada”.

“This is called luck! He said the Vadas were tasty. He shook hands with me and I spoke to him. I never imagined he would visit our stall,” said the 23-year-old whose father Rajendra Prasad Chauhan started the stall originally near Victoria Memorial.

“In this age of mixer-grinders, we still use sil-batta (mortar and pestle) to make the lentil-based paste for the fries. The magic is in the hands,” Chauhan said.

The Prime Minister is not a “Conservative” when it comes to baking bread. He uses a Panasonic bread maker.

Victoria’s gain is Shibuji’s loss as the popular stall prepared all day for the VIP. “We didn’t believe our ears when the police told us around 1pm that the British Prime Minister would visit our shop. When the dog and bomb squads came to check the shop and the road was barricaded, it started sinking in. But then, our hopes waned around 7pm when the police said he wouldn’t be visiting us because he was running late,” Shibuji owner Prem Singh said.

“Within half an hour the road was cordoned off again and the crowd shooed away. Officers came and told us to get ready,” Singh added, at his popular shop a Vada’s throw away from Chauhan’s.

A while later, the VIP disembarked from his SUV but walked towards Singh’s neighbour’s stall. “We were excited and had made Shibuji’s Special Shikanji for him. We were hoping that he would visit us after trying the Vadas. That would have made our day but… time crunch came in the way,” Singh said.

Pictures by Amit Datta