Page 75 - Forbes - India (January 2020)

being in Tangra) where every morning prawn baos
and dumplings are served for breakfast from the
sidewalks. Large stacks of aluminum steamers
are set up on makeshift tables: There’s siumai—
Cantonese pork and shrimp dumplings—fish
ball soup, and even Chinese bread shaped like
churros. One vendor sells Chinese sauces, spices
and noodles. It’s a communal atmosphere, with
people sitting on plastic stools and reading Chinese
newspapers, while others chat with friends.
We continue on our Chinese food trail with a
visit to Eau Chew, one of the oldest family-run
Chinese restaurants in Kolkata, which dates back
to the 1920s. It is located on the first floor of a
building in the rundown compound of a garage,
above a closed petrol pump, and is open for only
7 hours a day. Red Formica-covered tables and a
no- frills ambience, with only a fish tank and framed
photographs of the first owners for decoration,
indicate that this experience is all about the
food. Joel Huang, who runs the restaurant today
(Clockwise from top left) with his mother Josephine and wife Doren, says
A selection of made-to-order
sandesh at Makhan Lal his great-grandparents came in the early 20th
Das & Sons; Shib Nath Das, century and set up a small tiffin house for Chinese
the ninth generation scion
running the store; Nizam’s immigrants at the same location, although the
kaathi roll; the chimney name Eau Chew, in Mandarin, means ‘Europe’
soup at Eau Chew; Chinese 75
breakfast at Tiretti Bazaar; and was intended to attract a European clientele.
sweet buns at Nahoum Right from chopping vegetables, cooking
and billing the customers, everything is done
by Josephine, Joel and Doren. They follow
traditional recipes with no improvisations or
variations. “Our customers know what they like
here, and come to find that,” says Joel. We have
their famous ‘chimney soup’ that is kept hot with
glowing embers of coal, steamed fish with soy
sauce, and hearty ‘Josephine noodles’ created
for a customer who wanted to eat something
off the menu and different. The dish comprises
noodles topped with gravy, vegetables and meat.
Many of the old-fashioned Chinese restaurants of
the city, such as Nanking and Song Hay, have shut
over the past few decades; Chung Wau in the Burra
Bazaaar neighbourhood is one of the last of these
restaurants that are still in operation, with cabins
named after Bengali classics. It remains famous
for its food, which includes roasted chilli pork and
other dishes based on authentic recipes from Hakka
Chinese immigrants. The old has slowly given way
to the new, with chains like Mainland China serving
more popular versions of Indian Chinese food.

the anglO-indian angle
To get a taste of the city’s Anglo-Indian food—one
of the pillars of its diverse culinary heritage, which

January 31, 2020 • forbes india