Taste of victory in Kolkata on counting day: Biryani and mishti
- Biryani and sweets are the favourites with political parties in the city on the day poll results are declared.
- With exit polls giving Trinamul Congress the edge, party workers are getting ready to dig in to mouth-watering biryani.
- Biryani and chaap are also hot favourites in poll season and Zeeshan restaurant in Park Circus area is gearing up for counting day.
Follow“We keep receiving bulk orders and we received many yesterday and today. We are ready for more such orders tomorrow when the results are declared,” said Ishtiaque Ahmed of Mughlai restaurant chain Shiraz.
Biryani and sweets are the favourites with political parties in the city on the day poll results are declared. With exit polls giving Trinamul Congress the edge, party workers are getting ready to dig into some of the most popular sweets and mouth-watering biryani Kolkata is known for.
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Ditesh Gupta, of Gupta Brothers, said, “This time awareness is a lot more, so even common people are taking away bulk sweets before result day. The three main sweets in our shop that are being sold on result day are the BJP kara paak (a type of sandesh), Trinamul kara paak and Congress kara paak. We have got bulk orders but I don’t know if these are from political leaders.” Gupta Brothers is also known for some interesting variations of age-old sweets, such as the green rasgolla.
The famous rasgolla from KC Das, which is credited with making the first rasgolla ever, is a hot favourite during election season. Dhiman Das, director, KC Das, said, “This time, surprisingly, there have been no bulk orders for rasgolla before result day. During the CPM government, we used to get bulk orders for cans of rasgolla.”
“We usually don’t get bulk orders from political leaders before counting day. The orders usually come on that day and the day after,” said Partha Nandy of Girish Chandra Dey and Nakur Chandra Nandy, a century-old sweet shop near Hedua in north Kolkata, that has been a favourite with all political parties. The most iconic sweet from this shop is the ‘jolbhora’, a delicious sandesh that has now been replicated by other sweet shops in town.
Trinamul leaders such as Sabyasachi Dutta in Rajarhat and Sovandeb Chatterjee in Rashbehari, are all bound by ‘mishti’ or ‘sweet’. Supremo Mamata Banerjee, too, is known to have a fondness for mishti doi (sweetened yoghurt) and Sandesh.
Among the Left veterans, Biman Bose and Mohammed Salim are known to have a sweet tooth, though both now try to stay away from sugary temptations.
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In 2015, after Trinamul won the civic elections in Calcutta and Salt Lake, Sandesh of different forms and colours arrived in abundance at the homes of most leaders.
Biryani and chaap are also hot favourites in poll season and Zeeshan restaurant in Park Circus area is gearing up for counting day. “In the past 20 years, we have seen that it is mainly biryani that is most popular on counting day and in the run-up to it. We haven’t received bulk orders yet but are fully prepared for such orders for tomorrow,” said A Sayeed of Zeeshan.
The biryani of Kolkata is different from that in other cities of the country, distinguished by the large piece of potato found in every plate.
