- [Trevor James] Coming up for all you Food Rangers.
We're going deep into the Chinese street food
scene of Kolkata, India.
Exploring India's largest Chinese community
through the back markets and hidden restaurants.
You're gonna discover along with us the street food scene
of the small and disappearing Chinese community
that gathers once per week in the Tiretta bazaar.
Along with some secret community restaurants
all Chinese go to.
You're gonna love not only the food
but the history of the Chinese and this incredible city.
Let's eat.
Alright, check it out guys
it's Trevor James.
We are bright and early.
Kolkata in Tiretta Bazaar
We're starting out the day.
We're going on a full on Chinese street food tour.
Right up ahead there is a bunch of
delicious Chinese snacks.
(playful music)
Good morning.
- Good morning.
Is this shaomai or momo?
- This is shaomai, this is momo.
- Oh, shaomai and momo.
Oh beautiful.
- This shaomai, this here momo is
- Oh beautiful.
Can I please have one plate chicken momo?
- Are you having here?
- Yes, for here please.
Awesome, look at this.
We're in Kolkata with Chinese street food.
We're gonna get some chicken momo.
There is also shaomai here and fried momo.
And then look, he's just gonna lift this here.
Whoa, big bao
- [Cook] This chicken tai bao.
chicken tai pho.
- [Trevor James] Chicken baozi
- Not baozi, tai bao
- [Trevor James] Tai bao, oh
- Tai bao, big bao
- [Trevor James] Big bao
Thank you.
Look at that
I can't believe we just found
Chinese street food here in Kolkata
and we're starting off here with some chicken momo.
Oh yeah, look at those.
Let's see that and dip into into some chili sauce
bright and early.
Today we're gonna have
a ton of Chinese street food in Kolkata.
This is the first stop
Bright and early.
Six thirty in the morning and there is tons of action here.
Let's try it out.
Mmm.
Oh it's actually very peppery and fragrant
from the onion.
And then when you dip it into this chili sauce
that is what a sour spicy chili dip.
Nice.
- Mmm, great.
(speaks in foreign language)
So most of this is all...
- Yes, Hakka and Cantonese
- Hakka and Cantonese.
- Yes.
- So Fujian...
- And Guangdong.
- [Man In White Shirt] Besides that they have
maybe one or two percent of other provinces.
- Other provinces from China.
- Mainly dominated by Guangdong and Fujian.
- [Trevor James] Oh amazing.
And when did they originally come?
- They came about 150, 200 years before.
- Okay.
- But now they have all almost
90 percent of them shifted to Canada or the USA.
- Oh really?
- Yes.
Now only few are left.
- Only a few of them here.
- Yes, yes.
- Oh so it's just this right here and a little--
- And their previous employees like that lady
who's selling meatball soup and some others
who worked with them
so now they're carrying on this business.
Mainly the Chinese people left.
- Ooh.
- They're not around.
- So it's just a small community left here.
- It is.
- So we just got a tip to try meatball soup
Look at this, oh xiang chang
Chinese sausage.
This is just amazing.
I can't believe it.
We found Chinese street food in Kolkata.
- [Trevor James] Oh yeah, look what we found here
meatball soup.
(oriental music)
Beautiful.
So we just got the meatball soup.
This is just one of many.
There's meatball soup, fishball soup
chao mae dumplings.
All these different types of momos
and we're gonna go try out this soup.
They cover it in a bot of flour so it's nice and fluffy
and the broth actually smells
like a classic wonton broth but with a bit of a
fishy odor.
Let's try it out.
Mmm, cool.
(mumbles)
Is that fish?
That tastes like fish.
- Yes, yes yes.
- Oh it's fish.
- It's not fish, not fish it's pork.
- This is pork?
- Yeah.
- Maybe the broth has some fish in it.
Yeah.
Okay, it's very nice.
- [Trevor James] This is a very elegant fish broth
with pork balls
and you can taste those greens in there
very earthy.
This is what is so nice
about these markets.
The small community and the unique food that's so hard
to find elsewhere.
And just a quick walk through the market
and we found a friendly lady selling a ton of
classic Chinese street foods.
look at this.
We found big sesame balls.
- [Trevor James] Awesome
so this is sesame ball
with red bean on the inside.
- [Trevor James] Awesome
So there's zongzi.
These are sticky rice wrapped with banana leaf
and there is one one with
(speaks foreign language) red bean
and one with pork.
- That is taro, taro cakes.
Mmm.
That is so nice and crispy on the outside
and the inside is stuffed with sweet red bean.
It's like a sticky, chewy, sweet red bean ball from heaven.
What an amazing start to the day
to see the Chinese community here in Kolkata
is really amazing
and we're making our way to continue our breakfast tour.
It's till bright and early.
We're gonna go to Tangra Chinatown.
Let's check it out.
- [Trevor James] After a quick drive through Kolkata
we found ourselves deep in Chinatown.
Food ranging for this one secret noodle joint
recommended to us in a Chinese neighborhood
that was super difficult to find.
And after spending an hour looking through the neighborhood
we finally found it.
So we just got in to Chinatown, Tangra
and we're on a hunt for a delicious wonton noodle soup.
I think it's right up here.
I think we've found the noodle joint.
Oh yeah, here it is.
Here it is.
After looking around and seeing what to eat
we got invited in by the owners partner and friend Mr. Yeh
who explained to us the history of the restaurant
and their specialty dishes.
- And we can feel that here.
We're getting some beautiful wonton noodle soup
dry style.
You can just feel the history here.
As you walk into this hidden Chinese gem in Kolkata.
And you could smell the pork aroma
as the wontons were hand-pinched one by one
and boiled and covered in lard.
They were just so tempting
and you just can't wait to taste them.
And since we flew from china directly into India
it was amazing to see Chinese people working
and living happily here.
It almost felt like we were back in china.
(oriental music)
- [Trevor James] Look at these, look at these wonton noodles
Oh, look at that
that wonton soup is so
they look so sloppy
and flavorful
satisfying.
Thank you.
So we just got the noodles and we're hanging with Mr. Ye
- [Trevor James] And we're just gonna
you can just take
a wonton and some noodles
- [Trevor James] And we've got a soup as well
- [Trevor James] Look at that.
And we've also got an organ soup
look at that.
- [Mr. Yeh] Rice wine.
- [Trevor James] Oh, rice wine.
(speaks foreign language)
- [Trevor James] Hakka rice wine
organ soup
let's try these noodles out.
- [Trevor James] Mmm
- [Trevor James] It's all about that.
That oil that they put in there
- [Trevor James] Look at those.
- [Trevor James] Oh Toronto
After enjoying this slightly stenchy organ packed soup
Mmm
if you like liver, that is really good
and the soup is just
- [Trevor James] And the amazing pork wontons
with nice slices of pork
and spicy chilly sauce.
We made out way back into the core of Chinatown
to find the other side of Chinese cuisine in India.
The Indianized version
a.k.a Indian Chinese...
That was really nice to meet Mr. Yeh
and it was cool to hear his story
especially how
a lot of the Hakka Chinese seem to be
moving out from Kolkata.
So I think right now is probably a good time to visit
if you want to experience
that side of Kolkata
And what did you think about the noodles?
- It is really good
and so smooth
like because they use
like pig oil
that's why it's so smooth
- It was very silky, right and fragrant
really nice.
And we're on our way to get our next meal on our
Chinese breakfast street food tour.
Let's check it out.
Thank you!
Oh wow, paneer and fried prawn noodle
oh and there's more.
Whoa!
Thank you, thank you, amazing.
This is the hakka shrimp noodle.
Oh wow!
Prawn hakka noodle.
Nice.
(Indian instrumental music)
- [Trevor James] Chili garlic paneer
- [Server] Chili garlic paneer.
- Chili garlic paneer.
Oh nice
- [Trevor James] Oh you can see all the garlic
coated on there.
And fresh green chillies--
- [Server] And this is chili chicken.
- [Trevor James] Chili chicken, okay.
Thank you very much!
Wow
that looks like it's covered in sauce.
Oh yes please.
Nice!
- [Server] And sichuan--
- [Trevor James] sichuan chicken, okay.
Thank you.
Look at that, sichuan chicken.
That looks unique.
Nice, oh lot's of sauce.
Look at all of this
look at what he just served me.
A nice plate of sichuan chicken.
I have never seen that dish in Sichuan.
Look at that gravy.
It looks like it's full.
It looks like it has a bit of tomato
maybe some light chili
I don't see any sichuan pepper corns
but lots of garlic
and a little bit of onion.
And then this is chili garlic paneer.
You can see they've fried these paneer cubes
in a lot of garlic and these fresh green chillies.
And then we also have some fried shrimp noodles
with carrots, green onions
oh, look at those nice little shrimp in there.
It looks peppery.
This honestly looks like American Chinese food
but with an Indian touch.
They also got
this is the chili chicken.
You can see it's breaded and fried
and it's just a light gravy with onion and garlic
and fresh green chili.
This actually looks really good.
All this stuff he just served me looks amazing.
This sichuan chicken looks so unique.
It looks nothing like the stuff you get in Sichuan.
Mmm, oh.
It has no sichuan flavor at all
but it is very delicious.
It is tangy, a little spicy
and a little bit of the tomato acids in there as well.
Quite garlicky and a little peppery too.
And the chicken just melts in your mouth.
It's a little bit like American Chinese food.
The same sort of gravies, the same sort of sauce
with breaded fried chicken
but a bit of an Indian kick in there as well.
You can taste there is a ton of spices.
What a great day in Kolkata.
Chinese breakfast street food tour.
has been a lot of fun.
I would love to know what you thought about this video
in the comments below.
Please click that thumbs up button
and subscribe to this channel.
Kolkata is just an amazing city
and we're definitely gonna have to keep coming back here
because the food has been mind-blowing.
And it's been so nice to learn a little bit
about the Chinese history here in Kolkata.
Thanks a lot guys.