Egg Roll  

Ever wonder why the Calcutta roll, specifically the Egg Roll, was born in this city? To find the answer, take a walk around the office para of Esplanade-Dalhousie-Chandni-Chowk, on any given weekday afternoon. 

If you’re new to Calcutta, you’d be amazed at the vast array of street food on offer at this office-para, via the hundreds of makeshift food stalls that line the pavements of this square mile of a town centre, home to countless administrative offices of the state machinery, business establishments, banks and the Calcutta high court. Even if you’re a seasoned city-slicker, one visit to this neighbourhood is bound to reaffirm your belief in your average fellow Calcuttan. And his/her very serious attitude towards food. 

Perhaps, and more importantly, you’d realize how the essence of the term ‘on-the-go’ lives within the soul of Calcutta street food. Coupled with the sheer variety on offer in this business district, the speed at which these delicacies are served up and simultaneously gobbled down is incredible. Lunch breaks are short; there simply isn’t any time to wait, even on piping hot food. The mantra is ‘quick and easy’. The Egg Roll epitomizes this work-day, quick-bite philosophy. 

I have actually timed this at the Zeeshan outlet near Deshapriya Park: the average Egg Roll is served in five minutes flat. A ball of oiled maida is flattened out, fried into a paratha, an egg (or two) broken atop that sizzling goodness. Things are turned, with precision, so that the egg morphs into an omelette on a single side of that paratha. Add just the right sprinkling of salt, pepper, perhaps a little sliced onion and green chillies, and of course, a healthy lemon squeeze, and you’re done. Set, in less than five minutes. Remember: adding any form of ketchup to your roll is blasphemy.

Between themselves, the office-para stalls offer up everything from breakfast fare to post-lunch dessert; from tea and toast to biriyani to six-course Bengali fish thalis to chilli chicken to masala dosas to mouthwatering mishti. There is even the legendary Dacres Lane, a dedicated food alley serving the everyday employee. In the face of this frankly stiff competition, the Egg Roll survives well, thank you very much. 

The essence of the term ‘on-the-go’ lives within the soul of Calcutta street food; its khuchro khaabar, if you will. Coupled with the sheer variety on offer in this business district, the speed at which these delicacies are served up and simultaneously gobbled down is incredible. Lunch breaks are short; there simply isn’t any time to wait, even on piping hot food. The mantra is ‘quick and easy’. The Egg Roll epitomizes this work-day, quick-bite philosophy. 

No surprise, then, to know that the ‘Calcutta roll’ was arguably born in the iconic Nizam restaurant, adjacent to New Market — not far from the office-para bustle. There is, of course, no written record of that feat, but Nizam proprietors proudly tout this ‘achievement’ for their brand, smack on a signboard atop the entrance. But once a Nizam monopoly, the roll has moved far beyond the ambit of the central Calcutta restaurant to evolve into a global citizen, delighting folks in cities like London and New York. Since 2002, Payal Saha’s The Kati Roll Company has been serving up ‘authentic street Kati Rolls, just like the ones in Kolkata, India’ in five locations in Manhattan and one on Poland Street, London. Saha’s was the first; kati rolls are now a staple in most Indian restaurants across the US. 

Even across the country, apart from its kebab-adorned kathi cousins, the egg roll pops up here and there, usually in surreal situations. I once spotted a gamchha-clad Midnapore vendor whipping up a fair deal of egg rolls for post-teen partygoers in Anjuna, Goa, eager for a bite after what looked like a very long December night. Like I said, a bit surreal. 

Interestingly, whatever ‘variant’ I have tasted in places outside this city, there has been a repeated reference to the ‘Calcutta’ variety as ‘kati’ roll, presumably from Nizam’s use of bamboo skewers (the Bengali word for stick is ‘kathi’) to grill its kebabs, to be used as filling in the flatbread. The description aptly marks the widely differing variety than what the Western world had been used to, especially via Oriental cuisine. The eggroll of the Doris Day-starrer With Six You Get Eggroll is as far removed from the Nizam original as can be. While the pork/chicken/shrimp versions of soft spring rolls in Vietnamese cuisine are to die for, the ‘Calcutta roll’ is a different beast, altogether. 

I have an unexplained aversion to this epithet. But we will not travel down that road today; even if ‘kati’ really references the kebabs on a bamboo skewer to be used as filling. Thankfully, the Egg Roll has none, but a bit of a salad and in some cases, mashed aloo. More, someday, on the equally scrumptious chicken, mutton and beef versions of the Calcutta roll and its many avatars, including fast-food giant Taco Bell’s fusion creation ‘kathitto’ – a ‘cross between a Kati roll and a Mexican-inspired burrito’.  

Delightful and hassle-free food as it may be to after-party epicures in Soho or Manhattan these days, and despite a zillion cookery channels on YouTube directing you towards healthier ‘home-made’ versions, in its hometown, the Egg Roll has been the middle-class office-goer’s savior for decades. The slippery High Court lawyer that thespian Tapas Kumar Deb played – munching on an egg roll paid for by a client – in Natasena’s mid-‘90s play Phata Gopal, typifies the bourgeoisie character of the egg variety. Even within the roll universe, it is a budget version of the affair, being cheaper than the meat varieties. No wonder it remains a fast choice for students, clerks; anyone with an appetite but not enough money, or time. And with that readily-made omelette, it has an undertone of the ‘fresh food’ tag, though the copious amount of oil/dalda used to fry your paratha is as far from ‘healthy’ as can be. There will be time to speak of its richer cousins in the weeks to come, but for now, let’s roll with eggs. 

Read in Bengali