Skip to main content

JW Marriott Bengaluru | Tangra Food Festival


Tangra is a region in east Kolkata that traditionally housed a large number of tanneries owned by people of Hakka Chinese origin. "47 South Tangra Road", may be the most confusing postal address, as it used to cover the whole of Chinatown Tangra with over 350 tanneries.


Most of the standing structures have been built, over many years, by the industrious Hakka Chinese, upon marshy and reclaimed low lying land. Over the past several decades, it has served as the location of Calcutta's Chinatown. This is not a coincidence; the Hakka Chinese of Calcutta have gradually turned this part of the Kolkata into an important destination for sourcing finished and semi-finished leather. 


The Hakka Chinese specialized in the manufacture of leather and turned it into one of the major industries of West Bengal, providing employment to tens of thousands of local inhabitants. In addition to the huge volume of exports to the developing and developed countries, finished leather is supplied to the major shoe and leather goods manufacturers all over the country. Many made-to-order shoe shops in Kolkata are also run by entrepreneurs from this community.


Food from Tangra is a distinct variety of traditional Hakka Chinese cuisine adapted to Indian ingredients and the Bengali palate. This has spread to the rest of India, along with the recipes earlier unique to Tangra. Tangra is now the most popular destination for Chinese food. Chinese food sold in Tangra restaurants are now known all over the world as 'Hakka Style" Chinese food.

What began centuries ago, when the Chinese immigrants from the Hakka region settled down in Kolkata has today taken the shape of a cuisine in itself. Bringing this Indian adaptation of street Chinese food to Bengaluru, is JW Kitchen with its first ever food festival – The Tangra Food Festival. The ten day long food festival that began on October 31 aims to recreate a complete experience of Kolkata Chinatown and showcase the best of Kolkata Chinese.


I was invited to be a part of the JW Kitchen where Chef Surjan Singh Jolly along with his team presented to us the perfect mixture of the aromas, flavor and vibrancy of this region of Kolkata.
Chef Jolly walked us through the history of Tangra Cuisine following which we had a live cooking demo of the Food Festival.

Some of the dishes we had a live demo are below. The flavours of authentic Tangra Cuisine are mild and each flavour speaks for itself. They are not overpowering and have their own distinct identity.

Tangra Cripy Fried Chicken


The Crispy Fried Chicken had a hint of rice wine vinegar and hot green chillies. It was truly delicous. Haven't tasted a Crispy Fried Chicken like this before. 

 Tangra Crispy Golden Prawn


A humble dish once again, very very simple flavours, very few ingredients and very tasty too.  

Tangra Crispy Paneer


I was really impressed by the way this simple paneer dish was given a twist. A great starter dish at any party!!!

(Clockwise) Shandong Mary, Mango Spice Cocktail, Beijing Bellini



I was really impressed with the Mango Spice Cocktail. It had a hint of jalepenos and tasted superbly delicious. A great way to serve mango!!!

On the buffet menu were some dimsums (pork) which were heavenly, I am told. The reference came from my son who simply loved the juicy porks filled dimsums. The hakka noodles had simple and mild flavours. Overall, a very different cuisine, much to my surprise. 

The food festival is on till November 9, 2014 and is priced at Rs. 1599+ taxes for the food buffet.

Drop in at the JW Kitchen and soak in an experience of everything that Kolkata Chinatown is all about!!!

Comments

  1. visit my city I will take u to the galis of china town for much better food than Beijing..

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for visiting my blog. I appreciate your feedback and/or suggestions!!

Popular posts from this blog

Authentic Bhajani Chakli | Chakli Recipe | Maharashtrian Chakli Recipe

 Chakli is a delightfully scrumptious snack that is often made in India during Diwali festival. Also known as Chakri, these spiral shaped crunchy snacks are made using the perfect blend of lentils and spices. Deep fried to a golden brown perfection, chaklis are lightly spiced with turmeric and chili packing in an explosion of flavors in every bite. Different parts of India have variations of this recipe. For example, in South India, Murukku(Chakli) is made using rice flour and a mild seasoning of salt and asafoetida. In Gujarat, Chakri is made with whole wheat flour or rice flour. In Maharashtra it is made with Bhajani, a special homemade flour. Chakli is easily one of the most popular Indian Diwali snack AKA faral and is best enjoyed with a piping hot cup of tea. What is Bhajani? Traditional Maharashtrian Chakli is made with a special homemade flour of rice and lentils called Bhajani. Rice and lentils are washed, air dried and then dry roasted over slow heat along with cu...

Walnut Brownie

I feel like a newbie all over again. I've not updated this blog for more than 2 years now. Its just that my schedule has become pretty hectic now. But I've made a promise to myself to update atleast 1 post per week. In this post, I'm sharing my Walnut Brownie recipe with you. Its the most amazing recipe I have and I have always received overwhelming response from all my customers for this one. Since its New Years, I decided to make Walnut Brownies instead of the regular cakes or cookies. Ingredients: 80 gms  cooking butter , 150 gms  dark cooking chocolate , broken into pieces, 3  eggs , 120 gms  castor sugar , 1 tsp  vanilla essence , 80 gms  flour , 20 gms  cocoa powder , 1/2 tsp  baking powder , 1/4 cup roasted walnuts , coarsely chopped, Method: 1.) Preheat the oven to 175 degrees, for 10 mins. 2.) Grease a baking tin ( 9 x 9 inch) with butter and line with butter paper. 3.) Stir the butter and choco...

Nimki Recipe| Namak Pare Recipe

Nimki / Namak pare is a crispy, crunchy, flaky, savory snack. Bengali's call it Nimki but in other parts of India, they also known as Namak pare, Nimkin, Namkin, etc. The recipe calls for very few ingredients, one of them is all purpose flour or maida. To make a batch of crunchy Nimki all you need is proper proportion of ingredients and little patience while frying them. Do give this a try and let me know how it turned out for you.        This is a great tea time snack also and doesn't require a festival to make this. However, during Indian festivities, we tend to make this as one of the savory snack for all to enjoy. Ingredients: 1 cup all purpose flour / maida, 4 tbsp of melted ghee, 1 tsp kalonji / nigella seeds Salt as per taste, Warm water for kneading Oil for deep frying Method: In a mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, kalonji and ghee. Mix everything really well for 1-2 minutes with your hand. The flour should resemble the texture of bread crum...