Street food culture gains new dimension courtesy of enterprising small traders
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Who says the Bangalees are the idle lots of all peoples? Street snacks, tea and coffee have long been a fad here. Every winter the mushrooming growth of small temporary street eateries of traditional 'pithas' (indigenous cakes) is witness to their high demand. Usually four-wheel or two-wheel rickshaw vans serve as both the infrastructure for oven and display counter right on the footpath or alongside the streets. In Dhaka City such street food shops are so ubiquitous that their number might defy a realistic count. The foodies may find these facilities a little below their taste, but a select group of middle class clientele has survived the street food culture in the metropolis.
Many of the snackwallahs, apart from the seasonal 'pitha' sellers, routinely do their business in the afternoon to late evening. Quite a few push their wheel carts or carry bamboo stands and a basket full of all the ingredients for preparing 'jhal muri', chhola masala made with chickpea or gram, a staple legume. They take position at strategic points such as at the entry and exit end of a park or playground where both morning and evening walkers make their rounds.
Now, these enterprising souls trade in different essential items. At a time when labourers go to do their menial jobs, these enterprising individuals carry on their small trade independently. Afternoon and early evening are the times for brisk business but the morning sale for some is quite satisfactory. For example, chola masala and boiled eggs have high demand even in the morning. Then there are peanut vendors who are of two categories. Some with small capital get their ware roasted at home and come with a limited amount of the item. Others have vans on which they roast their peanuts and at the same time sell it to customers who prefer the tasty treat oven-fresh.
If boiled eggs have their demand at playground and park gates in both morning and evening, peanut, jhal muri (fried rice thoroughly mixed with onion slices, green pepper pieces and mustard oil or kasundi---a kind of nice flavoured pickle made from mustard seeds) do brisk business in the afternoon and evening. There are also other tea vendors who move from one place to another vending prepared tea in a thermo flask. They can as well prepare tea on order. Hot water in a different thermo flask and tea bags do the trick for them. Of course, some even vend cigarettes but quite wisely they are not allowed to enter any recognised park. Masala chhola is in high demand too.
However, a kind of sweet marvellous in look but not so much in food value was once highly popular among children but seems to be on the way out. This is candy floss. Once so common, it is still found at times near or at children parks with rides for them. Apart from these traditional street hawkers, a new generation of them are doing business obstructing a segment of foot over-bridges. They usually sell non-traditional items but no foodstuff. Yet they attract children because the toys on display are precisely meant for the young customers.
To return to the neighbourhood food courts, leaving the roving ones at their strategic locations, it is a whole new dimension of eating habits for the young generation. There are no chair table and service boys to serve. But no problem! If the food starting from local noodles, jhalmuri, singara, samocha etc., to jeerapani to Mexican tacos and tortillas to momo are tasty, the young customers do not mind eating the tasty dishes by standing or sitting on the few stools available. They have to hold the onetime dish in one hand and pick up the foods with another to savour those.
There reigns a lively atmosphere in which the foods taste better in presence of friends and the loved ones. It is quite a fun to be amidst these energetic and bubbling companies. Of course, tea and coffee are available. But what really clinches the day is the humour in the name of the temporary eateries. For example, one has it inscribed "Motu Patlu" on the colourful side cover made of tin. The message is that both heavyweights and wafer thin customers are welcome here. Everyone will reap benefits from eating there. Of course there are love birds who enjoy an entertaining evening in each other's company where the food is both a pretext and a catalyst. They can chant, "Long live street food culture".