Enjoying forbidden food in Calcutta after waiting many years

JHAL MURI IS a Bengali ‘street food’. Mixture of puffed rice, mustard oil, and other things including: chilli, coconut, channa, peanuts, lemon juice, coriander, onion, tomato, sev, chutneys, … and more! You choose your mix.

Making jhal muri

Usually made in the street, it may pose a risk to weak stomachs. My wife’s mother, a medical doctor, forbade her daughter from eating this when it was sold by street vendors. It was sold just outside Loreto House School, where my wife was a pupil. She felt hard done by when she saw her schoolfriends eating this ‘forbidden’ snack.

Today, having yearned for it for many years, she sampled jhal muri at the Tollygunge Club. Sadly, it did not meet her great expectations.