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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  A menu that showcases Myanmar
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A menu that showcases Myanmar

Chanda Dutt, the owner and head chef of Kolkata's first Burmese restaurant, on how nostalgia influences her cooking

Chanda Dutt. Photo: Priyadarshini ChatterjeePremium
Chanda Dutt. Photo: Priyadarshini Chatterjee

She whips up Burmese culinary classics like ‘balachaung’ and ‘mohinga’ like a boss and her Ong No Khaukswey has been the talking point among Kolkata’s culinary enthusiasts for a while now. After hosting a series of pop-ups at her Beniapukur home, Chanda Dutt, retired schoolteacher and wife of singer-songwriter-actor-director Anjan Dutt, recently threw open the doors to her 14-seater Burmese speciality restaurant, Chanda’s Khaukswey, near Gol Park in Kolkata. Edited excerpts from an interview:

Tell us about your Myanmar connection.

Myanmar is home. My family has lived in Myanmar for three generations. My paternal and maternal grandfathers had immigrated to Myanmar from East Bengal, and my parents, all my uncles and aunts, grew up in Myanmar. I was born and brought up in Taunggyi, in Shan State, and only shifted to Calcutta in the late 1960s.

When did you start cooking Burmese food?

In Myanmar, we had Barua ‘ayahs’ and cooks, and the food cooked in our kitchen was essentially Burmese. When we shifted to Calcutta in 1967—I was still in school then—I began to miss the food I grew up on. My mother, a fantastic cook, started improvising and experimenting in our Calcutta kitchen and came up with dishes reminiscent of familiar flavours.

During my days at Calcutta University, there used to be a place in New Market called Malam’s that served excellent ‘khao suey’, and we often sneaked over for our fill of it. However, that wasn’t enough, so I decided to take matters in my hands and started making ‘khao suey’ and other typical Burmese dishes at home. After I got married, I introduced Burmese food to my husband’s family. They were hooked for good.

What prompted you to take your food to the public?

It has always bothered me that Myanmar’s rich culinary tradition has remained underexposed for so long. I wanted to tell people there was more to Burmese food than ‘khao suey’. Encouraged by friends and family, I started out by organizing Burmese pop-ups at home. The fabulous response gave me a lot of confidence. Once I retired as a schoolteacher, I had a lot of time on hand and finally decided to open my own restaurant. It’s a huge gamble, but it’s all worth it.

Tell us about the food you serve at your restaurant?

It’s quintessentially and exclusively Burmese. For me, this is comfort food charged with nostalgia. The menu is small, but it beautifully showcases Myanmar’s tastes and flavours. Take, for instance, the Boo Thi Gyaw, fritters made of the humble gourd, an indispensable everyday snack in Myanmar, or the Hto Boo Thoke, a salad made with Burmese tofu, which, unlike the Chinese tofu that is made of bean curd, is made of chickpeas and has a very distinct flavour. Another inimitable dish is the La Phet Thoke, a pickled tea leaves salad. The dish doesn’t feature on the regular menu, but I make it from time to time as the day’s special or on request.

Which ones are your personal favourites?

Every dish I cook is special, but if I had to choose I would pick the Wet Tha Si Biyan, the red and gold pork curry, which I serve with steamed rice and sautéed greens. It is basically pork belly cooked in its own fat—the curry is a gorgeous red in colour with a gleaming film of gold pork fat. And of course, there is the Ong No Khaukswey, prepared with chicken broth and fresh coconut milk.

From where do you source ingredients unique to Burmese food?

Most of the ingredients I use in my food are available in Kolkata, but there are a few unique ones I source from Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia. The ‘ngapi’, fermented fish paste, a particular variety of indigenous black sticky rice, as also the shrimp I use to make the ‘balachaung’—a dried shrimp relish—are all sourced from Myanmar.

What is it that you miss most from your Myanmar days?

Definitely the mouth-watering assortment of street food. My personal favourites are the ‘mohinga’, Burmese-style rice noodles and fish soup, often dubbed the country’s national dish, and ‘si chet khaukswey’, stir-fried noodles topped with fried garlic. Among other favourites are plums cooked with jaggery and ‘ngapi’, sold especially outside city schools. You can also sample delicious duck roast and duck soup on the streets.

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Published: 29 Apr 2016, 09:17 PM IST
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