Hangla’s story

Hangla’s is a roadside snack food chain in Mumbai. They sell Kolkata-style rolls, Biriyani and other items from four outlets across the city that many seem to relish; needless to say how much the Bengali community enjoys them. Saunter down to any of the stalls on a weekend eve, and you will know.

But Hangla’s is an inappropriate name for a food stall. The Bengali word Hangla means “greedy for food”. A food stall can’t be greedy, otherwise very little will be left for patrons…

The naming bit apart, other aspects of it are mostly satisfactory; one might become a Hangla after eating some delicacies on offer. They offer the same rolls in Mumbai that most nondescript, hole-in-the-wall shops in Kolkata sell, but they do it with a lot of difference. Their imports are much more refined in taste, are less greasy and so less harmful.

I took a Double Chicken Roll at their Andheri West outlet. The Paratha, or the fried bread that holds the succulent chicken nuggets and fried onions seeped in delicate gravy inside, is incredibly less oily. It doesn’t look fried at all but has a softness whose match can only be found at Delhi’s Paratha Gulli.

The gravy is only half as spicy as Hotkati’s in Kolkata, but delightfully tasty. That’s important, because the oily and spicy delicacies, however good the taste, would have failed to woo the urban Mumbai palate. In Kolkata we go to gym and gorge on greasy fried items too. The Mumbai youth may not be as benevolent; they’d rather be rid of the second…

What also impressed me was their approach to business. We have a section in ilovekolkata, Frying Pan, which carries photo features on indigenous snack food stalls of Kolkata. Writing on the fare is not exactly the difficult part, but our photographers regularly bear the brunt of the shop-owners’ unprofessional attitude. They often snub requests for photo-shoot. What I can gather, the stall-owners are scared of publicity as they think that would bring them into I-T department’s glare. The inference: they don’t either pay income-tax or have clean accounting practice.

In contrast to this folly, Hangla’s display star-ratings awarded by media reviews on large vinyl boards. Food reviews are a useful means of finding good eateries now, the display at Hangla’s shows they are up to the order of the day.

I don’t expect the same picture here. A number of snack food chains have come up in Kolkata in last few years but none stood out, mostly due to their reluctance to forgo the old style functioning. But what do Kolkatans care what other people think? Being dismissive of others practices is all-important here; the attitude has a ready appeal on the streets.

Hope it changes soon.

Hangla’s paradise: http://www.ilovekolkata.in/component/option,com_photogal/Itemid,2337?cat=513&p=0

Image courtesy: http://finelychopped-k.blogspot.com/