Atanu Das , Sr. Journalist
New Delhi 31 July,
Jhal muri is a spicy puffed rice snack that is loved by everyone in Bengal. Jhalmuri is recently added in the list of ‘Ten Foods Around the World’ and being displayed as ‘Try Before You Die’…And everything has a history…
During Second World War many Labourers from Bihar and UP migrated to Kolkata and neighbouring Howrah – Kamarhati region. Those migrant people were mostly manual labourers in the city. Puffed rice, called as Muri, was their main food in morning time before going to work. At lunch time they used to take Flatbread made of Sattu or sometimes Muri mixed with onion, green chilli, water-soaked Chola and little bit of mustard oil.
After the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in February 1942, Calcutta turned into a major site of a global war. A number of British and American soldiers arrived at Calcutta. They used to stay in Grand hotel area. Lot of temporary military camps were erected for them in Maidan area also.
During this time the migrant labourers, after completion of their work, started to sell Muri prepared by them near Grand Hotel and Maidan area in order to get some extra income. They started to mix more ingredients in Muri like cucumber, boiled potatoes etc. Very soon their spicy tangy Muri attracted the British and American soldiers staying there. The spicy Muri got a new identity ‘Jhalmuri’ and became very popular among those British and American soldiers as their wonderful evening snacks.
Bengalis were however initially not much interested ‘Jhalmuri’. This was probably due to a concept that ‘Jhalmuri’ prepared by lower class labourers might be a non – hygenic food. But when the local Bengalees found that the foreign soldiers were also enjoying this food very much a curiosity was born among them. They tasted ‘Jhalmuri’ and immediately loved it. Gradually ‘Jhalmuri’ became very much popular among Bengalees as well.
Now in Bengal each and every place has its own way and recipe for preparing Jhalmuri and to understand this one must travel Bengal with local train. It is highly interesting to know various types of preparations in this respect:
— If you travel to Medinipur or Kharagpur you can see the Jhalmuri vendors using oil of raw mango pickle instead of mustard oil. At Pashkura and Mecheda pieces of Alur Chop are also mixed with Jhalmuri occasionally.
— At Namkhana and Diamond Harbour they prefer to add Ghugni into Jhalmuri.
— At many places, particularly in Shealdah section, your Jhalmuri will be garnished with a decorative coconut piece.
— At Dankuni, Vaidyabati, Bandel you will find water-soaked chola in your Jhalmuri but when you cross Burdwan station and approach towards Guskara you will see that the water-soaked cholas are being slowly replaced by completely boiled cholas.
— At Rampurhat-Tarapith region a new ingredient will come which is boiled Barbati seed.
–At Maldah you can find Kusum Seeds in your Jhalmuri.
— At North Bengal, particularly in Falakata, Alipurduar you will find potato fry in your Jhalmuri.
So many delicious types of Jhalmuri are present now !!!
Could the Calcutta – based British and American soldiers of Second World War imagine this ?!
