Beguni, Moori and some memories! - a memoir of Kolkata Afternoons with crispy Eggplant fritters served with puffed rice.

Beguni, Moori and some memories! - a memoir of Kolkata Afternoons with crispy Eggplant fritters served with puffed rice.

Beguni, a quintessential Bengali snack that you can find at almost every nook and corner of Kolkata in the afternoon in those small one-man army shops and kiosks selling verities of Chops (gram flour coated fritters) made with different major ingredients like potato, mix vegetable, eggplant, banana blossom, etc.

Traditionally Beguni is made with thin slices of eggplants, coated well with gram flour batter that is spiced with turmeric, nigella seeds, salt and then deep fried in Mustard Oil.

Bengalis no matter whether they own a merc or a cycle, enjoy this delicacy with white puffed rice, Moori as one of the popular afternoon snacks. 

Now why a memoir of Kolkata. Being grown up in a typical North Kolkata Middle-class family, our afternoon and evenings were mostly Chop & Moori. In a particular street near to home, there were around twenty shops selling different kind of chops and a few were the master in the craft of making really big size Beguni. And the maestro was a store named, Kalika on Surya Sen Street. They used to source real big sized Eggplants from their secret suppliers and used to make the Begunis with poppy seeds added to the batter. One piece of the snack was enough to satisfy your hunger. There used to be a queue of all sort of people of all age groups like college professors, school kids, their moms, college groups, Sarkari babus, daily wage labourers, outside the store in the super busy footpath for those Begunis in the afternoon. We used to place our order well in advance, and when the first batch of those 8 to 10-inch gigantic fritters used to come out of the oil, the shop always looked like a honeycomb with people. Within five minutes the lot used to get vanished leaving some happy and some 'need-to-wait-more' faces around. 

When I visited Kolkata this year during Diwali, I requested Dad to bring that big begunis. But he told me a heart-wrenching news that Kalika has stopped making Begunis, altogether. Reasons being many from non-availability of good quality desi eggplants to shifting choice of snacks of Kolkata to balancing the cost versus price. Saddened by the news, I requested Mom to make some for me which she did merrily, and we all enjoyed the homemade eggplant fritters with moori and remembering several incidents involving getting Beguni from Kalika!

Now, let's come back to present day and city!

Today afternoon, while I was doing my regular survey at Reliance Smart at Lake City Mall, (yes, survey, not purchasing, I do it often, to see what's in and what's new) I found some big, long Eggplants. And that was a Eureka moment for me!

Without wasting a minute further, checked out with four large pieces and reached home at a speed, enough to cause a fine by the traffic police.

Thinly sliced them, made a batter with Gramflour, added some spices, salt, and nigella seeds. Coated them well and deep fried.

And here they are, crispy Beguni with Moori! A snack that makes all Bongs go weak on their knees!

And you know the best part, Sharing it with friends and munching together! 😋