BEST Biryani! & Food Tour of Kolkata India: Kathi Rolls!

Hey, what's up? It's me, Matt. It's Tuesday, the 26th of July. Hey guys, this is Mike Chen. I am at the thriving port city of Kolkata here in India and just my first impression, this city has got a ton of classic looking cabs, man powered rickshaws and of course Bengali food which is really known for its abundant use of roots and spices to create such a depth of flavor in all its dishes. The food can be fiery, it can be delicate or anything in between and I can't wait to get started. Let's go eat. And guys, I am joined today by two sisters, Po and Ko. You guys grew up here? Yes, we did. Most importantly, do you guys love food? Oh yeah. That's the number one criteria. You guys are going to show me basically around the city and we're going to just eat our hearts out and our stomachs out and everything today. Where are we getting started? So this is Nizam. This place is famous because it's the inventor of kathi rolls. It's a fried flatbread. They fry it and it has a lot of fillings inside a variety of it. It can be just egg, it can be chicken, it can be mutton, it can be a mixture of all of those and onions and some lemon. And now when I was talking to you guys, you told me this place, you don't really like it. It's very famous but right now I think there are better rolls available in the city than Nizam's. Alright, so what we're going to do is, I want to try because it's really famous. So I'm going to try. You guys take me somewhere where you think it's better. Okay. Yeah, you can compare. Yeah. Then we'll eat that. And this is really good today because Ko is a doctor. So if I eat something that's, you know, if I eat something really spicy or something puts me down, you can help me. Yeah, of course. I'll take care of you. Sounds good. Let's go. You guys should know something about me. I love kathi rolls. Like love it. I've seen you having kathi rolls in New York but these kathi rolls don't have mayo. I did a video about kathi rolls in New York City and I don't know anything, you know what I mean? Like I just think it tastes good, you know? And everyone was like, that's not a real kathi roll. They look good but they weren't real kathi rolls. I did not know. So I want to apologize for that video. But now it's my redemption. I can actually have some kathi rolls that's authentically authentic. So what are we eating here? This is like an In-N-Out's burger. You guys ever heard of In-N-Out's? So it's a popular burger place in America where you can get like a double-double, you know like double cheese, double meat, or triple-triple, or quadruple-quadruple, whatever you want. So this kind of reminds me of that because you can get single cheese, single mutton, double cheese, double mutton. You can keep building it up. Eat as much as you want. Alright, I'm going to have some fun. But you know what? Alright, I'm getting a little too excited. I can't go overboard right now. It's my first meal of the day. Double paratha, double mutton, double egg roll. I'm getting that. I'm getting the ultimate double-double-double. The triple-double. Like I feel like I'm holding something like so exciting. If I was in the Olympics and I ran with this, I could just keep going. I just like get tired, take a bite, keep running. So this is a double-double-double. Oh, that's so beautiful. You got the egg. They just cooked the mutton. I can see the spices inside the rolls itself right now. And I just want to take a piece of this mutton. The mutton is charred. You can see like, oh man. Look how juicy that is. It's glistening. I can also see little pieces of the egg. So I'm thinking this thing is going to be a little spicy, really toasty in that mutton. I'm expecting good things from that mutton. You guys sure you don't want one? We wait. The roll itself is so beautifully crispy. The mutton is not the most tender. Yeah, but the edges are charred. Yeah, the edges are charred, but it's got this fantastic flavor. The first bite, I didn't even reach really the center of this. I'm going to take another huge bite here. There's no sauce in here, right? No. This is a traditional roll. A traditional roll is just the meat, chilies, onions, some lemon, and an egg, if you want an egg. Okay, only in New York do we just slab it with sauce. No, you do have Kolkata rolls, you do have joints which give you sauce. This is the purest roll. Only thing is, there's not that much mutton in here. The ratio of mutton, the paratha itself, is almost like the star here. This thing is so incredibly, incredibly crunchy and moist on the inside. I mean, that plays as much role as the mutton. I just wish there was more mutton. The only thing kind of preventing me from completely enjoying this is I think I know there's a better one coming up. So I'm going to savor this, and then I'll try hopefully something better later. I'm excited. So this is Newmarket, and they sell everything here, from cosmetics to purses to hair extensions and tons of food. I'm going to try the cheese samosas. Cheese samosa. Let's go get some. All right, here we go. The cheese samosa. It looks like an empanada. It does look like an empanada. Right? All right, so here's one for you guys. Thank you. I'm just going to break this open. All right, that is flaky. You guys ready? Yes. Wow. That is so interesting because the cheese, look at it. It's airy, right? It almost tastes like bread, like cheese bread, right? It has a little spicy marinara. Mmm. If you guys like cheese and you like bread, this is your thing. You should get this. This bakery's been around for over 100 years. 116 years. That all went to perfecting this. I love how creamy it is, too. After you chew it, the cheese flavor just kind of lingers on my tongue. We have one more thing after this. A garlic bread? Garlic bread, yes. Whoa. I wish someone would invent a portable oven so I can just like toast this for like two minutes, and so it's nice and crunchy. You guys want a piece? You're going to share one? You don't need to eat too much. I know you guys are trying to pace yourselves. Guys, look at the butter. Look at it. That's all butter. After this bite, nobody will want to talk to us except for us, which is fine. I don't care about other people anyway. It is so garlicky and buttery. It's slightly got a hint of sweetness to it. We also got something else from this place. So you said every Christmas, this place is just bombarded. You can't get it. That's how people line up for this cake here. Ooh. It's in a seal. You know why it's wrapped in wax paper? This is all to prevent the butter from just soaking through the box. 100% the reason why this is the cake. And this thing is thick. If I drop this on my foot, you might have to put me in a cast because this is heavy. Here we go. Mmm. I've never said this about fruitcake before. This is great fruitcake. There's such a nice blend of spices in here. As soon as you put it into your mouth, spices just hits every single one of your senses. My taste buds are right now jumping up and down decorating a Christmas tree. Because they think it's Christmas. Because I'm eating a just delicious fruitcake. Alright, I'm gonna stop talking about fruitcake. Where are we going next? Guys, right now we're at a restaurant called Ansela for some biryani. Now, to me, like, biryani is just an Indian dish. But you guys, you distinctively separate it by regions and cities. Kolkata here, you love your biryani. You're the only ones that have potato in your biryani. I love potatoes in my anything. So I'm just gonna love the heck out of this dish. Hey, I support that wholeheartedly. You gotta have your potato. So what are we ordering today? Okay, so we're getting an Arsalan special kebab. Okay. Which is basically a kebab which they wrap in cheese. And we are gonna get a thumbs up to have with the biryani. A thumbs up is your version of Coca-Cola, sort of. Yes, we love thumbs up Coca-Cola. Thumbs up to that. We got our thumbs up. Oh, cheers. All of our food is coming right now. But let's start with this thing here. This is the special kebab. That's so cheesy and smoky. Look at a little chunny. Oh, man. That chicken is so smoky. Forget smoky the bear, smoky the chicken. You taste the cheese first, and then the smokiness hits you. And then the cheese cools everything down again. The cheese is great. With the chunny, even better. Even better. Wow. Wow, that's a great bite. I can eat this by myself. What should we try next? Go for the naan and the rizala. Naan and the rizala. Dig into this a little bit. There's a big chili on top. And you guys said the oil. Look at this. This is a piece of mutton. It's like a little fried ball. So you mix it. And then see on the bottom, it's more white and yogurt-y. Wow, this is intense. And this is the... Mutton chop. Mutton chop and mutton... All right, let's do it. I really want to try this. So penetrate the oil. Mix it up a bit. Look at that. Wow. It's oily. But you know what? It's actually okay. When you go to the bottom. I want to try a piece of the mutton here. Oh! Tender. Yeah, very tender. That might be one of the most tender, flavorful piece of mutton I've had in India. This is the mutton chop. Mutton chop. I don't know which one I love more. This is... It's oily. But that heat cancels out the oil. That heat is so nice. It's so flavorfully hot. That lamb is caressing my mouth right now. If you guys don't know, I am a food archaeologist. I am. I excavate food all the time. I'm an expert. We first gently brush away the top. As to not disturb anything that might be buried and soaking in spices and flavor. Oh, the color of the rice changed a little bit. That's the hint of the butter. I have struck something important. It looks like mutton. This has been an incredible discovery so far. I'm gonna just gently lift the mutton to the surface. Oh, it has a bone connected to it. And it's falling off the bone. This is a fragile piece of mutton. After the mutton, the egg. The egg is whole and the gold is the potato. Guys, this is falling off the bone. Look at this. This bone just came out. Usually when you're excavating, bones don't come out that easy. But this thing, that's out. No effort. Go ahead and do what you guys normally do. Everyone has their own style. Okay. Okay, so little rice. Yeah. Potato. Some of that. I'm gonna hold the egg down for you. We're gonna tag team this egg. Yeah. Nice. This girl knows her stuff. Oh yeah, that potato looks just gentle. I want this piece of tendon right here. Oh my good lord. I'm gonna put a piece of mutton on top of that. Little egg white. Little egg yolk. Little potato. Spoonful of rice. This is gonna be a crazy bite. You need the potato in the biryani. Oh my god, that smoothness. I mean, that potato, to me, that's a star. It's so much flavor in those potatoes. And it just gets everywhere. It touches the rice. Everything it touches is like the holy ingredient. That's making all the other ingredients just sing. It unifies everything. It's very nice. It's a great unifier. There's so many different types of spices in here. It's just the most fragrant rice. I'm just gonna crush my potato into my rice. I'm also going to mash the mutton and the egg yolk. Do a little stir fry on my plate. Tell me you don't want a bite of this right now. I want to bring back my good friend, the risotto here. Oh man. All this. This mutton. Some yogurt sauce on the rice. I'm gonna take one of these little puffy things. Put it on top. I'm gonna take this chili. So this is the mutton that's been soaked into that juice and spices. Look at this. So that's some of the mutton. All the gravy. This is so insanely good. Now I'm good for more meat. So we're gonna dig into all this. More food coming up. We're taking a break from eating to eat. We're eating some dessert. What is this we got here? So this is a rosogolla. It's basically these balls of cottage cheese that are boiled in sugar syrup. These are the fresh ones so they're still hot. They're still hot. That's why I grabbed it. I thought they were cold. I grabbed the bottom. I was like, oh my god. They're actually quite hot. Real, really fresh, huh? Yes. Well, I'm excited to try. You want to try this first? It kind of looks a little like mochi balls. I love sweet stuff, but I'll tell you something. I feel like Indian desserts are really sweet. This is great. But that texture. The texture is amazing. It's amazing. It's like just eating the nicest piece of sweet cheese. Yes, and kind of falls apart in your mouth. I know this is sweet. This is one of the greatest things I've had in India. I couldn't tell this is cottage cheese. I know this is some type of cheese. I would almost say it's borderline like a rough mozzarella. That texture to me. Let me ask you a question, though. So you don't like it this sweet. You don't like it that sweet. Does anybody you know like it this sweet? Oh, yeah. Oh, really? There are people who will have the rasgulla and then drink the syrup. Oh my god. If you shoot the syrup, I swear to goodness, you're going to stay awake for about a week. Well, yeah, I was trying to say like nobody likes it sweet. Why don't everyone just lower the sweet? But a lot of people do like it sweet. It's fantastic. Most people do. Let's try this. So this thing is a little different. It's softer, it's smoother. There's still that beautiful cheese flavor and the texture at the end. But the initial phases, it's a lot less dense and elastic-y than this one. This is really, really good. If you want something a little more mild texture-wise, this is fantastic. That was good, though. I enjoyed that bite. Now I need like two bottles of water. Like seriously. I can't believe people drink. Oh my god. I couldn't drink this. We just took a break from eating by eating. Now we're going to go eat some more. Yep. This is the best fun food day ever. That's why I love it. We are at another roll place. And this is the one that you guys think is better than the one we had before. This is the roll from Zeeshan. This is Zeeshan and this is the mutton tikkia roll. So instead of chunks of mutton, you have it made with a mutton tikkia, which is made with mutton mince. And it's just that, onions, a little bit of lemon, and of course the crispy paratha. That's just it. That's it. And this is a double? It's a double. Double, double. Kokada style. Just like the one previous. This thing, look how uber crispy it is. So ridiculously crispy on the outside. You guys don't want this. Well, when I bite it, I'll tell it you said hi. Here we go. I'm going to compare this to the roll from the Zom's. Again, no sauce. No sauce. The man said no sauce. The owner said don't put any sauce on here. Don't ruin my roll. It's for sure a more flavorful roll. And also, because the mutton is minced, and the other one was kind of in cubes. The other one, the meat was slightly tougher. This meat is really gentle. And because it's minced, it can have more flavor in the meat. The roll on the outside, I feel like it's pretty even. They both taste ridiculously crunchy and tender. This is the money bite right here. I like them both actually. I'm going to tell you guys why I can't render a verdict. I'm not trying to be PC. I don't care about that. Because if one is better, I'm going to tell you. There's two factors I feel like my decision is affected. One is that the meat is different. I feel right away that that does change it a lot. Like I said, I do feel like this is a more flavorful roll. It's got more heat. It's making my mouth tingle a lot more than the other place. The heat is directly in the meat. Whereas the other place, the heat is in the chilies they add into the rolls. Now, here's the biggest reason I feel like I can't give out my verdict. Is that when we had the first roll, that was the first thing we had today. I was like starving. I was so excited. That bite was so incredibly good. Now that we had like 20,000 foods after, this is still good. That's why I can't like 100% tell you which one I love more. I think they're both really, really good. And I'm just going to take another bite, see if I can render a verdict. Off the wall, ridiculously good. All I can say is, at this point, they're both really good. But if you guys have been to both places, let me know which one you like better. This is a different kind of roll. It looks like an egg roll. Let's just break it open and see what's inside, shall we? Ooh! It's fish. A little breadcrumb outside, fried. And then, what is this stuffing? Is this also fish? So it's fish wrapped with fish. And deep fried. You guys come up with some really awesome ideas. You do. Oh, you used the other mustard. Now you tell me. I love how crispy it is on the outside. That's actually kind of creamy. I love the tenderness of the fish right here. Never thought, like a roll that's a fish. Like, usually fish is like stuffed in something. And the roll is like something else. But this is like a, it's like fish inception right here. And what's this called? What's this dish called? It's just called fish roll. Okay. Hey, nice and simple. But really, really nice. It is also definitely, like, just the most substantial piece of fish I've ever had in my life. If I lift this a hundred times, my biceps will grow by, like, times two. If I ever want to eat again today, I think we gotta walk away. Do I want to eat more? Of course I want to eat more. Let's go eat more. I think when he pours the tea really high, it makes it taste better. Anyway, just a little tea break before our next meal. Cheers! Well, you know, after a long hot day, I gotta reward myself. Mmm. That's delicious. I ain't ashamed of this. Ooh. So this is fusion Bengali food. And we're gonna go eat the more traditional versions later. Wait, wait, wait. This is baked crab. Yes, it's crab meat. It's more like a thick, almost like a congee-esque texture. Ooh, that smells really crabby. Oh my good lord, this is good. Why did they give so little of it? It almost tastes like a risotto without the rice. And the rice is replaced with crab meat. Just when it gets a little too rich, the spice kicks in. They should call this the chili pickled crab rollercoaster ride because that's really what I feel like my taste buds has been on each single time I take a bite. Mutton chops. Ooh. I didn't realize it was like a big chunk, big piece of mutton, huh? Cooked to tender perfection. Look at this. Easily removed off the bones. So ridiculously tender and nice. Ooh. The lamb itself is just so ridiculously tender. I love the use of fresh herbs here. So all the herbs that's cooked into this dish, that's not just for garnishing. That plays an important role in this. Again, I love the use of chilies. Not overwhelming, but it has a presence, you know? This is perfect. This thing is so saucy. All right, let's keep going. Wow, look at this. So the bacon and some pieces are kind of roasted, charred almost. All right, look at this. Put that whole thing in your mouth. I think that's the best way to approach this situation. This might be one of the greatest things I've ever put in my mouth. Oh. I didn't even know mango and mustard could go together this well. Because you expect the mango to be too sweet. Okay, so it's not very sweet. You get that hint of mango. You always get that nice tanginess of the mustard. The mustard works with sweetness because we got honey mustard, you know? That's the whole concept behind that. Mustard and the sweet mango, it just forms this beautiful union. The chicken is tender. Great. But I feel like the star, bacon in the gravy. I'm going back to this still, by the way. This is like one of the craziest things. All right, well, we're going to eat up because after all this, we're going to go try right down the street, traditional Bengali food. I cannot wait to do the comparison. And I cannot wait to just eat all this. All right, guys. Last place today. This is our, like, fifth dinner. This is a really popular place, right? What's it called? Sixth Bali Gunj place. And this place serves traditional Bengali food. I'm excited. Okay, let's do it. All right. Oh, yeah, please. Thank you so much. The mustard here is much more aggressive. Right away, you're like, oh, man, that's a lot of mustard. Nasi Perang. This is all chili? Oh, it's spicy. I think there's some ginger and garlic in here. Oh, I'm chewing on coconut right now. I just like to just gnaw on the head a little. Yeah, a lot. The fragrance of the coconut and everything else really works so well to kind of make this the star. Anytime I get to have a jumbo prime, I feel really happy. Last dish, the most difficult, dangerous dish. Bones are no joke. Look at this. It's not even just a bone. It's like a branch bone. Wow. That's not fun. I'm still a little scared of it because I saw the 20,000 bones it has. This might be the most flavorful fish I've ever had. The meat, it's so ridiculously tender. It's not like melting in your mouth. It's the type where as you chew, so much of that flavor releases. Literally, on the 10th chew, like, it's better. Wow, you guys need to get that. I mean, be careful, but you need to get that. Some of the best things I've had today, obviously, the cod roe is amazing. I can't eat at the cod roe place in New York anymore. I feel ashamed to have made that video. I don't know. It's so nice to see where all that stuff comes from and to eat the authentic version of it. It was just mind-blowingly good. Everything was good. You guys, oh my. Thank you, thank you again so, so much. And thank you guys so much for watching this video. And of course, all the places we went to, their suggestions is listed for you in my description box below. And until we eat again, see you later. Bye!