Underrepresented food culture and culinary journey of selected foreign communities of Kolkata

Kolkata, over the centuries, has adopted, accepted, and included communities from across the globe, creating the present-day Kolkata platter through food evolution. Historical connotations and literary descriptions are mostly on colonial, Chinese, Mughlai, and Awadhi influences. However, there are other foreign communities, like Afghans, Parsis, and Tibetans, who came for trade and exile, and whose cuisines found a place in Bengalis’ food palate. However, the global influence of K-Waves through digital media has also influenced people’s food choices, which differs significantly from the city’s historical narratives. Thus, the study develops an argument based on visiting selected restaurants and conversations with customers who prefer Afghan, Tibetan, Parsi, and Korean food over other cuisines. This qualitative study employed participant observation and unstructured interviews conducted at selected Afghan, Parsi, Tibetan, and Korean restaurants eighteen in numbers on popularity basis in Kolkata. Data were collected from forty general customers from restaurants and separately sixty Bengali respondents who are frequent consumers of these cuisines using snowball sampling. Interview data and field observations are analysed through thematic coding, while respondents’ cuisine preferences were summarised using a food preference matrix to compare patterns across age groups. The finding reveals that Afghans, Parsis, and Tibetans arrived at different times as traders or immigrants, and that, among all the material exchanges, food proved a key to cultural assimilation with the natives. Finally, the study contributes to the changing food culture of Kolkata, influenced by unexplored foreign communities, and highlights their importance in developing the city’s culinary identity.