Pice Hotel: lifeline for hungry workers in Calcutta

It’s easy to miss the narrow entrance to the Sideshwaria Shram Hotel, which sits quietly in the alleyway of the Sir Stuart Hogg (New Market) Market in Calcutta, but the smell of grilled fish in mustard oil will take you away. guide to the door. It’s rush hour and the restaurant, one of the last Pis hotels in Calcutta, is full of gills. A pile of rice on a plate of banana leaves is accompanied by a bowl of vegetables, fish and meat. The accountant seated between the stairs and the dining room keeps the score for all services. When a hungry office worker takes a lunch break, the seats on the marble table fill up one after another.

Ritasen, the fourth generation owner of this luxury hotel, rushed to manage the floor. “We’ve been running this place for 93 years and the flow of customers hasn’t stopped. Even the former mayor of Calcutta had lunch from our hotel, ”she said.

The name of the Spice hotel is Hindi “Paisa“-Minimum of the Indian rupee. Named for its inexpensive, healthy, home-cooked meals. In the early 1900s, the cityscape of Calcutta, a bustling metropolis, was filled with immigrants. Flocked, dozens of hotels scattered around. These workers were mostly single middle-class men who could not cook and who regretted the comfort of their family’s kitchen. Hotel Pice was homesick. He provided both friendliness and nutrition to young men.

The service at the Pice Hotel is unique. Meals are served on a plate of banana leaves to patrons seated on the floor mats. The recipe was strictly traditional and often included dishes such as: alu post With poppy seed paste kumro phool bhaja Made from pumpkin blossoms and sweet spiced shrimp malai chingrimacher curry With coconut milk. Prices and menus change daily depending on what is available in the market that morning. Everything, down to the last piece of lemon (and the banana leaf), was priced individually in order to reduce overhead and avoid waste.

Tables and chairs have replaced the floor mats, but the services at these hotels in Pis have not changed. Visitors can still enjoy the usual experience of eating on a banana leaf plate, and a regular three-course meal is always cheap at around 200 rupees (just over 2). Even today, everyone from Indian workers to foreign tourists can walk into these traditional restaurants according to old-fashioned rules and recipes and taste arguably the most authentic Bengali cuisine in Kolkata. I go.

“Currently, Pis hotels come with a lot of urban romance, but for almost a century their position in Calcutta’s gastronomic world has been cheap and balanced for the low-income group. It was to serve food, ”said food historian Tanushley Baumic. The cafe for British residents was the first retail store in India. However, Bhowmik added that the pice hotel stands out as “the city’s first commercial indigenous dining hall”. “As the economy shifted from agriculture to industry, people moved from rural to urban areas, and these hotels were born to meet that need. “

Many pice hotels started out as kitchens messbaris, Inexpensive boarding house for students and office workers. Inheriting the Mahal Hotel from his grandfather Nandalal Dutta, Sandeep Dutta spoke of the start of his Pis Hotel as part of the famous presidential pension on Ramnas Majumda Road in northern Kolkata. “In 1917 my grandfather founded this boarding house for students who came to study at the best educational institutions nearby,” he said. “When the pension was finally closed, I turned the kitchen into a restaurant.”

The Sidheshwari Ashram Hotel also began in the early 1900s as a Bali Mass for workers from neighboring cities and provinces. “In 1936, my father decided to open the door to foreigners to develop his business during the lunch break. For those who go to the office to look for something also when setting up the menu. I decided to include the Heavy option. Kobirajihor – Our specialty – is a light fish curry with a mixture of vegetables. In summer we serve aam shol machch, Spicy mango and fish in mustard curry with little spiciness. “

The Peace Hotel is known for its surprisingly wide range of dishes served for lunch and dinner. Tucked away in a picturesque corner of Rushbehari Junction in southern Calcutta, the 106-year-old Tarnniketan Hotel serves 15 fish dishes a day. bhetki paturiSteamed marinated fish fillets with banana leaves. Citol Kosher, Spicy clown knife fish curry; and famous Bengal delicacies Ilish macher jhol, Hirusa fish cooked in a soft mustard sauce. Arun Dev, who has run the facility for 42 years, says fish roe fritters are particularly popular.

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Dining in a luxury hotel is different from most dining experiences in Kolkata. A list of daily products and their prices is carefully entered on the board at the entrance to each hotel. The server can shake the whole memory list. Tables are usually shared, but each seat has a separate bill. Most hotels only accept cash.

Bengali cuisine is elaborate, comprising at least seven dishes. “Food here can be eaten on the course – you will be served first Sukto, It’s a bitter vegetable curry. Next come leafy vegetables. Next is the lentil curry, where you can add donuts and simple vegetables. Then the fish, the meat and finally the sweet chutney clean the palette and take you to dessert. “From bitter to sweet. To visitors these choices may seem intimidating, but a little help from the waiter can be of great help in finding the right combination. It’s economical, Bhowmik said.

During India’s independence movement in the 1940s, luxury hotels offered more than cheap food. History buffs and regulars at Young Bengal hotels in the Kidapore area of ​​Kolkata, Gotam Bath, how these hotels can be a cause of freedom by providing cheap or free meals to free fighters during this time. I talked about how I helped. Steps from the bustling College Street intersection, the Swaddinbarat Hindu Hotel, originally known as the Hindu Hotel, was a hideaway and secret hangout.

“The front line of the hotel was a trap. There was a back door inside the room and a secret passage outside, ”said Vivek Kumar Singh, who now runs his grandfather’s facility. The Starwart movement, of which Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, was a regular visitor.

Some owners have named the hotel to show political leanings. After independence, Shin’s grandfather MN Panda added “Swadhin Bharat” or “Free India” to the name of the hotel. And Talapada Guha named their hotel the Young Bengal Hotel after the Bengal Freethought Movement, which helped promote social reform.

History is steeped in, but most luxury hotels have been unable to keep up with rising food prices and changing demand in modern cities. Many have closed and are an important part of Kolkata’s food history. Guha once ran three luxury hotels in the city, but only the Young Bengal Hotel has survived. Guha’s granddaughter, Pritha Ray Bardhan, told me about the challenges of sustaining the operation when food and overhead costs soar. “We had to increase our prices to make sure that the quality of our food was not compromised and that we could float,” she said.

Even for Sen, who runs the Sidheshwari Ashram hotel with his sister-in-law, Debjani, the road has never been easier. “The office congestion has decreased year by year as some offices have been moved to the suburbs of the city… in the past we had twice as many customers, but now the situation is different,” she said. Some have attempted to switch to digital food delivery platforms, especially during the pandemic, but the fees charged by these services are often not cost effective.

Despite the setbacks, most of the remaining hotel owners remain determined. Sen still wants his daughter and niece to continue this matrilineal heritage. And with determination and sadness, Singh of the Swaddinbarat Hindu Hotel said, “Even though we are lost, we want to carry on the legacy of our grandfather. There are precious things. Explain.

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