Category Archives: LifeStyle

Kolkata’s Food – UPSC Interview Topic

Posted on by
Reply

 

 

Here is some information related to Bengal’s treditional food , which is based on the question asked in UPSC and IAS exams . This article is published after analyzing the interview question of toppers of UPSC and Civil services and IAS exams .

IT’S said the way to a Bengali’s heart is through the stomach. Kolkata, the bustling metropolis also happens to be one of the country’s best destination for street food-lovers.
Food vendors are everywhere serving every¬thing from famous Bengali snacks to full meals of rice and curry.
Surrounded by the constant stream of honk¬ing, foot traffic, and hawkers, there’s nothing better than biting into a tasty snack and wash¬ing it down with a clay cup of chai or chaa.
Savouring Kolkata street food has to be one of the best things to do in Kolkata!

Jhal Muri

Jhal Muri is one of the most famous and om-nipresent Bengali street snacks represented in Kolkata. Nearly everywhere you look, you’ll find avendor selling jhal muri.
It consists of puffed rice (like rice krispies), fried dal, peanuts, random crunchy things, fresh chopped onions, a few bits of fresh tomatoes, coriander, a handful of masala seasonings, and a light drizzle of mustard oil to top things off.
The ingredients are all added to a metal can and stirred up so the mustard is fragrant throughout the mixture. It’s eaten like a bag of chips, almost always from a newspaper bag.

 

 

Pani Puri (Puchka or Golgappa)

Though known in different names throughout the country by different names, this is one of the most iconic and beloved Indian street food snacks. It begins with a puri, a hoi- «, |
low round chip, that’s filled with spiced s potatoes, and dunked into tamarind water before being served and eaten in a single bite.
Pani puri is an explosion of crunchy spice and flavor with a burst of watery goodness.

Ghuoni

Generally made from yellow peas (also known as yellow split peas), this Kolkata street food is a favourite among all cut¬ting across the age-framer.
The smouldering hot peas are added to a small leaf bowl, mixed with tomatoes
served with a wooden spoon, and known locally as ghugnichaat.

Bhel Puri

Especially famous in Mumbai, this is the Kolkata version of the famous Indian chaat (snack). Little crunchy curls (that almost taste
like uncooked ramen noodles), boiled potatoes, puffed rice (like in jhal muri), red onions, and coriander form the base of bhel puri. The dry and fresh ingredients are then dressed and mixed with tangy tamarind and spicy dressing. It’s tangy, sour, sweet and spicy, crunchy and fresh… in every bite.
Batata Puri—Bengali style Popular throughout India, this Kolkata version of papri chaat\s a little different in that it doesn’t incorporate nurd (yoghurt) like North Indian variations like in Delhi street food. It be¬gins with little deep fried fritters which are like chips that are laid out flat and covered in spiced potatoes, and a bunch of chutneys and sauces. It’s like nachos, Indian style.

Veg Chow

Until you arrive in Kolkata, you won’t be able to understand how Chinese and Tibetian food influ¬enced street food of the city. Veg chow (short for vegetable chowmein), as it’s commonly known in Kolkata, is stir fried noodles mixed with a few sprigs of veggies. The noodles are scorched on high heat in Indian style woks so they are smokey flavoured, and a bit on the greasy side. A plate of veg chow is

salty, and danger-ously tasty. Freshly cut Fruit
Fruit is cheap and widely available throughout India. These plates of pre¬cut fruit in Kolkata are a little fresh fruit salad. Momos (Fried and Steamed)
Momos, the ubiquitous dumplings in Tibet and Nepal, are
also commonly consumed Kolkata.
There are two versions, the steamed version, and the fried version. Veg is very com¬mon, but you can also find chicken, and even pork if you visit the Chinese- inhabited Ter- reti market in the morning.

Kati Roll (Kathi Roll)

One of the most famous contribu¬tions of Kolkata to the world of In¬dian street food is the ‘Kati RoH’.JJls essentially a paratha that’s stuffed

with a choice of filling and wrapped into a handheld treat —like a burrito.
Chicken or mutton kebab meat, and eggs, are the common fillings, but paneer is also an op¬tion. As for Kolkata street food, when you’re craving something greasy and tasty, a kati roll is sure to please. Badsha & Nizam’s are credited with introducing the original kati roll in the city. Light Meal
Light meal options are also popular on the streets of Kolkata. One of the favourite light meals or snacks is aloo-gobi vegetable curry paired with freshly made chapatis that are roasted straight over the fire. Served with a wedge of red onion, chutney, and fresh chillies, this is a fantastic light meal.

Full Meal

But snacks alone cannot fully satisfy, especially when one is really hun-

gry… and luckily Kolkata street food supplies some seriously tasty full meal options as well.
Both James Hickey Sarani (formerly known as Dacker’s Lane), Dalhousie Square and Camac Street are favourite streets for lunch. Rice and a variety of curries on top is a normal filling meal that also tastes wonderful.

Ice Cream Cone

Though it can’t be included in the list of street food, but we have to include it as it’s the cheap¬est ice cream available on the Earth. For just f 7 you can get a single scoop cone!
Mango Lassi
A lassi is one of the creamiest versions of a milk¬shake. This mango lassi tastes like mango puree combined with yoghurt and blended into a per¬fect concoction. Atthe end, a few nuts and slices of cheese are tossed on top to complete a bever¬age that has to be one of the best things to con¬sume in all of Kolkata.
Chaa in a clay cup Along with the delicious list of Kolkata street food, you’ll need a beverage to wash it all down, and it is, chaa as tea is fondly called in Bengal In Kolkata, they use clay cups to serve nearly every cup of chaa. So, while any visitor will have a truly memorable time visiting the attractions in Kolkata, but as a food lover, there is noth¬ing as memorable as the Kolkata street food. Not only are snacks and meals widely sold are tasty & fresh, the vendors are very courteous and excited to serve their customers.

CIVIL SERVICES TOPICS – Life Style of CHINA

Posted on by
Reply


COVER STORY – Life Style of CHINA

 

(PMI)—according to a survey by the Chinese financial magazine Caixin—falling to 47.1, indicating the biggest contraction since 2008.
“The economy is in the process of bottom¬ing out,” says He Fan, the chief economist at Caixin’s insight group.

As an UPSC civil services aspirants you may know the economic condition of different different countries its is very important for IAS aspirants also .

THE GOVERNMENT HAS ASKED CHINESE CITIZENS “TO BE PATRIOTIC” BUY STOCKS AND SUPPORT THE ECONOMY.

The government this year slashed its GDP growth target to 7 percent—unthink¬able during the previous decade of double-digit growth and the lowest figure since 1990. Even reaching this target appears an increasingly diffi¬cult struggle. China has grown 7 percent in the first two-quarters, but the consensus among most international economists is that actual growth is two or three percentage points lower.
PANIC IN THE PARTY
These figures have appeared to prompt some degree of alarm, triggering unexpected interventions by Beijing’s economic planners that analysts say suggest an unusual degree of panic. To begin with, Beijing attempt¬ed to prop up the falling stock market
with a series of measures that included banning sales of shares by entities owning more than 5 percent of any stock, ordering state-run firms to buy sev¬eral billion dollars worth of stock, and even launch¬ing criminal inves¬tigations into short-sellers and jailing some traders. The China Securities Regulatory Commission says it is now investigating 52 cases of “illegal stock holdings reduction”. The government has also launched an all-out propa¬ganda push through the Communist Party’s mouthpieces, telling Chinese citizens “to be patriotic”, buy stocks and support the economy. Yet even the party’s please, for once, have fallen on deaf ears. Traders have continued to dump stocks, leading to the “Black Monday” of August 24.


“The crash of the Chinese stock market is very costly to the credibil¬ity of the Chinese government,” says Li Wei, a professor of economics at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing. “It was a bad
move for the Chinese government to talk up the stock market from late last year, even worse to cheer it on when the index rose sharply. The policy missteps are very costly for the Chinese economy.”

 

ANGER ON THE STREETS
As much as Beijing has been pillo¬ried for its market intervention, its actions are understandable consid¬ering the fate of millions of investors. China’s stock market is unique in that institutional investors, who dominate markets in developed countries, are a minority in Shanghai. As much as 85 per cent of investors in Shanghai have account balances less than 100,000 RMB (around Rs 10 lakh). And, accord¬ing to available data, 94 percent of them do not have a college degree.


The impact of the Shanghai melt-down has consequently been felt most by individual Chinese investors; by first-time investors such as Li Lingmin, who recently graduated from Beijing Normal University and bought her first stocks in March at a time when the bull run was being played up daily on the front pages of official newspa¬pers such as the People’s Daily and on evening news broadcasts. However, real estate projects. Chen Yan, who heads the Guian plan, says the idea is to build an entire software industrial chain. He estimates the value of output to reach $15 billion in the next two years. The Chinese government has already got the backing of its telecom behemoths —China Mobile and China Unicom—and tech giants—Alibaba and Xiaomi—to back the plan.
Yet today, the fate of mega-projects such as Guian is increasingly uncer¬tain on account of rising strains in the banking sector. On a recent visit, there were few signs of activity at construction sites, while sprawling buildings allocated for tech companies still appear unfilled. Local officials acknowledged privately there were concerns on whether the grand 70-bil- lion yuan budget was indeed feasible. “I believe the big concern of the government is the pace of slowdown, rather than the slowdown itself,” says economist Xu of CEIBS.
On August 21, the China Banking Regulatory Commission issued guidelines “encouraging banking institutions” to lend to major projects that “support national strategies” to respond to concerns that funds were drying up. Beijing has limited tools at its disposal to kick-start growth, unlike in 2008 when it unleashed a $586-bil- lion stimulus. “With local govern¬ment debts still running high, Beijing will need to turn more attention to
market-oriented measures,” says Li Wei. “And this is not a bad thing. Even though market-oriented mea¬sures such as tax cuts and further liberalization will take longer to have their stimulus effects felt, they have the additional benefits of increasing productivity and efficiency of the Chinese economy.”