The Kolkata egg roll, also known as kathi roll, can be traced back to the restaurant Nizam’s in Kolkata. It was invented in the 20th century, back when Kolkata was the capital of the British Empire. The story goes that British customers did not want to use their hands to eat kebabs, and so the staff at Nizam’s decided to roll the meat up in flaky, buttery parathas. In its early days, Nizam’s was a stall that served kebabs and parathas; it only became a proper restaurant in 1932.
The egg roll doesn’t use meat, but is still very popular with Bengalis. A street vendor selling the famous egg roll can be found at every nook in Bengal. The dough is rolled out, placed on a tawa, an egg is cracked on top of it and then the spicy filling of onions and chutney is added. Many restaurants and hotels have also replicated this street snack. Other cities went on to create their own versions which are very different, like Mumbai’s frankie.
