Wok the talk

How an unassuming eatery in Kolkata, Ah Leung, and its iconic dish is the inspiration behind filmmaker-musician Jaimin Rajani’s latest documentary Singhara Chow

A few hundred years ago, when the Hakka Chinese settled in Kolkata’s once-bustling Chinatown, they brought with them their history, traditions, and most importantly, their culinary dexterity. Each of their dishes had a strong heritage that usually came from a grandmother’s recipe or a grand uncle’s secret ingredient. One such dish — the singhara chow— is the star of documentary maker and musician Jaimin Rajani’s latest documentary Singhara Chow, which will be released in January 2023 at the Kolkata International Short Film Festival.

A study in itself, Kolkata’s Tangra is a conundrum of history and its many ironies. Once a place where people in two-piece Mao ensembles passed by the Chinese Kali temple (where hakka chow is offered to the deity even today) and sat for intellectual addas (informal conversation) at roadside tea stalls, today’s Tangra is only a shadow of its former self. What pervades the air is the stinging smell of tanneries and the slowing flurry of a dwindling past.

What is the singhara chow?

Calcuttans frequenting Ah Leung have appropriated their wanton chow as “singhara chow”. This curious nomenclature comes from the close resemblance of the wantons with the Indian samosa or singhara as they call it in Bengali. Since then, the eatery has been much celebrated for its “singhara chow’‘

In the Tangra of today, somewhere out of the focus of Google maps, lies the unassuming eatery called Ah Leung. Tucked away from the imposing presence of prominent restaurants, one has to ask the local tea sellers or shopkeepers for directions. The 20-year-old restaurant is run by the Yung family. Li Kuo Yung, 60, the patriarch of the family, was born in Calcutta, while his father and grandfather migrated to the city decades ago. With no physical menu or employees, the restaurant follows the recipes of Li Kuo Yung and is managed entirely by the family.

Jaimin, who has been a patron of the restaurant ever since he was introduced to it by friends, decided to capture Ah Leung’s intriguing history on film. . “I was amazed by Ah Leung’s unusual setup inside a house in a deep pocket of Tangra, and the fact that they dish up delicious, authentic Chinese food, far removed from the banqueting and street-style Indo-Chinese counterpart that’s ubiquitous here. I wanted to capture this experience and share it with others.”

Director of the documentary, Sharon Flynn, states that “I frequent Kolkata and I love how the city holds on to its roots. It’s a photographer’s and filmmaker’s paradise. The city is visually and sonically very interesting. I found Li Kuo Yung’s story to be compelling and worthy of being told through a documentary.”