New Delhi, July 4 -- What is Kolkata's favourite breakfast, especially on a Sunday? For many, it is cha, kochuri and mishti.

On my first morning in the city during a recent field trip, I hit two out of the three: a hot cup of milky, sweet tea from a roadside stall followed by a breakfast of kochuri (Bengali for kachori) at Adi Haridas Modak in Shyambazar. If you walk around the city's neighbourhoods in the morning, you'll find a kochuri shop at every corner of the street. For someone raised on a steady dose of the legendary Lucknow-style kachoris, the Kolkata experience is uniquely different. Unlike the wholewheat, dark brown ones of the former, the kochuris here are more delicate and made with refined flour. The khasta-ness-the thin and...