Tiretta Bazaar

Kolkata is the only Indian city that ever had a real Chinatown. Chinese immigrants (Hakka leatherworkers, Cantonese carpenters, dentists, and noodle makers) settled here from the late 18th century, and at the community's peak tens of thousands lived around Tiretta Bazaar and later Tangra. Most families emigrated in the latter half of the 20th century, but a small community remains, along with temples, churches, a Chinese-language school building, and one beloved ritual.

The breakfast. Early every morning (roughly 6:30 to 8:30 AM; come early, by nine it's over), vendors set up on Sun Yat Sen Street selling steamed vegetable buns, momos, sesame snacks, tea, and sticky rice. You eat standing up, off paper plates, alongside office-goers and elderly Chinese-Indian residents chatting in a mix of Hakka, Bengali, and English. It's modest, cheap, disappearing, and utterly unlike anything else in India.

While you're there, look for the small Chinese temples tucked above shopfronts. The caretakers will often let you up if you ask politely. For a full Chinese-Indian dinner (a cuisine of its own: chilli paneer, hakka noodles, and Indo-Chinese sauces all carry this community's imprint), the restaurants of Tangra, the "new" Chinatown to the east, are the classic evening complement.

Breakfast in old Chinatown