# Inside Kolkata's Lake Market: Fish Guts, Blood and Soul

> Step inside a Kolkata fish market that reveals the culinary soul of West Bengal, and discover what real, unfiltered India looks like.

- URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/zanurennia-v-atmosferu-rybnoho-rynku-kolkaty-rozkryvaie-kulinarnu-dushu-zakhidnoi-benhalii/
- Language: en
- Published: 2024-06-07
- Categories: Culture, Historic Sites, Tours, India, Food & Drinks

---
For many travelers, it is hard to picture a less appetizing spot than a fish market.

The heavy, lingering smell of seafood.

Fish innards flying as their hollow-eyed, lifeless heads are lopped off.

Hardly the stuff dream vacations are made of.

But in places where seafood makes up a huge slice of the local economy, fish markets are a must-visit for anyone who wants a genuine taste of the local food scene.

Nowhere is that truer than in the Indian city of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.

"There's a saying in Bengal. If you don't eat fish, you're not a Bengali," says Indian chef Gaggan Anand, whose eponymous Bangkok restaurant was named the best in Asia earlier this year.

We recently tagged along with Anand on a trip to his hometown of Kolkata, as he reconnected with his culinary roots.

One of the most important stops on his itinerary? A Sunday morning visit to the city's Lake Market.

Anand says this is where you will find some of the finest freshwater fish in West Bengal.

"Fish, for a Bengali, is his soul," he says.

"Fish can win a Bengali's heart or ruin your friendship with him. These guys don't dare to cheat on quality. For prawns, for shrimp... I don't trust anyone else. I trust this market."

In West Bengal, most of the fish is caught from ponds and rivers, including several varieties of carp, catfish and hilsa. As a result, they have a sweeter flavor than their saltwater cousins.

A good sign of just how important the fishing industry is to the local economy came with this week's announcement of Kolkata's plans to open the country's first hospital for fish.

According to a report in the Times of India, the hospital will have facilities to diagnose and treat diseases in fish farmed commercially in the state.

"West Bengal was the largest fish producer in the country until it was overtaken by Andhra Pradesh in 2011-12," the report says.

"Experts believe Bengal's yield could increase if healthier species were bred."

## The world's scariest fishmonger's knife?

During our visit with Anand, Kolkata's Lake Market is filled with the cries of brisk bargaining, as shoppers battle for the best prices, and the best of the catch, which sells out fast.

While all this is going on, the air is punctuated by a steady stream of loud cracks.

It is the sound of fish being butchered with a deadly curved blade known as the Bengali bonti, which the region's fishmongers have used for centuries.

![](/storage/image/prev/july-article-image-63-1-2024.jpg)

"The weight of the blade is so heavy that you can't carry it, you have to sit on it," says Anand, referring to the wooden base from which the sharp spike protrudes.

"You won't find it in any other market in India."

To Anand's ears, the sound of fish being sliced with a bonti blade is a sweet reminder of his childhood, when his passion for cooking first began to take shape.

"My house was one kilometer from here," he says of the Lake Market.

"My earliest memory is being with my father, holding his hand while we shopped. That's what led me to the food culture I'm part of today."

To see it all for yourself, Lake Market sits in Kolkata's Kalighat neighborhood, not far from the Kalighat metro station.

Do you have photos from your own Culinary Journeys that you'd like to share? Tag them for a chance to be featured on our site. For inspiration, we've included some of our recent posts below.