The soft, sweet and savoury bhapa pitha is a favourite breakfast item for West Bengali villagers -- especially on the cold mornings – but the delicacy is losing steam because of rising material costs.
Siuli Modak wakes up early to make bhapa pitha.
And by early, we’re talking 2am.
Because the 35-year-old needs a lot of time to get the bhapa pitha rice batter ready and head to her stall in Bhatanjot village on the outskirts of Siliguri. There she steams the breakfast cake fresh for her hungry patrons every morning.
“I start early to prepare the ingredients. I set out for the market around 6am to sell them. I earn around Rs 500 a day, just about enough to feed my family,” said the mother of two whose ailing husband is homebound.
In Assamese and Bengali, pitha is a generic term for a homemade cake or anything similar to pancakes, dumplings or fritters made from a dough or batter. They can be sweet or salty, steamed (bhapa), fried or griddled.
This is a hot favorite of both Bengalis and Assamese, who call it kettlee pitha because it is steamed on the mouth of a tea kettle with its lid open. It is like the fluffy idli of southern India in shape and texture, but has the sweet flavour of molasses. Grated coconut and dry fruits give this steamed rice cake a delicate punch and crunchiness.
It takes time to make and is a favourite breakfast or anytime snack, especially on cold mornings. But rising costs and competing snacks from new convenience stores means the bhapa pitha is starting to lose its steam.
The making of the bhapa pitha begins with the pounding of soaked rice into a sticky flour.
“Water is added to the flour to make a batter with a dough-like consistency. The batter is placed on a palm-sized mould and gently pressed down with a spoon. Next, grated coconut and molasses go into the mix as a layer in the middle. More batter is added to it to cover the mould, which is then wrapped with a wet cloth,” said Namita Banik, 40, another pitha seller.
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The wrapped pitha is then placed on a clay lid with a hole atop a utensil with boiling water. The steam from the hole cooks the pitha in a matter of seconds. Serve hot.
At Rs 10 a piece in most of northern Bengal, it sells like hotcakes – especially in the morning and evening. This healthy, affordable treat is a favourite of the poor, although the well-to-do like it as much.
I travel here during the winter every year to relish this delicacy. It tastes fabulous during the wintry mornings.
“We always have pitha for breakfast in the winter because it’s healthy and wholesome. It’s cheap and tastes delicious with the jaggery, coconut and dried fruits. We easily eat two or three pithas at one go,” said Dilip Samanata, 62, a labourer.
According to food blogger Indrajit Lahiri, the origins of bhapa pitha are not known, but it is essentially a food found in the villages of North Bengal and other remote areas of the state.
“It’s a rural dish,” said Lahiri, who pointed out that this pitha is not easily available in Kolkata.
Hardware engineer Samir Banerjee had never come across bhapa pitha on the streets of his home-city Kolkata. Every year he visits Siliguri to savour this rural dish.
“I was born in Kolkata but never found this anywhere in the city. I travel here during the winter every year to relish this delicacy. It tastes fabulous during the wintry mornings,” said Banerjee.
The soft bhapa pitha, a hallowed symbol of North Bengal’s way of life when the winter cold blows south from the Himalayas, is fast becoming an endangered species. Consumption of the pitha has plummeted. The culprits: changing lifestyles, the advent of convenience foods and mostly the rising prices of ingredients and fuel.
Pitha professionals are worried and they portend that the daily ritual of grabbing a hotcake from the local eatery could become folklore.
Even pitha-makers are reducing in number, owing to the hard, long hours the dish demands.
Pithas were cooked over a wood fire before and that enhanced the taste. Gave a smoky flavour. But these days firewood is so expensive.
“Preparation starts at night. A slight delay can ruin the business. The income doesn’t make up for the hard work. We are sticking to it because our options are limited and we are not qualified for other jobs. I’m teaching my children to look for better livelihood options,” said Siuli.
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Profit margins have dipped too because of rising material costs.
“Clay pots were used before to boil water, but they often break. So, aluminium utensils have replaced them. Not ideal. Pithas were cooked over a wood fire before and that enhanced the taste. Gave a smoky flavour. But these days firewood is so expensive. We use LPG cylinders, which are costly too,” said Shamita Das of Uttar Mendabari village in Alipurduar district.
Adding to the woes of those in the pitha trade are the skyrocketing prices of rice, coconut, dry fruits and molasses.
Despite this, pitha sellers can’t raise the price of their product because they might lose customers as this snack is mostly consumed by poor people.
“We hardly make a profit,” rued Shamita.
To reverse the slide, pitha-producers are hoping more people will take the time to break bread, so to speak, and bond over eating some bhapa pitha.
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The lead image at the top shows the dough of bhapa pitha mixed with pieces of jaggery and coconut that adds to the taste (Photo by Gurvinder Singh)
Gurvinder Singh is a journalist based in Kolkata.
