Land of milk and sugar

"People buy for themselves or to give because it's Indian culture to offer sweets for every occasion, from births to deaths. There may be only 12 months in the year but we Bengalis have 13 special festivals so that's a lot of sweets," Nag says with a chuckle.

Customer Malay Das, who works in a nearby university, has been shopping at Bhim Chandra Nag every day for the past 15 years. "Sometimes I buy two sweets, sometimes three, but I never buy nothing," he says, clutching a small paper box of almond mishti.

A few blocks north of Bowbazar is B.B.D. Bagh, formerly called Dalhousie Square, a wonderful area to explore on foot.

Here the backstreets are a heady, noisy mix of fruit and vegetable sellers, traders and shoppers, peppered with street-food cooks sizzling spicy snacks in huge oily pans precariously balanced on the pavement. It's a chance to sample some common street sweets such as gulab jamun, milk flour balls dropped into boiling oil, or jalebi, sticky, orange-coloured coils. For a few rupees you can eat and savour the Indian hustle and bustle and admire some of the city's most spectacular colonial architecture, from 19th-century red-brick mansions to old bank headquarters.

A short motor-rickshaw ride away is Jawaharlal Nehru Road (formerly Chowringhee Road) and the K.C. Das shop. The Das family has made sweets for more than 150 years and lays claim to inventing India's "national sweet", the rossogolla, a spongy, milky ball boiled in sugar syrup.

Dhiman Das, the latest in the dynasty to run the business, says his five Kolkata shops sell more than 25,000 rossogolla a day. "We make sweets that are very light so you can savour more and and eat more," he says.

The Bengali love affair with sweets dates back centuries. "Most Bengalis used to keep cows in their yards so they'd always be experimenting with the milk and what could be made," he says.

Though the Chowringhee shop's green interior has seen better days, the sweets on sale are some of the best in town. Suited businessmen and taxi drivers rub shoulders to tuck into succulent rossomalai, a type of rossogolla floating in Kashmiri-saffron milk (10 rupees each), or moreish rossomalancha (12 rupees), a fried wheat-flour roll stuffed with sugary curd.

The shop also happens to be in one of the most interesting parts of the city, the Chowringhee and Esplanade area. In the days of the British Empire, Chowringhee Road was a fashionable thoroughfare, bordering the Maidan, a three-kilometre-long park and home to the palatial Victoria Memorial.

Today it is one of the city's main arteries, lined with businesses, shops and upmarket hotels but often clogged with exhaust-belching traffic.

Also in the area is the ornate Tipu Sultan Mosque, which is almost 200 years old, and the Indian Museum, a beautiful, colonnaded building from 1878 set around a peaceful central lawn.

A walk away on Anandilal Poddar Sarani (Russell Street), near the entertainment strip of Mother Teresa Sarani (Park Street), is Gangaur Sweets.

In business for only 25 years, Gangaur is one of the newer kids on the mishti block. It's popular for its colourful "designer" sweets. "Our sweets are a bit more expensive than others but our clientele know that no two sweets here will be the same and they're getting something really different," says owner Naavin Joshi. "We use lots of pistachios, cashews, almond paste, fruits and only ever the very freshest ingredients."

Moist, miniature almond rolls or crumbly almond and cardamom soan papdi squares cost about 30 rupees, three times the price at most other shops, but they're so succulent you need sample only a few.

Kolkata's truly dedicated sweet hunters get off the beaten track and follow the sugar trail south. The Jadavpur district emerged after independence when middle-class immigrants from East Bengal, now Bangladesh, settled there. It's a lively area with a university and food markets.

The 60-year-old Hindusthan Sweets attracts mishti pilgrims from all over the city, including glamorous Bengali movie star Indrani Haldar, who says busy people like her rely on the city's sweet makers.

"No one has time to make sweets at home any more - we're all working, so the sweet shops keep our tradition and sweets alive," Haldar says. At Hindusthan Sweets mishti can be eaten on the spot from little bowls made of dried leaves.

"You have to understand, we Indians just love our sweets. For us the sweet shop is like McDonald's - always full and there's one everywhere," smiles owner Rabindra Kumar Paul.

FAST FACTS

Thai Airways flies non-stop to Bangkok, then non-stop to Kolkata for about $1350. Singapore Airlines has a fare for about $1440 flying non-stop to Singapore, then non-stop to Kolkata. (Fares are low-season return from Melbourne and Sydney and include tax.) Australians require a tourist visa for a stay of up to six months.

Eating there

Hindusthan Sweets, 87A Ibrahimpur Road, Jadavpur, +91 33 2412, hindusthansweets.com. Hours: 6.30am-10.30pm. What to try: Jalebi coils, strawberry sondesh. Price range: 4-50 rupees. What to see nearby: Kali Hindu Temple in Kalighat.

K.C. Das, 11A & B, Esplanade East, +91 33 2248 5920, kcdas.co.in. Hours: 7.30am-10pm. What to try: Classic rossogolla or rossomalai. Price range: 8-40 rupees. What to see nearby: Indian Museum, Raj Bhavan (Government House), the Maidan Park, including Eden Gardens cricket ground.

Bhim Chandra Nag, 5 Nirmal Chandra Street, Bowbazar, +91 33 2212 0465. What to try: Rose water or mango sondesh. Price range: 4-30 rupees. What to see nearby: Explore the streets of Bowbazar.

Gangaur Sweets, 2, Anandilal Poddar Sarani, Park Street, +91 33 2226 6240. What to try: Sweet almond patty, cardamom sprinkled soan papdi. Price range: 12-50 rupees. What to see nearby: Explore Park Street shops and cafes including the Oxford Street Bookstore, have tea and cake at Flurys art-deco cafe.