Calcutta Delights

Calcutta Eats and Treats

Bhajahari Manna

Try the aar dakbangla( fish in a spicy gravy), the ever popular bhaapa chingri( prawns steamed in a coconut paste), and the ilish paturi ( hilsa wrapped in banana leaves and steamed with mustard).

Ekdalia Road

Tel (033) 2440 1993

FLurys/T3

If you have a colonial hangover and love your toast with scrambled eggs and crispy bacon strips, drop into Kolkata’s famous Flury’s. It has the best English breakfast in town, and is a great place to sip your tea and nibble on meringues with cream. Recently renovated , but the old staff and furniture was sent across the street to T3, a no- frills restaurant that continue’s to serve the old Flury’s fare and breakfast. The sorbets, ham sandwiches, chicken and cheese omlettes and fried eggs with bacon are yummy. True Kolkatans prefer the T3 to the renovated Flury’s.

Located at Park Street.

Coffee House

Once the favoured watering hole of Bengal’s intelligentsia, this place has seen the likes of Satyajit Ray,Mrinal Sen and even Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Factor in a waiting time of at least half an hour( spend your time browsing at the excellent second hand book stalls outside). Once you grab a chair, make sure you don’t get up before you have sampled the kabiraji cutlets and the Mughlai paratha washed down with cold coffee .

On College Street, Opposite Presidency College.

Dacres Lane

A dingy, dirty lane in Central Kolkata which is lined with nothing but food stalls. Dacres Lane is a mélange of tastes and smells.
From hot jalebis, samosas, batter fry fish, mutton cutlets, rolls, fish kabiraji( fish fillets fried with an egg coating) as well as Bengali thalis, you wont know when to stop eating. While most places do not even have chairs to offer, some like Chittoda’s Hotel will have a row of chairs and tables crammed into a space the size of a phone booth. But a mouthful is enough to make you forget all the discomfort.

Best of Bengali Sweets

Rosogolla

Ask anyone with a sweet tooth what he likes most in Kolkata and he’ll invariably say – rosogolla, the melt in the mouth spongy balls of cottage cheese dipped in sugar syrup.

Buy the best from KC Das.

Mihidana

May look like a laddoo, but any Bengali will insist that it’s mihidana. A favourite dessert in many households, mihidana is made of besan passed through a sieve into boiling oil, where it is fried before being dipped in sugar syrup.

Sweet Shops in Burdhwan District are known for their Mihidana.

Shorpuria, Shorbhuja

Shorpuria is a little like sandesh but not quite as soft, while shorbhaja is made of layers of compacted cream dipped in sugar syrup, and is very, very delicious.

Krishnanagar is famous for these sweets.

Sandesh

No Bengali worth his sandesh will let a say pass without this sweet. Made of cottage cheese with either jaggery or sugar – some come with a drop of liquid jaggery as a filling.

Try Nakur Chandra Nandi near Girish Park Metro Station in Kolkata.

Misti Doi

Simply put, this is sweet yogurt, but here, misti doi is an art. The yogurt is usually set in earthen pots for the special flavor that Bengalis love.

Bhim Nag in Kolkata’s Bow Bazaar makes excellent Misti Doi.

Ledikeni and Chamcham

A Bengali version of the gulabjamun( but sweeter and a burs of cardamom in the middle), Ledikeni is named after Lady Canning, who is said to have loved the sweet. Chamcham comes in many varieties, but the soft and squishy sponge laced with sweet syrup is always irresistible.

Try Banchharam near Garihat and Mouchak in Golpark for the best.