In a nutshell: A mid-sized Hole in the wall eatery that serves super YUMM Anglo Bengali cuisine. Address & other details: Enter Sadananda Road from Rashbehari more side & walk towards Hazra. The shop is on the left side. Meal for 2: Rs. 150 onwards Cuisine type: Vegetarian & non vegetarian Background: Bengali cuisine of today has many British influences like batter fried fish, orly, … Continue reading Apanjan (Sadananda Road, near Rashbehari Crossing, Kolkata)
Spartan interiors, fast service, tasty long lost Bengali food & easy on the pocket.
the logo
Address & other details: Radhuni
Meal for 2: Rs. 100 onwards
kochu pata chingri
Cuisine type: Vegetarian & non vegetarian
Background:
Bengali food is usually associated with fish, meats & everything non vegetarian. However there r some extraordinary vegetarian food items made from leaves, stems, flowers, roots etc that cost minimal but taste YUMM e.g. Mocha (banana flower), thor (the pith of the banana stem), oal (root), bok Phool (flower), kumro Phool (pumpkin flower), kochu pata (leaf), kochu (root), lau shak (leaf) etc. These have unique tastes & flavours and most of these r different from the mainstream usually available Indian vegetarian food.
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
Unfortunately, availability of most of the items mentioned above have limited availability nowadays in bigger city markets of Kolkata. Some of these dishes r difficult to make & the rest r painstaking to make / need lot of patience. A visit to Radhuni can however bridge this gap – u can enjoy the excellent taste traditional Bengali vegetarian gems without having to sweat it out to make these. Some of the ‘vegetarian’ dishes contain shrimps etc.
Menu card with prices
Radhuni also has a long list of Bengali nonvegetarian dishes that r good but not outstanding. However, if u r visiting Kolkata / planning to eat out local cuisine, it cannot get better than this at that price.
The service is fast. The people here r nice – they r not typical trained Restaurant Server types. They r normal human beings who respond well to good behaviour from customers.
The interiors r Spartan – a lot like South Indian Udipi Restaurants.
Prices r unbelievably low (by Delhi / Mumbai standards).
An encounter with piping hot Rosogollas at a para (neighbourhood) shop floored me & all my co-snackers. I won’t even suggest that this is the best rosogolla in Kolkata but on its own, it is excellent to taste, especially when hot.
piping hot roshogollas
Meal for 2: Rs. 20 onwards
Cuisine Type: Vegetarian
The story:
Hot piping Rosogolla is a unique thing to have. It tastes like no other sweet – warm when served, smell & taste of fresh chhena (curdled milk) but different from just chhena. Bengalis also vouch for its medicinal properties – supposedly helps recover from bad stomach.
I got initiated to this many years back at a shop near my erstwhile office – He wud sell rosogollas during the day but the hot ones that he used to serve in the evening were way better.
the nondescript sweet shop where we had the roshogollas
As I moved to Delhi NCR few years back, I was surprised to find that people prefer cold refrigerated rasgullas. When cold, the rosogollas tend to become brittle & hence a bit chewy.
The current encounter with hot rosogollas happened by chance while I was visting a cousin’s place. I was so impressed by the hot rosogolla that I shamelessly asked for more to be told that they had got only a few. I went out to the shop immediately with everyone at his home & told the shop owner ‘ we r so impressed by ur rosogollas that we all came to eat more.
Read YUMMRAJ’s latest review of AC 1st class rajdhani here: rajdhani
In a nutshell:
My first time travel in AC 1 of Duronto – turned out to b a series of Pleasant surprises. Pretty Good food, very good service & an amazing experience in a coupe of a new coach.
The story:
Duronto , like the Rajdhani trains, r full AC trains with meals included in the ticket price. Unlike Rajdhani, Duronto is a ‘no stop’ train – so it straight away stops at the final destination. We decided to travel by this train for a holiday from Delhi to Kolkata & chose AC1.
inside Duronto AC1 coupe
What is strange about AC1 is that even if u book way in advance, the seats / cabins r not allocated till the day of journey. We were thrilled to see us being allotted to a coupe (only two people in a cabin instead of four).
As I entered the coupe , I was pleasantly surprised. It did not quite look like Indian Railways. New coach, spic & span, pristine white walls & ceiling, a huge 4ft X 3ft mirror, a tiny mirror etc. I cud sense the room freshner as well. At times it felt like we were sitting in a mid-range hotel (of course ignoring the size of the cabin).
We were lucky to have the pantry car just next to our coach. It had transparent glass window & I peeped into it – looked as good as an open kitchen restaurant. Within I guess 10 minutes after the train started, an IRCTC representative came & welcomed us & gave us a rose & a facial wet wipe.
welcome rose & face wipe aboard Duronto
Within minutes of this, the pantry boy appeared with two menu cards – printed & laminated like the ones in low to mid end Restaurants. One menu card was veg Indian & nonveg Indian. The other was Veg continental & non-veg continental.
We started to read the Indian non-veg & were surprised to see ‘veg au gratin’ written in it. We were told that ‘the starters r common for Indian & continental but the main course is different’.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to njoy reading:
Service started within 30 minutes of the start of journey. The server came in & pulled out two foldable tables from one corner of our cabin & set them up.
Foldable dinner tables aboard Duronto
He served freshly made thick vegetable soup. Good to taste by Restaurant standard & awesome to taste by ‘Indian Railways standard’. Soup sticks were also given along with this – those turned out to be sub optimally crunchy. We njoyed our soup with dollops of Amul butter. Halfway thru the soup I decided to season it with black pepper – that is what turned out to b a bad decision. The pepper provided was as fine as dust & it was quite weird. Spoilt the Soup to some extent.
vegetable thick soup aboard Duronto
After a gap of almost 20 minutes, we were served starters – 2 pieces of Fish Orly & a lump of vegetable au gratin, in addition to one apple.
Vegetable au gratin turned out to b a catastrophe. It was a lump of sweet potato with cheese popping up at different spots, funny texture & really bad by Restaurant, someone’ home or train or any standard.
The fish orly was awesome to the power 10. It was deep batter fried fish that had a thin outer batter layer & a superbly juicy, soft, flaky fish fillet inside. Outstanding flavors of the fish & also the spices ……………….. Good by all standards – Restaurant, train, aeroplane, someone’s house etc.
My childhood favourite – Re-visited after many years & Loved the simple menu , some good & some great food at prices that surprise.
Bengal Hotel – Moton o fowl
Address & other details:Bengal Hotel
Meal for 2: Rs. 200 onwards
fish fry at Bengal Hotel
Cuisine Type: A bit of Vegetarian & predominantly Nonvegetarian
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
As kids we used to go to this super tiny restaurant to have fish cutlets. The ambience did not matter then coz we were not aware of ‘ambience’ in an eatery & now it does not matter to me as long as the food is superb. We used to drool over the food then & this time around I found it very good, if not as good as before.
mutton cutlet at Bengal Hotel
The owner sits right at the entrance – He handles cash & remote manages the place. There is one guy who I have seen as the manager for many years now – order taking from customers & coordinating. Food is served by ‘chhotus’.
Fish roll at Bengal Hotel Behala
The most interesting thing at this restaurant is the rate chart. The menu is printed on a board on the wall – permanent (I think it was same when I was a kid). The price of the dish is written with chalk everyday besides the description. All items r made in limited quantities & as soon as an item is sold out, the manager runs to the board & rubs off the price. Popularity still soars & by 6.30 pm onwards one by one the items start getting sold out. The shop opens at around 3.30 pm & shuts by approx. 8.00 pm.
The ‘interesting’ rate chart at Bengal Hotel, Behala
They also pack ‘fry & eat’ chops & cutlets. I have heard that NRIs carry these back home. I carry these back to Gurgaon at times.
‘fry & eat’ chops & cutlets in case u want to pack it for home
The food is Anglo Indian – Chops & cutlets that have become Bengali now & mutton & chicken curries that have a wide following in Britain these days. We tried the mutton cutlet, fish roll, fish fry & also mutton kosha. Liked the mutton cutlet, liked very much the fish roll & fish fry & super loved the mutton kosha.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to njoy readin:
In a nutshell: A take home joint that serves pretty good Kolkata Biryani & rolls & excellent Chaap. Meal for 2: Rs. 150 onwards Home Delivery Numbers: +91 9999311547, +91 9312733913 Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian Short Description – In case u r in a hurry: Bongo bondhus in Gurgaon, good news for u. At last there is a Biryani shop that serves good Kolkata Biryani in … Continue reading Mughlai treat (Shop no. 26, Sushant Tower, Sector 56, Gurgaon)
This is a part of the series ……. For the Chef in u
Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite Chef ANONYMOUS
Super easy to make & Super good to eat……………
Machher paturi (fish in banana leaf)
U can try this with boneless fillets of fishes like betki or even with pieces of Hilsa (ilish) that have bones. U can try this recipe with prawns as well.
For all of u who stay in Coastal states of India, procuring banana leaf is easy. For the rest, there are markets in all cities that sell regional food – check those places out. In case u do not get it, use aluminum foil instead. The taste will almost be the same. The flavor of banana leaf will be missing.
banana leaves cut into square pieces for paturi
Take 1 inch size cubes of 300 grams boneless betki / standard sized pieces of other fish like hilsa.
Grind 3 tablespoons of mustard with 4 green chillies to a smooth paste. Grate ¼ coconut & keep aside.
The ingredients of machher paturi
Mix together the mustard paste, grated coconut, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 tablespoon mustard oil & salt to taste. Apply this paste to the fish pieces evenly & leave it to marinate for 1 hour.
This is a part of the series ……. For the Chef in u
Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite Chef ANONYMOUS
Super easy to make & Super good to eat……………
Chhanar Dalna – Bengali style home made paneer / cottage cheese
Historically curdling of milk was not considered to be good generally in India & particularly in Bengal. With the advent of the Portuguese in mid 1600s, came the cottage cheese & it is from there that the Bengali cooks learnt the use of chhana (paneer) for cooking as well as for making sweets.
Chhanar dalna is a homemade cottage cheese & potato curry.
For making the chhana, boil 2 liters of full cream milk. When it comes to a boil, add juice of 3 whole lemon. The milk curdles. Take a muslin cloth, place it over a large vessel. Pour the curdled milk over the muslin to separate the chhana (cottage cheese) from whey.
Discard the whey & tie the muslin cloth to a potli (see picture). Hang it for 2-3 hours from a height so that the excess whey drains out.
From here , there are two methods –
Method 1: What I have inherited from my family.
Method 2: Experimented as advised by Paromita Dey
Draining the whey by hanging it from a muslin cloth
Method1:
Place the potli on a flat surface & put something heavy on the top for 30 minutes to flatten the Chhana.
Flattening the chhana
Take out the chhana from the cloth carefully & place on a cutting board.
The lump of chhana on a cutting board
Use a sharp knife to cut the chhana chunk into pieces. If u use a blunt knife, the chhana might break / become uneven.
the chhana cut into pieces
Fry the chhana pieces in 1 tablespoon oil on slow fire till they start getting golden brown.
This is a part of the series ……. For the Chef in u
Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite Chef ANONYMOUS
Super easy to make & Super good to drink……………
the thanda thanda cool cool lip licking refreshing good aam porar shorbot – bengali vesrion of aam panna
Summers are in & so r those times when just glass of water is not good enough to quench ur thirst. A tangy refreshing soft drink can often make a difference.
Aam pora shorbot is a Bengali classic drink made from the pulp of raw mango. Here is my take on the Classic recipe.
Take 4 raw mangoes. Ensure that the ones u choose are neither soft nor yellowing.
raw mango / kaccha aam
Wash them & roast them on slow fire direct flames – similar to what u do for baingan bharta (‘begun pora’ in bengali).
This is a part of the series ……. For the Chef in u
Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite Chef ANONYMOUS
Takes a bit of patience to make but Super good to eat……………
Mochar Paturi
For all of u who stay in Coastal states of India, procuring banana leaf is easy. For the rest, there are markets in all cities that sell regional food – check those places out. In case u do not get it, use aluminum foil instead. The taste will almost be the same. The flavor of banana leaf will be missing.
Take one mocha (banana flower). Remove the red flap layers at every stage. What u r left with is tiny 1 inch sized sticks that look like mini bananas. Take each stick in hand & remove the central piths (the style of the flower / central stock). Mince the sticks into small pieces. This whole process might take a ton of ur patience – Ur problem gets solved in case u have domestic help.
Mocha - Banana flower
Soak overnight in water after adding ½ teaspoon each salt & turmeric.
Boil the mocha with plain water. Discard the water once the mocha softens.
Grind 3 tablespoons of mustard with 4 green chillies to a smooth paste. Grate ¼ coconut & keep aside.
Mix together the mustard paste, grated coconut, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 tablespoon mustard oil, 1 teaspoon sugar & salt to taste. Apply this paste to the mocha evenly & leave it to marinate for 1 hour.
Marination of mocha
Cut the banana leaves into approx. 15cm X 15 cm squares.
