In a nutshell – Loved the overall dining experience at Amaranta including the splendid food – contemporary take on traditional food from 9 coastal states of India. Address & other details: Amaranta Meal for 2: Rs. 5000 onwards Cuisine type : Vegetarian & nonvegetarian Short Description – In case u r in a Hurry: Amaranta is an Indian Coastal food specialty restaurant that serves food … Continue reading Amaranta (The Oberoi, 443, Phase 5, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon)
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.
beautiful paintings on the walls & also on the ceilings
Cuisine Type:Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
Simple non fussy interiors with lots of beautiful Odisa paintings all around & above. The stained glass that surrounds the Dining hall is covered with nice colorful glass painting. Much better visually than the more popular Andhra Bhawan few kilometers away.
Beautiful colored glass painting
Previously was run by the Odisa Government but is now run by a chain of Restaurants that serve odisa food – Dalma. They claim to be the first ever Odisa food Restaurant.
The staff wears uniform given by the restaurant – they are good. Some of them speak hindi with a heavy Odisa accent. A little patience bears good fruit as the guys are nice.
Menu card is colorful wit photographs in the same manner that one sees a lot in China & hongkong. What is however interesting is that the pics are all downloaded from net & do not necessarily represent the actual food that is being served. Example – We looked at the picture of fried fish & said ‘We want this fish’. Pat came the reply ‘Sorry sir, that’s just a picture. What we have is ****’.
colorful menu
Peep into the prices (in the picture below) & u will be stunned. Is this Delhi price or Odisa price? Is this 2012 price or 1992 price? Side dishes starting as low as Rs. 15!!!! For inmates of Odisa Niwas, any meal costs only Rs. 10.
About the food – We were lucky to have two of our friends from Odisa with us at Lunch. One of them said twice – this is just like it is at home. The other friend was a bit disappointed & said ‘ I wud give 6 / 10 to this lunch’. I said ‘why’. He said ‘ I did not feel that I ate out today – I felt that I am eating at home. What’s the point?’. Interesting conflict of perspectives – It is this point that I found most interesting – I am getting to eat authentic almost home cooked Odisa food sitting in Delhi at prices if 1992 – wow.
Detailed Description – in case u have the time to njoy reading:
