Royal

Bara Bazar, perhaps the busiest and the most crowded place in Kolkata, is known for it's various wholesale markets and the famous Nakhoda mosque. This is the place where the hustle and bustle of the ever busy city falls in love everyday with the mystical tune of the azan as the setting sun paints the sky with the deepest hue of orange. 'Royal' is the silent witness to this eternal romance.

Royal Indian Hotel, popularly known as Royal, is known for it's chaap. Specially marinated meat is slowly cooked in ghee on a flat base to give an exquisite Nawabi touch. A paste of cashew and poppy seeds takes care of the delicious gravy while a little kewra water (an extract distilled from pandanus flowers) weaves the luring web of magical aroma. To add to this, you get to taste the authentic old-school "Bengali" biriyani which has it's roots in the Lucknow gharana of the delicacy. The royal chefs still follow exactly the same procedures for preparing these exclusive dishes as were used in the Nawabs' rasoikhana (royal kitchen).

Being located near Nakhoda Masjid on Chitpur road (also known as Rabindra Sarani), there should not be any hindrance in finding the place. It is a two-storeyed building with the ground floor having an ambience which is time-worn yet close to heart. The upper floor is air-conditioned and hence more soothing. But crazy food lovers like me still prefer the former which is heavily filled with the rich aroma of the chaap coming from the kitchen.

While you are having your food spare a moment and look outside. The crowded shops, the sound of trams passing by, the azan and the pleasing aroma of the food have tantalized all your senses to a point of no return. Kolkata has become a part of your soul. It's twilight. Welcome home! :)

Paramount

There can rarely be a person who knows about College Street, College Square, Boi Para (an entire area dedicated to buying and selling of new as well as used books), Coffee House, but does not remember the name "Paramount". It is an age-old sherbet parlour located behind the College Square (1/1/1D, Bankim Chatterjee Street, Kolkata 700 073). The board at the entrance claims Paramount to be the "BEST IN THE TOWN" place to quench thirst, and thus depicts it's "paramount" importance in the world of cold drinks and sherbets.

The menu has some unique cold drinks which I must let you know before you plan to visit the place. Curd based cream rose, cream green mango, rose, grapes crush, passion fruit and cocoa-malai are only to name a few. The most popular and lovable drink on their menu is none other than the Daab (green coconut) Sherbet. The idea of this drink had come from the famous scientist Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray and the propreitors have rigorously maintained the standards till date. They bring the green coconuts from Bashirhat as this region provides coconuts with the sweetest water and thin layers of soft pulp. They use this water and pulp to create the magic. Most of the sherbets are served with ice cubes although cream based drinks may be served without ice on request.

This place may seem to be simple in it's appearance but it has witnessed millions of love stories and some great revolutions of the past century. Calcutta University, Presidency University and some other famous educational institutions are within a stone's throw and many college students prefer this place to gazing at the blackboards full of alpha, beta and theta notations. Young couples come hand-in-hand, two straws dip in one glass and stories begin. The place has also been glorified by famous personalities since the Bengal renaissance. All these has led "Paramount" to have an unique aura of it's own.

The appearance never changes. The board at the entrance still rightfully boasts of the quality. Couples who come back to this place find it to be amazingly similar to the one they had left on a hot summer afternoon decades ago. Their romance may have not fainted. Perhaps two straws again dip in one glass... Some things never change. "Paramount" won't.

Mitra Cafe

Kabiraji is an extremely popular authentic Bengali snack. It is generally a chicken or fish cutlet which is first coated with egg yolk and then deep fried. If you are a food lover and lucky enough to have tasted one, you probably know how difficult it is to ignore the tantalizing aroma of this evening snack. Mitra Cafe specializes in preparing kabirajis and various other chops and cutlets which, I am pretty sure, you are bound to fall in love with. The rich smell of these evening snacks, when prepared, attracts passers-by in the samy way as honeypots attract bees. I still remember the day when me and my boyfriend (now, a loving husband) fell prey to that magical smell for the first time.

The snacks bar I am writing about is located near the Shyambazar Metro Station (1 minute's walk from the 5-points crossing, address: 3/A, Bhupendra Bose Avenue). Truly speaking I have not been to the other branches, the oldest one of which is located on Central Avenue near the Sovabajar Sutanuti Metro Station. Anyways, let us come back to the Shyambazar Branch. We ordered kabiraji cutlets (chicken kabiraji for my boyfriend and fish kabiraji for myself) and the waiter served the food along with thin julienne of cucumber, carrots, radish and onions after 10 minutes. The deep fried kabirajis were crunchy from outside and soft from inside. The quality of the fish was too good and it melted like butter inside my mouth. As you may correctly infer, my (read 'our') first experience was awesome and we were planning to re-visit the place even before leaving!

Next time we visited the snacks bar with a common friend who had been to the main branch as well. He suggested to try some other signature items also which we might like. After a long discussion and an in-depth analysis of the menu which contained lots and lots of popular bengali dishes at extremely cheap prices, we finally decided to go for Diamond Fry, Mutton Cutlet and Mughlai Paratha. Each one of them were simple out-of-the-world! They know how to prepare authentic Bengali snacks... rather they have mastered the art!

The place gets crowded during the evening. Be ready to wait in a queue. But you know what, every good thing comes at a price. Legendary film actor and bong icon Uttam Kumar used to frequent the eatery to satiate his taste buds. I have heard stories about Swami Vivekananda loving the brain chop (prepared from goat brain!) which is still served here. But dont worry! If you dont want to be too much experimental with food, there are numerous popular snacks which are on the menu.

Dont know why, but I am getting hungry while writing this post! May be, I will try to cook some Bengali snack today to ebb the tidal craving for Bengali food which has grasped my mind :)

Nakur

Girish Chandra Dey & Nakur Chandra Nandy's sweet shop in north Kolkata, popularly known as "Nakur", is probably the most famous destination in Kolkata for sweet lovers. It has been selling sweets for more than hundred and fifty years and has played an active part in the evolution of "sandesh", a typical sweet made from "chhana" or fresh curd cheese. "Sandesh" has evolved with time and there are hundreds of varieties being sold from sweet shops all over Bengal. The biggest player in this industry is still "Nakur" which is located inside a narrow age-old alley in "Simla para" near Hedua park. For GPS lovers, the actual address is 56, Ramdulal Sarkar Street, Kolkata-700006.

Girish Chandra Dey, who learnt the art of making sweets from his father Mahesh Chandra Dey, was the person who first made this sweet shop popular. He made innovative new sweets which did all the magic and attracted people with a "sweet tooth". He made Nakur Chandra Nandy, his son-in-law, a partner and since then the shop has been known by it's current name. Colloquially people use to call it "Nokur".

                                             

This shop first came up with the innovative "white chocolate sandesh" made from milk chocolate and "dark chocolate sandesh" made from dark chocolate. Strawberry and blackcurrant flavoured sweets are surely going to be a heavenly treat for your taste buds. People love this shop for the endless variety of signature items like 'jolbhara', 'aam sandesh', 'monopuli', 'malai roll', 'sarpuria', 'parijaat', 'kachagolla', 'monohara', etc which are surely going to make you start loving the Bengali sweets . During festivals like "Bhaifota" or "Jamai shashthhi", the queue of customers is longer than you can ever imagine. The owners are so committed to the customers that they keep the shop open till 1:00 at night on these days.

It is known that Swami Vivekananda used to visit the shop regularly in his early life. Since then, the supreme quality of the sweets have been maintained by the proprietors and the sweet-makers for ages. The demand has always been rising and the shop has been able to attract famous personalities like film directors Satyajit Ray and Rituporno Ghosh, actor Shahrukh Khan, cricketer MS Dhoni, just to name a few. Even the legendary actor Amitabh Bachhan relied on this sweet shop for his son Abhishek's marriage with Aishwarya, winner of the Miss World pageant of 1994. Nakur was also given the responsibility to prepare the congratulatory "sandesh cake" for the team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to celebrate their victory in Indian Premier League 2012.

Nizam's

More than a century ago, a peon at Calcutta Municipal Corportaion (now known as Kolkata Municipal Corporation) decided to quit his job and instead set up a small food-stall nearby. He sold grilled meat from his stall for few days till he realized that the British officers did not like to touch the meat with their hands. Moreover something had to be devised to make the food portable for the busy office-goers who were always in hurry either to reach office or to go back home after their day's work.  So he decided to wrap the skewer-roasted kebab (Kati kebab) with a paratha bread. Thus was invented one of the most popular snack of Bengalis called 'kati roll'. The rest was history and as the popularity of this newly discovered delicacy rocketed with time, this man named SK.Hasan Reza went on to establish Nizam's restaurant in 1932 at Hogg Street (no. 23 & 24) in front of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Nizam's enjoyed a monopoly in the 'kati-roll' market for decades.


Currently, the restaurant is divided into two parts - the main one having 'no beef' and another section next to it where beef is available. Both are carrying their legacies over the years. It is only Nizam's , among the big restaurants, that offers you rolls in their a la carte chart. Though it is mostly famous for its kati kebab rolls, I should also mention about the extraordinary mughlai dishes which are served here. The unimpressive interiors and the crowded tables may deceive you at first sight but you are bound to get mesmerized by the aroma and taste of authentic mughlai food as the waiter brings them to your table. Forget the crowd, forget everything. Close your eyes as your taste buds experience Nizam's magic.

Aminia

Aminia, a heritage restaurant of Kolkata, well known for its Mughlai dishes, is situated near Hogg market in Esplanade. The tantalizing aroma of the special biriyani is bound to lure everyone.. from the officers of the corporation office nearby.. to the casual shopper feeling a bit hungry after a day's shopping. The hunger increases by leaps and bounds as someone enters the magical world of finger-licking Mughlai food. The simple yet warmly welcoming interiors silently whisper in your years the history and the stories associated with this unique restaurant of central Kolkata.

Time and again, famous personalities have preferred this place to experience authentic Mughlai dishes. From the famous painter M.F. Hussain to the world known politician Jyoti Basu, this restaurant has succeeded to satisfy the taste buds of millions. A plate of pasinda has to be packed for the little master Sachin Tendulkar whenever he visits the city.

Coming back to the food, you can rely on me when I say that the biriyani, kebabs and other popular dishes here can compete any day with those served at Karim's in New Delhi. Mohammad Farid, a famous chef at Aminia, gave a satisfactory explanation on this matter - "I owe my cooking skills to my ustaad Mohammad Rajuddin. His forefathers used to cook for the Mughals and the secret recipe was something divine to them". The owner, Mohammed Athar, also admits the fact that the cooks are brilliant at their jobs and it is the spellworking of their fingers that compels the customers to return time and again.

After getting over the football matches at nearby Maidan, many of the players and supporters of the famous Bengali clubs Mohan Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammadan Sporting come straight to Aminia to satiate their voracious appetite. The faces may wrinkle and few hairs may loose color with time.. but the love for Aminia and its dishes from the Mughal world never fade away from the hearts of these enthusiastic food-lovers.

A resolution

I continued to stare blankly at the distant skyscraper as the late-winter chilly wind gushed through the window of my Swedish studio apartment. I was retrospecting why I miss "Kolkata" so much! Indeed Stockholm is a beautiful place to stay. The people here are really nice and helpful. The medieval palaces and churches have never failed to earn my awe. But somewhere, deep down inside, I am still as much opiated by the romanticism of "Kolkata" as I was when boarding the flight to Stockholm last September. As I closed the window to make myself warm, I asked myself a question.

"What is it that makes me fall in love with Kolkata everyday ?"

Is it the beauty of Victoria Memorial proudly depicting the British regime? Is it the Howrah Bridge - the lifeline that connects Kolkata with Howrah? Is it Eden Gardens - the Mecca of Indian cricket?

My mind explored through innumerable possibilities before I discovered the answers. To me, the two most important aspects of the life of a Kolkatan are Durga Puja and the foods, eateries and restaurants each of which tells you some story of its own. Most Kolkatans, I have met, are foodies and they "live to eat". Hence restaurants and street foods thrive and are among the best in the world. Most of these places are "small world"s in themselves and their histories are as engrossing as their menus.

As I raised myself and went towards the coffee-maker, I had made up my mind...

This is where my blog starts!