My great grandfather along with his family arrived in Calcutta from Purbo Bangla (Bangladesh as we now know it) nearly seventy years back as refugees. They left behind everything – acres of land, large houses, jewelry, all material possessions to start a new life in a refugee colony in this city. Physically, the ties were cut but you can never cut away the roots can you? ‘Bangal‘ness is ingrained in our genes. From the way we speak, our behavioral traits to even what we eat. We like our food to be hot and spicy, we eagerly wait for the monsoons because that’s when you get the best hilsa, we love our fresh river fish, our ‘Boras‘, ‘Kochur Saag‘ ‘Kochur Loti‘, our hot and spicy ‘Pantha or mutton’, our ‘Pithe‘, ‘Puli‘ and so much more. If you want to savour this brilliant food of Purbo Bangla, head over to The Gateway Hotel, Kolkata where Chef Asish Kumar Roy has curated a special menu of old favorites and new flavors.
Pizza With A Chicken Crust – KFC’s Chizza
Love pizza but hate the bread crust? Switch to Chizza, KFC’s hybrid of chicken and pizza! KFC’s trademark fried chicken is the base and toppings are bits of veggies, goeey molten cheese and signature pizza sauce. Brilliant combo and kudos to KFC for coming up with this innovative dish but does it work? It does, when Chizza is served piping hot. The crunchy chicken and the molten cheese together tastes really good. Leave it aside for a minutes and it becomes quite unappetizing because it turns soggy. Remember to finish it off as soon you get it! Chizza is priced at Rs 169 plus taxes and available at KFC stores across India.
South Indian Food Festival At K-19, Park Plaza, Kolkata From 26 Feb – 6 March, 2016
Chef Arokia Das and Chef Janarthanam from Chennai and Hyderabad have come to Park Plaza Kolkata to present an array of popular vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes from the states of Southern India. The festival starts from 26 Feb and will continue till 6th March.
I was invited by Park Plaza for a special preview of the festival and we started off our meal with a refreshing pineapple salad and a glass of Hallu Husru Panaga, a drink made of green moong dal, milk and jaggery. The pineapple salad with curry leaves said to be a signature dish of the GRT Grand was a great start to the meal. For starters, we had Masala Vadai, Pazha Dosai ( a fried banana dish) , Kari Sukka and Prawn Varuval. The prawns were spicy, soft and succulent and the dry mutton with chillies, curry leaves and garlic, a treat for the senses!
For the main course, we had the staple rice with rasam and sambhar along with Pumpkin Erussery ( a lovely pumpkin and coconut curry) , Mokkachonna Meriyali (baby corn), Fish Varuval (fish marinated in curry leaf and fried) and Kozhi Varutha Curry (Chicken in a tomato gravy). Chef insisted we try the famous Madurai Kari Dosa with the chicken curry and the combination was brilliant. I also tasted a rather lovely Kavari Karai Khuska or rice made with raw banana. We finished our meal with Aval Payasam and Ukkarai or moong daal and coconut mix.
The South Indian Food Festival at K-19, Park Plaza will be on till the 6th of March, 2016, and the items will be available during lunch and dinner (12 noon to 3 pm and 7 pm to 10.45 pm). Lunch will be served a-la-carte while the dinner buffet is priced at INR 1299/- + taxes per person and 799/- + taxes for children under 12.
Flavors of Telengana at ITC Sonar Till 21st Feb
ITC Master Chef Sakala Sankara flew in from ITC Kakatiya in Hyderabad last week to give us a taste of the rich, spicy and fiery cuisine of the state of Telengana. Flavors of Telengana, part of ITC’s Kitchens of India initiative was on till 21st February at the Eden Pavilion!
The menu was changed everyday during the course of the festival and Chef Sankara brought in a good mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian items. Being the carnivore that I am, I gorged on chicken, fish, prawns, mutton and liver on the day of the tasting. From the menu, these are the dishes I loved.
- Karjam Vepudu – This spicy fried lamb liver dish with onion, chilli and curry leaves was a major reason why I was so excited to go for the festival. I saw the picture in T2 and was literally salivating. Between the eight of us, we finished off three plates of this dish so you can very well imagine how good it was!
- Royyala Vepudu – Buttery soft melt in the mouth prawns cooked in a thick onion and tomato gravy. I had two servings of this
- Gongoora Mamsam – Hot and spicy mutton curry cooked with roselle leaves. The mutton was soft, succulent and cooked to perfection. The roselle leaves added a unique fiery and tangy flavor to the dish which made it so delicious
- Velluli Kodi – A garlic flavored chicken curry
- Ragi Sangati – Balls of steamed rice and millet mixed with ghee. Ragi Sangati is paired with gravies
- Chapa Pulusu Pulao – A spicy and tangy fish pulao
- Pachadis – Chutney/condiment that accompany all Telengana meals . There were three types, brinjal + tamarind, raw mango + garlic and tamarind+peanuts
- Basundi – Sweet thickened milk flavored with cardamom and nutmeg. Similar to our Bengali Payesh.
Chinese New Year Special Menu At Taj Bengal’s Chinoiserie
You know how they say that on the first day of a new year, if you do something you like, you will end up doing that for the entire year? Well, I ate excellent Chinese food on the first day of the Year of the Monkey and now, I have very high hopes for the rest of 2016 🙂
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