Cal 27 At Taj Bengal – Classic Calcutta With A Contemporary Feel

November 26, 2017

Walk into Cal 27, the newest all-day diner at Taj Bengal (the pin code of the hotel is 700027 and therefore the name) and you will feel as you’ve stepped into the courtyard of an old North Calcutta Rajbari/Jamidar Bari. From the chequered marble floors to the green ‘khorkhori janala’, one can clearly see where the designer was inspired from while conceptualizing the interiors. And for someone like me who is obsessed with old Calcutta and old Calcutta houses, that is the first thing that made me fall in love with the place that replaced another favorite, The Hub.

What’s New?

Breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets aside, the highlights of Cal 27’s menu are the Taj Autograph Collection (signature dishes from Taj properties across the world), Taste of Calcutta (Calcutta specials like Singara, Maccher Jhol etc), Comfort Food (all-time favorites like Khichri, Butter Chicken etc) and Classic Grills. Plus, beverages, mocktails and cocktails (try the signature cocktail, Cal 27, a refreshing mix of rum, gondhoraj lemon and sugarcane juice), salads and sandwiches, burgers, pizza/pasta/risotto and desserts (Chilli Chocolate Parfait is a must-have).

Cal 27 & Chilli Chocolate Parfait

Cal 27 Buffet

The Cal 27 buffet is a lavish affair! The buffet station is located right in the middle of the restaurant and you can spot a wide variety of salads, cold cuts, soups, breads, pizzas, pastas, main course dishes, desserts and fresh fruits. From Indian to Asian, European and Mediterranean, the options are limitless. I went on a Saturday for lunch and filled my plate with grilled fish, tenderloin terrine, Milano salami, sausages, succulent kababs, biryani, honey glazed pork belly and a brilliant orange and chocolate pudding.

I am a dessert freak and I judge the quality of a good buffet by the number of desserts it has. The Cal 27 buffet has an endless variety. From tiramisu to cheese cake to pudding to tarts, fresh fruit and ice cream, they have it all. One day, I’m just gonna forget about the calories and go to Cal 27 only to eat the desserts in the buffet spread. Yes, they are that good!

Buffet Pocket Pinch

Everyday Breakfast (7 am to 10.30 am) – Rs 850+
Weekday Lunch (12.30 pm to 3 pm) – Rs 1550+
Weekday Dinner (7 pm to 10.30 p.m) – Rs 1650+
Saturday Lunch (1 pm to 3.30 pm) – Rs 1750+ (with unlimited beer)
Sunday Brunch (1 pm to 3.30 pm) – Rs 2150+ (with sparkling wine)
Sunday Brunch (1 pm to 3.30 pm) – Rs 2950+ (with champagne)
Child Buffet (Saturday and Sunday Lunch) – Rs 1200+

Taj Autograph Collection

The best part of the Cal 27 menu for me is definitely the Taj Autograph Collection. Sitting in Kolkata, you can sample the best dishes from some of the most iconic Taj properties across the world. Five dishes make up the Autograph collection.

Fish & Chips from St. James Court, London – Calcutta bhekti deep fried in a beer batter and served with peas, tartare sauce, french fries and malt vinegar. Most restaurants mess up with Fish & Chips. Either the batter is not crispy or the fish is not tender enough but what is served in Cal 27 is just perfect. Moist, tender fish fillets wrapped in a light crispy beer batter. So British!

Fish & Chips

Vegetable/Fish Exotica from Taj Exotica, Maldives – Fish exotica is fish and shrimp coconut curry served with rice, salad and crispy shallots. A spoonful of this curry will transport you straight to the white sands and clear water beaches of the Maldives!

Fish Exotica

Vegetarian/Non Vegetarian Lamprais from Taj Samudra, Colombo – Sri Lankan specialty of yellow rice, vegetables or meat curry and egg wrapped and baked in banana leaves served with sambol. This dish is the epitome of comfort food and a distant cousin of the Bengali ‘khichuri’. It is messy and soggy but the taste makes up for it!

Non Vegetarian Lamprais

Vegetable/Shrimp Nasi Goreng from Vivanta by Taj, Langkawi – Fried rice tossed with shrimps, topped with a fried egg and served with chicken satay and crackers. This fragrant rice dish is the ultimate comfort food for spicy food lovers!

Shrimp Nasi Goreng

Vegetable/Chicken Bunny Chow from Taj Cape Town – Bunny Chow or Bunny is a South African fast food dish consisting of hollowed-out bread filled with vegetable or chicken curry.

This dish has a very interesting history as I got to know from the internet (geniuskitchen.com). ‘During the Great Depression in 1933, Indians, Whites and Chinese in Durban, South Africa, suffered hunger like everyone else. The kids then discovered that the cheapest curry they could buy (for a quarter penny or half a penny) was made by a vegetarian Indian caste known in Durban slang as the Bania. It was made from dried sugarbeans (no meat). The children didn’t have plates, and one kid got the bright idea to hollow out a quarter bread, asked the seller to put the bean curry in the hollowed-out bread, and then used the broken bread he’s taken out as a sort of eating utensil. Chinese food was called “chow”. Somehow the two words came together: Bania Chow. In time it simply became known as Bunny Chow. Bunny Chow was what the Indian sugar plantation workers took as their day’s food to the lands: curry in hollowed-out bread halves’.

Bunny Chow

If you look at the menu of Cal 27, you will see that soul food or comfort food makes up the biggest chunk. It is food that you and I are familiar with and love eating. It is food that is not pretentious or claims to be ‘out of the box’ and that to me is the USP of the place. And the reason why I will be heading to Cal 27 pretty frequently.

*I was invited by the management to dine at Cal 27

Kolkata Street Art Festival, An Initiative By Berger Paints India Ltd.

August 29, 2017

Kolkata Street Art Festival

The first time I heard of the Kolkata Street Art Festival, an initiative by Berger Paints India, I thought of a friend Soma, who lives in the US. Soma is pretty much a street art/graffiti/mural expert and she keeps posting beautiful pictures on Facebook of her finds in and around the US. I was thinking how happy Soma would be to see that something like this has also started in Kolkata because the lack of street art in the city has been a topic of much discussion. Not just with her but also amongst groups of artists and photographers in the city. Take Delhi for example. Lodhi Colony is the country’s first public art district and there is a growing culture of street art spreading its canvas in Mumbai as well. Kolkata started late but we are getting there too and it is all due to the efforts of Berger Paints India.

Kolkata Street Art Festival

The objective of Berger Paints India in organizing the Kolkata Street Art Festival is twofold. First, to clean & beautify the prominent walls of Kolkata with the colors of Berger and secondly, to give an opportunity to the artists of Kolkata to showcase their talent in beautifying their city. Eminent artist and Member of Parliament Prof. Jogen Chowdhury has mentored this program and the team of artists has been led by senior artist Mr Barun Saha along with Mr Rintu Roy. The plan is to paint city walls, metro station walls and trams across the city.

Kolkata Street Art Festival

Continue Reading . . .

The Grand Tour – A Walk Through The Bylanes Of The Oberoi Grand

August 12, 2017

“It is all this that makes The Grand Hotel a great one. And more than all this, the fact that it is embedded in the memories of six generations. That it shared the momentous events of modern India. That it bore witness to two world wars; the heyday and passing of an empire; famine, flood, fire and riot; a bloodied Independence and a comparitively bloodless revolution. That it has watched both triumph and disaster and, taking the poet’s advice, treated “these two imposters just the same”. – Bachi J Karkaria, To a Grand Design.

The Oberoi Grand Lobby

Like many refugees who came to Calcutta from Bangladesh in the 1940’s, my paternal grandfather had a tough life. On a very meagre salary as a government official, he had to support a family of more than 20. This included his brothers, sisters, their families, cousins and even friends who crossed the border looking for food and shelter. It was a life far far removed from any luxury hence one day, when my grandfather, courtesy his job stepped into The Grand Hotel, it was nothing short of paradise for him. The white marble, the sparkling crystal chandelier in the lobby, the grand piano, the well-dressed ‘shahebs’ and ‘mem-shahebs’, it was a new world. And I remember how many years later when we were crossing The Oberoi Grand one day, his eyes were gleaming when he recounted that experience to me. The charm of the Grande Dame of Chowringhee has always been magical.

Continue Reading . . .

Celebrating 15 Years of ITC Sonar With 15 Hours Nostalgia

August 8, 2017

I can’t believe that it has been 15 years already! I remember when the ITC Sonar building was under construction, there was so much curiosity amongst the general public. That time, Kolkata did not have too many luxury hotels so we were all very excited. My first visit to ITC Sonar took place soon after they launched and it was a visit to Peshawri. For the last 15 years, it has been one of my favorite hotels so I felt really special when the management invited me to be part of their Crystal Anniversary celebration. On this special occasion, ITC Sonar has come up with a range of offers for their patrons. One of them is called 15 Hours Nostalgia where you basically spend 15 hours in the hotel experiencing luxury at its best.

ITC Sonar

Continue Reading . . .

The Beer Mrkt Comes To Monkey Bar Kolkata

July 13, 2017

Make way for beer cocktails, draught friendly fries, chicken wings and beer bellies. Monkey Bar Kolkata has got the Beer Mrkt in town and it is here to stay till September.

Beer Mrkt Cocktails

The words ‘beer’ and ‘cocktail’ together makes most people wince and that is exactly what Monkey Bar wants to change. They want to show that beer is a great drink not only on its own but also when mixed with other ingredients. They have come up with seven concoctions that include the popular ‘Shandy’ (beer and lemonade) and other cocktails with fun names like ‘Beer Bong’ (beer and dark rum), ‘Bloody Roman’ (the beer version of Bloody Mary) , ‘Monkey Mule’ (beer, vodka, ginger ale, lime and mint) etc. I tried two from the menu – Beergarita which is beer, tequila and lime juice. The other cocktail is more mild and a perfect brunch drink – Beermosa with beer, orange juice and sparking wine. All of these cocktails are priced really well and are within the Rs 250-Rs 300 range.

Beer Mrkt Cocktails

Beer Mrkt Food

With beer, you definitely need meat and something fried to munch on. The Beer Mrkt menu has five types of fries and chicken wings flavoured in six types of sauce. The fries are topped with cheese and other good stuff like mushroom, baked beans etc for the vegetarians and chicken and ham for the carnivores. For the chicken wings fans, you get to choose from hot sauce, bbq sauce, Caribbean jerk sauce, sticky Korean sauce, hot n’sour sauce and honey mustard. Hard to pick a favourite because all of them compliment the wings so well. The fries are in the Rs 180-Rs 220 price range. The wings are priced at Rs 280 each.

Beer Mkt Food

Hot and Sour Wings

Honey Mustard chicken wings

There’s nothing like a glass of chilled beer on a hot summer day. There’s nothing like a refreshing beer cocktail on a hot day either. And if it is raining outside, add some fries, chicken wings and go hic hic hurray!! 🙂

I was invited by the Management to dine at the restaurant for review purpose.

Chicken Wings pic source – Monkey Bar Kolkata

1
2
3
…
7
Next Page >