Bengali

Its been a while i have been here, but having recently joined cant keep my self from saying about this place.

If you love curries and sea food this is a place to go, what i distinctly remember about my visit here was a friend actually went and dropped a Bengali mate of his to the air port as she felt so home sick after eating food here they she took 10 days prompt-u leave from work and headed home.

Slightly expensive place paid about 1900Rs between 3 of us with out drinks. You can find famous names residing in Bombay from Bengal there.

A must go...!

Gup Shup is a Bengali snacks joint on top of 6 Ballygunge Place. They have a concise speciality menu which consists of Bengali snacks like Puchkas, Jhal Muri, Kathi Rolls, Mughlai Parathas, Maccher Chop, etc

We tried a number of dishes all of which were good. Definitly a must visit if you are in the vicinity.

“Heritage Cuisine” - sounds good isn’t it?

You may presume that this pompous term refers to pretentious traditional high-brow cuisine which adorns the tables of the classes!

In my vocabulary “heritage cuisine” is high-falutin gobbledygook for simple staple down-to-earth local street-food relished by the masses. Like Vada Pav (Mumbai’s “Heritage Burger”), or Puneri Misal, or Kulcha Chole, Katchi Dabeli, Bhel, Kathi Kababs, Baida Roti, Malpua - the list is endless.

There is a delicious sweetmeat called “Lavang Lata” which I tasted for the first time and relished piping hot at Pehelwan’s at the end of Lanka near BHU in Varanasi in the seventies. A cool Lassi (in winter) or warm milk (in summer), both with dollops of rabdi added, topped up the gastronomic experience.

Later, in the eighties, I came across slightly different versions of Lavang Lata at various eateries, most notably Nathu at Bengali market in New Delhi. But these versions were nowhere close to Pehelwan’s Banarasi Lavang Lata.

Just imagine my surprise, when, during my walk last evening, I chanced upon a delectable Lavang Lata in an out-of-the-way unpretentious sweet shop called ‘Babumosai Bengali Sweets’ tucked away almost in obscurity, way off the beaten track, on Aundh Road on the way to Khadki in Pune.

Actually I was in search of Rasgullas. (Roshogollas, if you want it spelt that way). Having relocated from a ‘happening’ place like Churchgate in the heart of Mumbai to an obscure “back of the beyond” desolate place somewhere in the jungles on the banks of Mula river between Aundh and Sangvi, craving and wandering desperately in my search for ‘heritage food’, I hit the Aundh road past Spicer College towards Khadki, enjoying a refreshing walk between the expanse of the verdant Botanical Gardens and the foliage of Pune University, when in the first building I encountered on my left, I saw a nondescript signboard “Babumosai Bengali Sweets” (maybe the spelling ought to be ‘Babumoshai’) atop a deserted lackluster sweetshop.

There was no one in the shop and the lifeless atmosphere and uninspiring display almost put me off. But having come so far, I decided to give it a try and looked at the sweets on display in trays behind a glass counter - Rasgullas, Sandesh, Rajbhog, Gulab Jamuns, Malai Sandwiches - the ubiquitous ‘Bengali Sweets’; and suddenly a man came out carrying a tray of piping hot Lavang Latas, the very sight of which made my mouth water so much that I ordered one immediately.

I walked outside the shop, stood in the cool evening air, took a small bite of the Lavang Lata, rolled the syrupy hot piece on my eager salivated tongue and closed my eyes in order to enhance my gustatory experience.

I pressed the Lavang Lata upwards with my tongue against the palate, the roof of my mouth, and slowly it disintegrated releasing its heavenly flavour of nutmeg and cardamom. That’s the way you should enjoy Bengali sweetmeats - never bite, swallow and devour in a hurry. Don’t use your teeth; slowly, very slowly, just roll on your tongue and lightly press on the roof of your mouth till the delicacy melts releasing its luxurious flavour and divine fragrance into your gustatory and olfactory systems. And remember, keep your eyes closed, shut yourself to the outside world, focus on your tongue, internalize the experience and transcend to a state of delightful ecstasy, till you feel you are in seventh heaven. That’s the art of eating.

The Lavang Lata is perfect. Not sickly sweet, but tantalizingly tasty, with the subtle essence of its ingredients and seasoning coming through. The rabri and khoya, the raisins and dry fruits, the crispy sweet crust, the spices and most importantly, the exotic fortifying and stimulating taste of clove. It’s sheer bliss. The invigorating taste lingers on my tongue for a long long time , as if for eternity.

Just writing this is making my mouth water. And I am rushing to “Babumosai” once more - this time to sample the Rasgullas, maybe the Sandesh - and I’ll tell you all about it right here.

Dear fellow Foodie - do let me know places where I can relish Lavang Lata.

VIKRAM KARVE
Pune

vikramkarve@sify.com

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

Flavours of Kolkata is one of the few Bengali restaurants in Mumbai offering authentic Bengali food and fresh water fish brought in from Calcutta.

The Kosha Mangsho (Well done Mutton) you get here is the best in a restaurant in Bombay. Goes great with Luchi (A Batura like Puri).

For starters try the Fish Kobiraji. It comes with a crusty covering which is better off discarded to enjoy the delicious fish inside.

The chops (maccher, chingri, mochar) considered the "running items" in Bengali food are nice and spicy. If you don't like spicy food you may want to tell them to not make these spicy.

You can also try the quintessential Begun Bhaja.

For the main course one can have the Kosha Mangsho or Kosha Murgi or a selection of Seafood in various preparations like Jhol (thin gravy), Kalia (rich gravy) or Sorshe (mustard gravy).

For desserts or rather sweets since we're eating Bengali food, there are three items. Mishti Doi, Kheer and Raaj Bhog. The only problem is sometimes they tend to make these too sweet. My favourite is the Mishti Doi (sweet dahi with jaggery).

Flavors of Kolkata is one of my favorite restaurants in the New Bombay area and with only 4 Bengali restaurants in the whole of Bombay consider yourself lucky and try it out if you are in New Bombay.

Finally an authentic bengali cuisine place in Bangalore. The place is tucked away in the gallis of Koramangala and its tough to reach unless you have someone to guide you there the 1st time. It's on the top floor of a 3 floored building next to lot of shops and houses in 7th block koramangala. It's a tastefully decorated with a lot of bengali artifacts and a lot of cartoon collages in bengali on the walls.

There is no menu. But the friendly waiter will help you to choose your meal by asking you to take the unlimited veg meals along with one of the non-veg specialities of the day. When we went, the specialities were Macher Kalia, Pabda Mach, Parshe Mach and Amer Chatni. So we ordered for 2 plates of meals with 2 Macher Kalia and 2 Amer Chatni.

The meal was pretty good with white rice, dal and bhat (potato curry). It was made very authentically as if we are having in some bengali person's house. (Later we were told by the owner that all food is home cooked). As we were relising it, Macher Kalia was bought in. That taste was awesome and my bengali friend freaked out on it. I liked it very much too because of the nice spices (or the lack of it? ;)). As we are hogging on Macher Kalia, Amer Chatni was bought in. The sweet and sour taste of it was mind boggling and I relished eating it with more dal.

Finally full, we went and asked for the bill and was surprised to find it was just Rs.90 for the two of us! We were pleasantly surprised and decided to visit the place again as much as possible.

Lovers of Bengali food in Bangalore, don't miss it !! :)

There are apparently less than a handful of Bengali eating joints in Bombay. And it is Howrah that the Bengalis of the city come to and swear by. The Bengali folks have been coming to New Bengal Lodge for decades and Howrah is their restaurant. It is right next to crawford market opposite Police HQ and JJ School of Arts. Complete with a large model of the Howrah bridge, waiters in traditional Bong dresses and all.

We were quite inexperienced with Bengali food - we just knew that we had to try Hilsa in mustard curry. We did just that and were very happy about it. We could make out some differences between fresh water (Hilsa) and our usual sea water (pomfret etc.) fishes. We also ordered King Prawns in a simple Bengali masala gravy which also turned out nice. We had this with plain rice and aam porchho sherbet (like raw mango jal jeera). We inspected the unlimited Thalis (both veg and non-veg versions) at less than 150 each. I'll definitely be having this next time - this time we were too stuffed.

We quite liked the place. The waiters were extremely helpful and the food was delicious. The songs playing were Bengali originally but then came down to old hindi songs sung in Bengali by Asha Bhosle - so we weren't sure who had copied whom. Conversation wandered in the direction of Calcutta's pollution, trams, metro, street food and we notice that we were the only non-Bengalis in the restaurant. No matter - a good place for a taste of Bengal right here in Mumbai.