KOLKATA: MARCH 25
Krazy Kebab is newly opened and designer modern - somewhere to take a business client. The food is superb and Westerners will find ordering easier than at Kasturi. The kebabs are good. Try the lamb chops, Adrak ke panje. They melt in your mouth. Or the chef's own invention: Ghost Aftab. And there is an excellent value lunch-time buffet. The chef in his whites and tall hat sits with us. He was an executive chef with the Taj Hotel Group. He left to build his own small Empire. Good fortune to him.
Sunday, April 04, 2010
KASTURI
KOLKATA: MARCH 24
Kasturi at 7/A Mustaque Ahmed Street is the oldest Bengali restaurant in Kolkata. Climb stairs to a narrow room. Sit at a plastic topped table, no table linen, no menu, and eat fresh sea food. A waiter offers a dozen different dishes. I would be bewildered, nervous. Rajen selects. All are delicious. Salt water prawn in a sauce is extraordinary.
We sit in the proprietor's office after lunch. Rajen and the proprietor talk of cooking. Why no menu? Because dishes and prices change each day. The proprietor does the buying at the fish market. Quality and knowledge of what his customers can afford govern his choice.
Kasturi at 7/A Mustaque Ahmed Street is the oldest Bengali restaurant in Kolkata. Climb stairs to a narrow room. Sit at a plastic topped table, no table linen, no menu, and eat fresh sea food. A waiter offers a dozen different dishes. I would be bewildered, nervous. Rajen selects. All are delicious. Salt water prawn in a sauce is extraordinary.
We sit in the proprietor's office after lunch. Rajen and the proprietor talk of cooking. Why no menu? Because dishes and prices change each day. The proprietor does the buying at the fish market. Quality and knowledge of what his customers can afford govern his choice.
OLD MEN ENTRAPPED IN MEMORIES
KOLKATA: MARCH 24
Travelers eat mediocre food much of the time. Ignorant of where to eat we consult guide books or trust to chance. Writers of guide books are equally ignorant and chance is seldom the path to glory.
Encyclopedic knowledge of Kolkata makes Rajen Bali a brilliant pilot through the city's culinary highways and byways. First a cold beer at a bar. One bottle is sufficient. We sit quietly, content in each other's company, and tell tales of what made us who we are.
"Boring," my younger sons would say. Or, "Heard that..."
True, perhaps, but what would they prefer? Silence?
As for food, Rajen's tastes are eclectic. Plush or plastic table is immaterial. Only the food counts.
Travelers eat mediocre food much of the time. Ignorant of where to eat we consult guide books or trust to chance. Writers of guide books are equally ignorant and chance is seldom the path to glory.
Encyclopedic knowledge of Kolkata makes Rajen Bali a brilliant pilot through the city's culinary highways and byways. First a cold beer at a bar. One bottle is sufficient. We sit quietly, content in each other's company, and tell tales of what made us who we are.
"Boring," my younger sons would say. Or, "Heard that..."
True, perhaps, but what would they prefer? Silence?
As for food, Rajen's tastes are eclectic. Plush or plastic table is immaterial. Only the food counts.
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