Food. Conversations. Art. They say the sign of a true-blue Calcuttan is the love for these three. And an impromptu stroll on the streets of North Kolkata would be enough to convince you that it is true. The northern part of the city houses its oldest neighbourhoods — from the coveted College Street to the stunning Shobhabazar. Its charming old-world aesthetics has mesmerised and inspired artists across generations.
Lined up across its streets are old houses, carrying remnants of the glorious colonial architecture while the pavements bustle with shops of all kinds — especially eateries. Once a melting pot of cultures from across the globe, Kolkata’s culinary landscape is a curious blend of very distinct cuisines like Mughlai, Chinese and British, apart from the traditional Bengali cuisine. These diverse street-side eateries in the city, mostly located in the northern parts, are a gourmand’s haven. If you are visiting the city anytime soon, you are sure to have your must-visit eatery list overflowing with suggestions from friends and research from the internet. Saving you from the trouble of choosing which ones to try out, we bring you a day-long curated food walk in North Kolkata.
Breakfast at Tiretti Bazaar
While most of us associate having Chinese food with dinner, here’s a place – which is popular for offering Chinese delicacies only for breakfast. Located at Sun Yat Sen Street behind Lalbazar Police Headquarters near Central Metro Station, Tiretti Bazar is a market that has home-chefs whipping up delectable fare from fish-ball soups and fish siu mai to chicken pies and sticky rice. If you’re someone who wants to have a healthy-yet-filling breakfast, this should be your option. Do not forget to try out the coconut balls, which will satiate those who like desserts that are not too sweet. A meal for one would cost somewhere between INR 50-100. The market operates between 5-9 am and closes a little later on Sundays.
Sharbat at Paramount
After such a blissful breakfast, you can’t miss out on walking on the beautiful streets and basking in the warmth of the City of Joy. If you walk about a kilometre towards Central Avenue, you can reach Paramount, the legendary sharbat shop. Founded in 1918, the shop initially sold sharbats just acting as a front to a secret meeting ground to a group of freedom fighters, which dissolved with time. With its finesse only getting better with time, the shop today offers three kinds of sharbats — water-based, milk-based and curd-based. You must try Daab Sharbat (green coconut water flavoured with an in-house syrup, with generous amounts of ice shavings and coconut malai). The most popular drink at Paramount, this drink will quench your thirst so well that you will not look at any other cooler all summer! In case you are in mind for something heavier, try the Passion Fruit sharbat, which is a concoction made of fruit and rabri, topped with almonds, cashews and raisins. The price for most drinks varies between INR 60-120.
Lunch at Swadhin Bharat Hindu Hotel
While sipping on your sharbats, you will notice around you, book shops appearing at more frequent intervals than usual. If you step out of Paramount and follow the trail, you will end up at Presidency University. If you pass by Presidency on the left and keep walking, in under eight minutes you will reach Swadhin Bharat Hindu Hotel, your destination for lunch. Legend has it that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was a regular here during his college days. These kinds of eateries in the city are called ‘pice’ hotels, which are diners where you could get a multi-course meal under one paisa, back in the day! Even now, the meals are affordable. The first rice serving starts from INR 20 and you can get a five-course lavish meal under INR 250. Dishes such as shukto (vegetable cooked in milk gravy) and pui shaker chochchori (Malabar spinach curry) make good options for vegetarian diners. However, the plethora of fish curries available here — from tyangra jhal and aar kalia and chital korma to chingri machher malai curry — are bound to turn anyone into a pescatarian!
Snacks at Indian Coffee House
After the hearty lunch, if you decide to walk around a bit, we wouldn’t stop you. But we suggest you stay in the neighbourhood — College Street if you are a bibliophile or College Square if you want a chill-out zone. But we want you to come back to Indian Coffee House opposite Presidency College for your afternoon chai-time. The oldest café in Kolkata, Indian Coffee House had once served as the meeting spot for countless leisurely rendezvous, polemical koreros and secret dates and would bustle mostly in the afternoons and evenings. The food catered to these guests took shape accordingly. Snacky yet wholesome — think cutlets, rolls and stews. What you must try here is Cold Coffee with Cream — the traditional chilled coffee served in a tumbler with a straw. For food, we suggest you try chicken kobiraji (deep-fried chicken in a fluffy and crispy exterior) and mutton Afghani cutlet (mutton cutlet and diced veggies cooked in a thick tomato-based gravy). One good meal will cost you around INR 100.
Dinner at Trincas
To end the day, we take you to the central part of the city — Park Street. Once mostly populated with Britishers and Anglo-Indians, this resto-bar had debuted as a tea-room and bakery in 1939. Serving cuisines from Chinese and Continental to Mughlai and Thai, this restaurant gives you a plethora of options to choose from. Must-try dishes include Tincas’ Ala Kiev, their signature Drums of Heaven and Irani Malai Kebab. What sets their Drums of Heaven apart is that they let the chicken morsels remain crispy and keep the sauce as a dip. And the giant size of the kebab in Irani Malai Kebab, will impress with its subtlety in the spiciness and authenticity in the flavour profile, making it the perfect end to the day.
Email: prattusa@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @MallikPrattusa