This Newtown café brings authentic flavours from the home kitchens of South Korea

Jongmin Oh and Yuntai Nam, a middle-aged South Korean couple, had our hearts when they conversed fluently in Bengali at their new diner, Café-The Sarang, in New Town. They have been residents of Kolkata for 20 years now, it was their son’s education that brought them to the city, which held them back for good with its warmth and love.

Treating foodies with lip-smacking, authentic home recipes, the café has a neat appearance with minimal décor pieces, a huge seating area, a bakery dis-play unit, and an open kitchen.

Settling with a cup of Korean ginseng tea, paired with madeleine, filled us with an instant energy before we moved on to our next dishes. We kickstarted our gustatory trail with Crab stick gimbab, a Korean dish similar to Japanese sushi. The gimbab had a stuffing of sticky rice, crabstick, spinach, julienned carrot, papaya and banana stem, strips of egg seasoned with sesame oil and rolled in gim or seaweed. The very light texture of the dish made it easier on our palate and we paired it with glasses of icy cold date ade and pomegranate ade.

Moving on, we chose two meals from their elaborate menu, Chicken katsu and Bibimbap. The plates were wholesome and could be easily shared by two to three people. The chicken katsu had breaded boneless chicken pieces, cut into strips served with a side of sticky rice, demi-glaze, curry, honey mustard sauces, pickled veggies, and a bowl of kimchi. The crispy and juicy chicken tasted so well with the soft, sticky rice when dunked into the sauces.

We also noted that their kimchi was a tad bit more pungent in taste than the ones available at other restaurants, but that’s how they ferment it at home they said, and it went quite well with the meal.

The Bibimbap had a good portion of sticky rice, sautéed and fresh veggies like carrots, dried mushrooms, beetroot, onion, brinjal, zucchini, bottle gourd, strips of egg with a topping of shredded gim. We had to bibim or mix everything together with gochujang sauce, and each mouthful of this was flavourful and exciting since we could taste something different in each bite.

An elaborate meal later, we chose to wrap up our meal with cheese soufflé and choux bun. While the cheese soufflé, similar to the Japanese cheesecake in taste, was pillowy soft, the choux buns won our hearts. The delicate choux was stuffed with a mildly sweet custard cream, We think we still have that lingering taste of it, even days after as we are writing this piece.

Meal for two: INR 800 +

Time: 11 am to 9 pm, Sundays closed.

At CF Block, Newtown.