Here's how we enjoyed the flavours of a Mumbai bar sitting in Kolkata

On the evening of Friday, May 9, Kolkata's Conversation Room will filled with guests enjoying the slow vibe, enjoying the retro Bollywood number, which are a rarity at this place, and sipping on to choicest of drinks and flavour bombs on plate, curated by the very talented mixologist Yathish Bangera and chef Rashmi Sondur, who flew down all the way from Mumbai to present flavours from Bombay Daak, one of India's favourite "Daaru-Chakna" bar.

Kitchen and bar takeover at Conversation Room, Kolkata

Abhimanyu Maheshwari, co-founder at Conversation Room shared why he felt Bombay Daak is the right fit for a takeover event. "Bombay Daak is one of the coolest bars that happened in the past six months or so, and we liked the concept of a casual, 5-star live bar which is essentially the vibe of Conversation Room, while the food and drinks are elevated. We also want to do meaningful takeovers which have both food and alcohol and is in-sync with our space, creating a no-frills environment for eating and drinking."

What we enjoyed at the takeover

We started our tasting journey with a shot of chilli wine, made in-house, and moved on to a glass of refreshing Santra Season, an orange-flavoured cocktail, with a sprinkle of Maharashtra's Supasawa Malvani masala. We also tried Nadan Kallu, that boasts of coconut toddy, pickled lemon jam and pickle peppercorn, which was very light on the palate, and slightly salty. The best part was the pickled lemon jam played a very important role in cutting down on the spice level of the "chakna"-s Pork and smoke, smoked pork, akhuni and potato mash brought straight from the hills of Meghalaya, topped with Burma coriander; and Chicken and rasam, which boasted of small chunks of juicy chicken thigh, cooked in a rasam sauce, and topped with a generous amount of garlic panko.

The Zhanzhanit Kakdi from Maharashtra had sliced cucumbers, with a spicy dressing, and topped with crispy, spicy fried peanuts, and is a favourite in Marathi households. The spiciness of this was a complete contrast to the sweet Santra Season. What we loved the most is their Maska bread. This is not your regular bun maska but was rather an Indian cousin of a cheesy Korean garlic bun, made with cheese, garlic butter topped on a melt-in-mouth focaccia bread. We had it with the mild and sweet Barma Barma, representing West Bengal, that had a vodka base, and flavoured with Thai/Burmese coriander and ginger syrup.