Here are a few nuggets to be found rarely, very rarely in Calcutta. The nuggets are not native to the city, and not too many people know about it. Though not indigenous they have survived the test of time. How they came to the city requires research (which I have not done). This is just a off-my-head post.
Nugget One
There is this this little shop in Park Circus. I do not know the name of the street. The shop is probably called South Indian Cafe. The road is a small lane...next to Queen of the Mission School.
The road curves and enters Circus Avenue. Anyway, explore a bit and you'll find it. This an ordinary, no-frill shop selling South Indian food. Their USP is the Appam-Stew. I do not know of any other place in Calcutta that serves this very unique Malayalam dish. May be the five-star hotels do. But this little eatery takes the cake.
Appams are small bowl shaped thin pancakes, with a small fluffy roundel of yeasty stuff in the centre. They are golden and crispy at the edges, and soft and fluffy in the centre. Appams are made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk. Essentially they are quite bland and insipid and goes with a vegetable or meat stew. The stew is delicious. A medium thick broth with soft meat and a few pieces of vegetables. Appams, in this shop at Park Circus, is also served with jaggery (only in winter).
Appams are native to Kerala, though Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has variations of it. To those who have schooled in boarding schools in the south (Blue Mountain or SHY, Yercaud or BCS, Bangalore......remember 'whoppers'?). The self-same stuff.
Really worth a trip.....these appams.
Nugget Two
The Gurdwara at the Elgin Road-Harish Mukherjee Road crossing has a Dhaba nearby. I think its called Balwant Singh's Dhaba. They serve 'Dudh-Cola'. Completely unique drink. Safe. Chilled. Delicious. As the name suggests it is a mixture of milk and Coca Cola. I have never come across this in any other part of Calcutta/India/the World.
Dudh Cola is not too thin, not too thick, not too creamy, just rightly chilled.........a 'wonder-full' drink on a wonder filled late night drive. It's made by the jug. You cannot get a single serving.
Ambrosia???........weeell,......near enough !!!!!!
The Mishti
The 165 year old shop of Girish Dey and Nakur Nandy near Hedua Park off Cornwallis Street is known to every connoisseur of sweet. And Calcutta has many such connoisseurs.....lots.......millions of them. Gour-Nakur makes Paradise, Jalbhara and many other types of Sandesh. Their trademark mishti is the 'Monohara'. Monoharas are soft sandesh with a remarkably thin coating of sugar syrup. These are about golf ball size and one requires special 'chena' (cottage cheese) to make it.
The sweet Monohara is said to have originated in Janai village of Nadia district, West Bengal. The Mukherjee family and the Singha family (both from Janai or near Janai) introduced it to the Calcutta elite sometime in the early 1890s.
In our family the story runs that this self same sweet was a specialty and a signature mishti of our ancestral village Majhhpara in Bikrampur District of Dacca. The mishti is made from the softest chena with rose petal flavour. The climate of (erstwhile) East Bengal not being too conducive to keep the chena fresh, the sandesh was coated with a thin sugar syrup. This prolonged the shelf-life so to say, and made it easier to carry / transport the sandesh to our town house in Dacca. Locally this sandesh was called 'Chinir Pire'...... a small seat of sugar. I am told my by Dad that the correct way to eat this sandesh is to crack open the sugar coating (traditionally with the ring/rings that you are wearing), peel off the coating, eat the sandesh and not the coating.
Girish-Nakur introduced Monohara in 1980 when we ordered this for my sisters marriage. It is said that Dad went and stood at their workshop and personally supervised the 'moiras' (sweetmeat makers) making the mishti of his ancestral village. He threatened "shaesh koira dimu" if the sweets did not match his expectation. I quite believe the story.
The present owner Prashanta Nandy is still apprehensive when Dad makes his rare visit (Dad is now 88 years of age) to this quaint shop in Hedua.
Monohara is worth a special trip to North Calcutta...... braving the erratic traffic.
Enjoy ..........
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