The Temptation

Here are a few of Kolkata's temptations - Praline, Chocolate Swiss rolls, Chicken envelopes, Strawbery squares, chocolate boats, chocolate squares, eclairs, evasion slices, chocolate triangles, rum balls, fish curry, plum cakes, chocolate chip cakes, fudge, brownies, mango slices, grilled bekti fish, corn puffs, vegetable patties, dream cake, choco-fantasy, muffins, cup cakes, chocolate cake, black forest, mousse, gelato, truffle, vanilla, hilsa, prawns, crab, shrimp, seafood, chinese, sizzlers, fish cutlets, ramen... and a few thousand others.

Kolkata smells like thin yellow spicy jhol over flavourful slices of fish and steaming pure white rice. And a bit like a delicate puchka ball filled to the brim with tangy spice water, red chutney, green chutney.

At the hypermarkets, tandoori pomfret, pre-done in a tantalizing orange spicy sauce sits near packaged bekti, hilsa and whole glistening snapper. The mangoes are green and large. Freshly baked cookies - chocolate, ginger, wheat, raisin, coconut. Bread that smells of an oven.

Live grills of the world at your table. A full Bengali meal, complete with fried vegetable, pasta, steamed pudding, and kheer. Mutton gravies and chicken curries. And all of this to be had with stuffed naans, parathas, pooris, bhaturas, rotis, lacchha parathas and tandoori rotis - some glazed with butter.

Vada-pao - delectable potato with intense green chutney between two pieces of spongy bun. Dhoklas - delightful yellow cubes. Masala tea - sweet and steaming. Gulab jamuns - sugary, syrupy, kind to the palette. Cool rasgullas, soft Sandesh of many kinds, curvy jalebi, spirally imarti, crispy fragrant samosas.

Desserts that melt in your mouth. A city that's as good for your palette as it is for your imagination.