Independence Day and one or two Culinary Adventures

Kolkata has many culinary adventures to offer those brave of palette. And a few misadventures. Rolls at the canteen opposite my building at university look like absolute gems. Delicately crispy and glistening, the tingling essence of street food emanating from them, stuffed with untold treasures of poultry, eggs, vegetables and that magical chutney roll-mkers brew in their basements across the country. It wasn't a bad experience by any means till I reached that stringy, pulpy piece of elongated flesh within. I had asked for chicken, not every unidentifiable body part of it.

South City Mall was alive with orange, white and green on Independece Day weekend. A massive India cut out flanked by swirly coloured vases blessed all those busy emptying their pockets in sales on all floors.

Independence Day was, as usual, a day I swell up and bulge with pride and revel in all things wonderful about India. All societies have glitches, but there is None in which I would rather live.

Papda is a fish cooked whole with head and tail and fin. My first experience with this creature was my finger getting caught in its cooked jaw and its nose nuzzling me everytime I reached out for the cottage cheese. The hypocrit in my non-vegetarian acts up when animals are served looking like animals. But what the heck, being a hypocrit is not a good thing. I proceeded to take a bite.

The Bistro cafe inside Shopper's Stop is a quaint little place for a small meal. A word of caution though - their Hot Dark Chocolate sounds exotic, but you might sense a whiff in it of your childhood and the bournvita (or whatever brand of milk chocolate your family bought) you had to consume daily. The sandwiches are light. The mousse cakes and pastries look elegant. So when you're done empying your pocket at all the sales, head to the Bistro.

It is here I observed that Calcuttans have a thing for foccacia and pizzas. More than other typically Western snack food. These are vibrant, like Kolkata is. They offer a sense of completeness in themselves, a bit like Cal. And everything is above the surface. The politics, the olives, the cheese, the breeze, the babycorn and the underground, the diversity, adversity and South City, the salt and the Salt Lake. The rain, the brain drain, the dust, the crust. The culture, the squelch, the chicken, nit picking, the Bangla, L'Angleterre.