Stone Water Grill

Another welcome addition to Pune's burgeoning casual dining scene is the classy Stone Water Grill. Located in a swanky, new suburb of Koregaon Park, this lounge-restaurant has a large open-air lounge and an indoor dining room. We walked in late in the evening, and the ambiance was very chic, with trees, water bodies and the bar area set in geometric patterns, all lit with a warm red glow.

As is (almost) always the case, we had walked in without a reservations. Therefore, the hostess couldn't get us a seat in the dining room. However, the evening was wonderful, and the outdoor option suited us just fine. This place is very pretty; right now, I think this is easily the best-looking lounge in Pune. Comfortable seating areas are spaced out and spread over a large area allowing ample privacy between tables. The music system was high-quality too but was thumping out techno/rave music on this night.


Stone Water Grill serves food with a Mediterranean touch. They also have a comprehensive wine and cocktail menu in the lounge, but only serve starters and wood-fired pizzas here. We ordered Long Island Iced Teas that turned out pretty good (and potent!).

Along with our drinks we ordered Moroccan Chicken Skewers and Spiced Lamb and Jalapeno Kibbeh. The Lamb was so good, we had to order another plate. While the chicken skewers were good too, the lamb was just terrific!


We finally ordered a Spiced Chicken Pizza which was again wonderful, with a crisp, thin crust and ample amount of mozzarella. I haven't tried their dining room yet, but if the lounge food was any indication, the food here is definitely worth trying.

As for prices in the lounge, they are higher than Thousand Oaks, but not too much, especially considering the upscale ambiance. The drinks came for Rs:400 each, the starters Rs: 250 each, and the pizza for Rs: 380.


Stone Water Grill is located at Pyramid Complex, 81/82 North Main Road, Koregaon Park. If you are coming from Koregaon Park or Kalyaninagar, take the first left turn after you go past the sports complex. It is in the same complex as Hard Rock Cafe. Phone: 41030303/41030300

For a comprehensive list of the best drinking places in Pune, check this post. I have also updated my post on New Dining Options at Pune with more photos and phone numbers.

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Eating in the City of Lakes

I flew into Minneapolis late at night and drove straight to my hotel in Roseville. Northwest charged me $15 to check-in a bag, a first for me! My cab driver helpfully pointed out The Mall of America on the way to the hotel. This mall, the largest in the USA is the size of 78 football fields - 9.5 million square feet. But this city is known as much for its lakes as it is for being the home of large retail chains and malls. Minnesota has so many lakes, its shoreline is larger than California, Florida and Hawaii combined!


I was in Roseville/Minneapolis only for a day, which didn't leave me time to discover the great outdoors, resplendent with fall colors. For lunch, my hosts took me out to Sawatdee, a pretty good Thai restaurant in the downtown area. We drove over the new bridge over the Mississippi that had opened only a week back; the old one, as some of you may remember, created headlines by collapsing during peak hour traffic last year. I ordered pineapple red curry with chicken and rice. They asked me to select my spice level on a range of 1 to 5; I selected 4, which was spicy enough for me... :)

Incidentally, during this trip, I saw both ends of the mighty Missisippi River which cuts through the USA from north to south. Like New Orleans, a lot of this city's importance in the past, derived from it's location on this river. This city and the area around it has a history of flour mills and lumber industries that depended on hydropower to run and the river as a means of transport.


For dinner, my hosts me took me to a very upscale French Mediterranean restaurant called Le Belle Vie. Named as one of the top 20 restaurants in the US, this restaurant is located in the interesting Hennepin County. This county was named after the famous French explorer, who among other things, also discovered Niagara Falls. The restaurant is located close to some very interesting buildings: a Gothic cathedral across the road and a very contemporary museum building nearby. The restaurant itself is housed in a stately building with a large, regal dining hall. Guests dine from expensive China and sip from Riedel crysal.



We decided to go a la carte instead of selecting from the 5 or 8-course tasting menu. Our waiter was an elderly chap, very friendly and funny. I began with Carmelized Foie Gras with Apple, Fennel and Calvados. It was lovely!


The salad came next, White and Green Asparagus with Parmesian-Lemon Sabayon, Pancheta and Butter Poached Egg. This was perfect too.


For my entree I wanted to try a fish that was native to the waters in this part of the world. I chose the Oven-Steamed Arctic Char with Fresh Porcini Mushrooms, Burgundy Truffles and Red Wine. I loved this dish! The Arctic Char is a freshwater fish found in Arctic waters and tastes very much like salmon (even though it has many similarities with trout).


The Seared Scallops and Grilled Beef Tenderloin my companions ordered looked great too. This restaurant certainly deserves its standing as one of the Top 50 restaurants in the USA. BTW, this restaurant has a large lounge area too where you can nurse your drinks or even order off the same dinner menu.

We had no appetite left to sample the desserts after that dinner. Instead, we chatted over cappucino for a while before getting up to leave. I had to wake up early for my flight to California where I had one more day of meetings before I would catch my long flight back to India.

BTW, if you are in Cupertino, try the pizza at Heart My Pizza. I love their Big Sur with large cloves of garlic, pepperoni, sausages and portabello. Just make sure you aren't getting into a meeting after having all that garlic! :)

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Swamps and Bayous

Louisiana has the most important wetlands in America - a watery world of bayous, marshes, and barrier islands that produces and transports more than a third of the nation's oil and ranks second only to Alaska in commercial fish landings. As wildlife habitat, it makes Florida's Everglades look like a petting zoo by comparison.

The wetlands of Louisiana have acted as a storm barrier and a rich wildlife habitat for ages. However, with the discovery of oil, the wetlands were criss-crossed with man-made canals; also a system of levees were built to prevent flooding populated areas. Some of these human interventions are now thought to be responsible for the rapidly disappearing stretches of wetlands, leading to higher risks of hurricane damage to a city that lies 80% below sea-level!



I took a Swamp and Bayou tour during the weekend that gave me a first-hand look at these wetlands. Wiki defines bayou as "a small, slow-moving stream or creek, or a lake or pool that lies in an abandoned channel of a stream". We were driven across the Mississippi a bus and arrived at a small town on the edge of the wetlands. A local guide gave us a brief tour of the nesting habits of alligators, snapping turtles, egrets and other native creatures of the swamp. I learnt that there are about 36 varieties of snakes, and only six of them are deadly. That snakes with a yellow stripe adjacent to the red are dangerous, while those with a white stripe adjascent to the red are not.

Our local guide was a fisherman who took us on a boatride throught the bayou. He told us that shrimping season has begun. That moonlit nights are better as the moonlight attracts the shrimps near the surface. I also learnt that people could hunt turtles; only some varieties, including sea turtles, are endangered and cannot be hunted. The swampy shores of the bayou had a lot of cypress trees; many with roots in water. These tress apparently take well to water, and their roots keep growing.


I found out that these swamps are only about eight foot deep but the floor is very soft and filled with plants, leeches and all kinds of creepy-crawly things! By the time we got back on solid ground after two hours in the boat, we had seen a number of alligators, turtles and birds in their natural habitat. I also saw some of the flood barriers that have been put into place after the Katrina disaster. All in all, this was an interesting tour; it's amazing how large the wetlands here are; the entire area they cover is bigger than many of the smaller European nations.





Among the many interesting things I saw in New Orleans, one was their tradition of over-the-ground burials, sometimes refered to as Cities of the Dead. While driving to the airport, I passed a very large cemetary with tombs that were erected above the ground. This tradition began due to the soggy and water-logged lands in this region. You can see rows and rows of structures small and big that house the mortal remains of people within these cemetaries.

Plantation tours are also popular with many tourists who visit New Orleans. Showcasing the genteel Southern living of the past, these plantations also are a reminder of the slave labor of those time. New Orleans at one time was the center of the slave trade where cruel slave auctions were routine. The French first came into this city with their slaves. This city also saw migrants from Haiti, probably the only place where slaves fought and won against their white masters during an uprising.

I left New Orleans on a bright morning. While there are many signs of the damage wrought on this city by the recent hurricanes, the image I carried back was the fun and merry-making at the French Quarters and the aroma of mouth-watering, spicy food.

Related Posts:

• Arriving in the Big Easy
• A Food Lover's Haven - I
• A Food Lover's Haven - II

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A Food Lover's Haven - Part II

Emeril Lagasse began his cooking career in New Orleans. His signature restaurant, Emeril's, was his very first restaurant. Located in the business district, but within walking distance from Canal Street and the Marriott hotel, this restaurant has a nice, old-world charm. Soaring ceiling, exposed brick walls, wrought-iron accessories and antique lighting fixtures add to the mood.


We had made reservations and they had a table ready for us, right next to the window from which a street lamp flooded us with light. We ordered a New Zealand Pinor Noir and perused the menu. I decided to try a traditional Gumbo; this dish is a thick, spicy stew made of vegetables, meat and boiled rice. The Gumbo of the day was made with Andouille saugages and chicken, and poured out of a ordinary aluminium pan for that authentic touch.

My entree was a Dusted Jumbo Gulf Shrimp with brown butter, sweet potato Grits, beans, Benton’s Bacon, smoked corn and mango chow chow. The shrimps encrusted with the bacon strips was overall was a very interesting dish. Those who selected the bacon-encrusted Redfish, the Grilled Swordfish, and the Pan-roasted Rainbow Trout were happy with their choices too.



What I will remember most was the out-of-the-world Sweet Potato Cheesecake I ordered for dessert. The cheesecake was amazingly good and I have not had anything like it before.

There was a cool wind blowing from the river, making the walk back pleasant in the humid evening. The mighty Mississippi river curves through the city very close from here and one can clearly hear the horns of the boats at night. The port of New Orleans is the busiest one in the USA and more than 600o vessels move through it on the Mississippi every year.

The next day, I wasn't too hungry and decided to have a late morning brunch. The concierge had recommended Petunia's, which some say is the best place to eat breakfast in the French Quarters. This restaurant off Bourbon Street looks completely unremarkable but has history. Petunia's is housed in a 3-story Creole townhouse erected in the 1830's by a noted cabinetmaker of the time. The interior is especially fascinating for his mastery of intricate details of the all cypress millwork including the mantels surrounding the original coal-burning fireplaces.

Behind the main building is a two-story dependency, separate from the main building, frequently referred to as a slave quarter in which the cooking for the family was done. Initially called the St. Louis Street Crepe Shoppe, the name was changed to Petunia's in the 80s, when a full-service menu was added which features Cajun and Creole dishes and other New Orleans favorites.


I ordered one of their famous crepes, the St. Francis, stuffed with shrimp, Louisiana crabmeat, ratatouille, and cheese sauce. They claim their crepes are the largest in the world, and the size was indeed daunting. They also have some great dessert crepes, but be forewarned - everything here comes in really large portions!

Bourbon Street was quiet during the afternoon as I walked back. There were a couple of good galleries selling local art and I bought a couple of them. The French Quarter of today is the old city, which was built by the French in the early 18th century. Bourbon Street was named at that time and continues unchanged. The French also brought in Mardi Gras and African slaves into America at that time-period. During the four decades of Spanish rule, this city got olive oil cooking and the elegant wrought-iron balconies. The streetcars here (single car, unlike the ones in Calcutta which have two cars) are another quaint sight you can see even today.

Related Posts:

• Arriving in the Big Easy
• A Food Lover's Haven - I
• Swamps and Bayous

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A Food Lover's Haven - Part I

New Orleans has so much to offer a foodie. In addition to the unique Creole and Cajun cooking, the city is home many seafood restaurants and upscale fine-dining restaurants, many run by celebrity chefs such as Emeril Lagasse and Paul Prudhomme. In addition to gumbo, crepes and jambalaya, I saw cafes advertising po' boys - a traditional sandwich of meat or seafood served in a baguette made of Louisiana French bread. During my three days here, I was able to sample some of these culinary delights that left me wanting more.


Emeril's NOLA restaurant is located in the heart of the French Quarters. This casual dining restaurant puts a contemprary spin on classic Creole and New Orleans dishes and is very popular, for good reason. I walked in without a reservation and got lucky. There was a group of people waiting for seats, but I was the only one eating alone, and they had exactly one spot free at the Chef's table!

This was a great spot to watch the activity in the open kitchen - activity which was intense and busy throughout. I sipped on a Pinot Noir and nibbled on the excellent spiced cornbread as I awaited my starter and watched the action in the kitchen.


I had ordered Gulf Oysters and Crabmeat, baked in the wood oven with garlic butter and herb bread crumbs. The oysters were cooked right before my eyes in the huge wood-burning oven. The oysters were served in the special iron skillet they were cooked in. I oysters were amazingly delicious.

Purists prefer their oysters raw, with no dressing save for lemon juice. Similar to wine, oysters can be very salty or sweet, with notes of cucumber, melon, herbs, butter, flint, or copper, all depending on the water in which they grew. However, newbies should remember Jonathan Swift who said, "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster". For you, cooked oysters may be a good way to get used to the taste.

For my entree, I had selected their signature Garlic Crusted Texas Redfish which was cooked in the wood-burning oven with Brabant potatoes, wild mushrooms, bacon, and Sauce Beurre Rouge. This was another standout dish that I thoroughly enjoyed and will recommend to anyone who visits this restaurant.

The dessert was a double chocolate bread pudding, good but not particularly noteworthy. The service was exceptional; the waitstaff was fast, friendly and helpful throughout. I noticed the restaurant was filled to capacity during the entire time and there were people waiting for seats even when I walked out satiated.

For lunch the next day, I strolled into another great place on the (in)famous Bourbon Street. Ralph Brennan is one of the town's most respected restauranters and a visit to Red Fish Grill, which he owns and runs, will show you why. The restaurant’s decor features a sea colored etched floor, hand-painted tables, oyster mirrors, sculptured palms, photographs of Louisiana bayous and bayou residents and a sea of metal fish in neon swimming overhead. The food is equally interesting.


I began with the Coconut Crusted Shrimp, which is jumbo Louisiana shrimp fried in a sweet coconut batter, and served with Cajun cole slaw and pepper jelly.

I followed with the Hickory Grilled Redfish, a fillet of fresh redfish grilled over hickory and served with tasso and wild mushroom Pontalba potatoes, topped with Louisiana lump crabmeat and lemon butter sauce. My waitress also added some batter-fried oysters as a side.

While the shrimp was interesting, it was the redfish entree which was truely memorable. This restaurant also boasts of a well-stocked oyster bar which is worth trying. Incidentally, Red Fish Grill was the first prominent restaurant to reopen after Katrina, exactly 31 days after the hurricane devastated this city.

There are other restaurants that were on my list but I didn't have the time. I am told K-Paul's is one of the most popular ones here; however, I discovered they don't open on Sundays! Another interesting restaurant with a British ambiance and great food is the Bombay Club. Both these restaurants are in the French Quarters area.

Related Posts:

• Arriving in the Big Easy
• A Food Lover's Haven - II
• Swamps and Bayous

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Arriving in The Big Easy

The jazz funeral scene from the James Bond movie, Live and Let Die always comes to mind when I think of New Orleans. This unique New Orleans tradition consists of a brass band followed by two lines of mourners and the casket. That's just one of many unique traditions of the Big Easy. No one quite knows how the city got it's nick name. Many speculate the name was given by the many musicians who found this a easy place to ply their trade; others say it was because of the relaxed laws on alcohol and low costs of living.


There are many things about New Orleans that make it worth a visit (or two): the historic French Quarters; the unique Creole and Cajun culinary tradition; and of course, Mardi Gras. New Orleans and Rio are the two cities most known for its Mardi Gras celebrations. Shops lining the streets near my hotel were filled with Mardi Gras masks, bead necklaces and voodoo dolls. Art celebrating the history of blacks and books on Creole-Cajun cooking were everywhere too. Neighbouring Bourbon Street - filled with strip clubs, saloons and bars - was particularly festive on this day due to the game being held. The local New Orleans Saints won decisively leading to more celebrations on these streets. Loud music, drinking and dancing followed all the way into the night!



The French owned the port of Orleans until Napolean sold this territory to America! This city was also under Spanish rule for a while. The French Quarters are a reminder of the French past and one of the city's most popular attractions. The unique culinary tradition also comes from this city's rich multi-cultural past, primarily Creole and Cajun.


A Creole is anyone born in the colonies of European ancestry, French or Spanish or both. Creole cuisine developed in New Orleans from a mixture of traditions of many nationalities - the culinary arts of the French, of Spain mixed with the American Indian influence, and all stirred together with the natural skill of the African. Cooking ingredients were plentiful here; seafood and wild game, wild herbs and vegetables, the best produce from upriver, spices from South America, and worldwide imports into the country's second-largest port. Additional influences came with the German and Italian immigrations just before the turn of the century. The resulting food is called Creole.


Cajuns originated in southern France, emigrated in the early 1600's and settled a colony called Acadia, when all of Canada was controlled by France. In the mid-1700's the British drove them out when they would not swear allegiance to the King and renamed the the province Nova Scotia. Many of them migrated to Louisiana, where they were welcomed by the large French population. They settled primarily along the waterways of southwest Louisiana and turned to their traditional practice of fishing and farming for a living. Cajun cooking is old French cooking, usually in one big pot, adapted to the ingredients available, expanded by the herbs and spices growing wild in the area. Cajun food was the food of the isolated country people.

It took me over 26 hours of flying and waiting in airport lounges to get here. It was a very busy afternoon when I began my trip in Pune. I was on my phone all through check-in and the boarding process. I had run out of charge by the time I got into Mumbai and had to charge the phone as I ate dinner before catching my flight. I was at the Pan Asian in the Grand Maratha hotel.



The Sichuan Hotpot looked interesting on the menu but that required me to move to a table with a grill in it. I decided to have something else instead. I began with Crystal Prawn Dumpling followed by the Thai red curry with red snapper. For dessert, I selected the Sticky Date Cake, a reinterpretation of a Balinese recipe with lemon-honey drizzle. The dumplings were unremarkable, but the red curry was excellent and dessert was very good too.

I slept all the way to Singapore. At Singapore, after freshening up at the SilverKris lounge quickly, I boarded the 747 bound for LA via Narita. The noodle bar at the ANA lounge in Tokyo revived me with a spicy, hot Udon noodle soup with beancurd. Udon is made of buckwheat and the noodles are thicker than ordinary noodles. I was sufficiently to watch the first two episodes of critically acclaimed Mad Men.

Immigration in LA was a breeze but then I found I had a five hour wait before my United Air flight to New Orleans. It was midnight in New Orleans when I got there. My hotel, the Marriott on Canal Street, was alive and crowded even at that time. I have to mention the high-tech elevators in this hotel (reminded me of the ANA Hotel in Tokyo). You punch the number of your floor into a panel in the elevator bank and it directs you to a particular elevator. When inside the elevator, there are no buttons to punch. I was on the the 22nd floor and the view of the city below was fantastic.

Next day I woke up to find I had left my AC adapter home. Thankfully, there was a Radio Shack two blocks away and I found one. After a hearty breakfast at 5Fifty5, the hotel's lobby restaurant , I was on my way into the French Quarters to discover the many charms of this city.

Related Posts:

• A Food Lover's Haven - I
• A Food Lover's Haven - II
• Swamps and Bayous

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All in A Day's Work

I have never been up-close with so many big names on a single day. I was in New Delhi to attend an award ceremony hosted by NDTV Profit. My flight arrived in the late afternoon and I checked into the Taj Palace, the venue of the event. With a few hours to spend before the evening, I had set up a meeting at the Le Meridien hotel in Janpath. I walked out of the elevators and who should I run into, but His Holiness himself: the Dalai Lama! I managed to get a few pictures as he met with some Tibetian women who were waiting to pay their respects.

Pico Iyer's The Open Road provides a fascinating insight into this larger-than-life man, revered not only by the Tibetians, but many around the world: "The fourteenth Dalai Lama is built like a middle linebacker but is nonviolent. A religious teacher who is telling people not to get confused or distracted by religion. He is considered a living god but insists over and over that he is just a man."

There has been recent concern about the Dalai Lama's health and I think he was here in Delhi for medical checkups. Here are a few pictures from my room, enroute, and at the lobby of the Le Meridien hotel.




The meeting at the Le Meridien got over quickly, but I got caught in traffic on my way back. By the time I reached the Taj Palace, it was almost time for the big event. The hall was filled with people, many of whom show up regularly on TV and newspapers. The monotony of dark suits in the hall was broken only by the bright dresses of the female TV anchors. The ceremony went off like clockwork. Even the two ministers were on time (a rarity in India!): Chidambaram, our Finance Minister and Laloo Yadav, our Railway Minister.

In the hall this evening were the who's who of the Indian industry: Mukesh Ambani - head of Reliance Industries, and now #5 on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, Sunil Mittal - head of Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile and telecom network, and many others. Of course, Prannoy Roy, Vikram Chandra and other familiar faces from NDTV were there too. The entire award ceremony took about 90 minutes (link).

Some highlights from the evening:

Sunil Mittal, the guy who (along with Reliance) brought the mobile revolution to India, made a strong case for making 3G ubiquitous in India, but not for fancy games and applications. He thinks 3G could be just the thing to get rural India empowered in a short time (education, insurance, mirco-credit, delivery other types of services through mobile telephony). He citied the example of how there are no longer any parking meters in London; all you have to do now is send an SMS to pay for parking; to extend your time you no longer need to come back to drop more coins (you only need to send another SMS).

With the markets having crashed to another low during the day, and the quick Government intervention right after, there were lots of questions on the global financial crisis. Especially so since the Finance Minister was in the room with us. Most industry leaders and the ministers seemed to agree that India should not worry too much, even though we will see some indirect impact in the coming year.

Mukesh Ambani spoke about how his new natural gas discoveries could meet 40% of India's current energy needs. When questioned about green alternatives, he repeated one of Thomas Friedman's favorite quotes from his new book, Hot, Flat and Crowded. "The Stone Age did not end because we ran out of Stones". The point being that we need to innovate ourselves out of of our oil addiction and move quickly to alternate clean energy sources; we should not wait for fossil fuels to end before waking up to the situation.

He seems to completely agree with Friedman's point that whichever country takes the lead in Energy Innovation will probably have the most influence during the next several decades (like the invention of the computer did several years back). BTW, you have to read Friedman's book, it makes some very compelling points in a direct and easy-to-read manner. Given Reliance's ability to make big bets and their track record of execution, I would certainly like to see him move in that direction quickly.

Laloo Yadav provided much of the laughs as he explained how he turned around Indian Railways which was almost bankrupt when he took over; he had some humorous anecdotes on recent meetings with delegations from Harvard and Wharton, who are doing case-studies. BTW, do you know the Indian Railways is the world's largest employer with about 1.5 million employees?


The buffet dinner was good. The Indian section was mostly Hyderabadi (but since I had only recently sampled the real thing, I wasn't too excited). However, the Apple Jalebis for dessert were awesome! I didn't have time to sample any food from the hotel or the restaurants this time. Early in the morning, I was off to the airport for my flight back to Pune.

This weekend I leave for a week's trip to the US: New Orleans, Roseville and Cupertino. I will be back with stories (and food) from these places soon.


Finally, here's a picture of the Goddess Durga from this year's celebration in Pune. For those who are celebrating, wish you all a Happy Dussehra and Durga Puja! Thankfully, this time I was here with my family for this festival and I brought back some interesting festival sweets from Haldiram's at Delhi: Moong Dal Burfi, Doda and Pinni.

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Eating Out in Pune: New Options!

Ah finally, I thought, as I read the neatly printed invitation. The folks who run Mainland China and Sigree restaurants were opening another one in Pune; they had invited me for a special 'tasting' session. I was obviously excited! Restaurants that serve Bengali food in an elegant setting are a rarity. Now Oh! Calcutta promises to do just that - in Pune. Along with Bengali classics, their menu includes dishes from the British Raj and those that came into Calcutta from the Awadh.

When we visited Oh! Calcutta, the indoor seating area was ready but they were putting finishing touches on their outdoor seating area - the entire restaurant has a very modern and contemporary look. Artifacts from Bengal have been used throughout (clocks, chandeliers, statues outdoor, etc.) that will bring a smile to anyone who's lived in Calcutta before. The menu is quite elaborate; since this is Bengali food, the non-vegetarian section is where the action is, so to say!


The chef had created a special menu for us this night. Starters included the Murshidabadi Chicken - named after another historical city close to Calcutta, Bhapa Alu - boiled potatoes tossed in mustard sauce and poppy-seed paste, Bhapa Ilish - steamed Hilsa fish in mustard sauce. But the one that I really liked was the steamed Bhetki covered with a layer of home- made cottage cheese and spices.

Unlike some other Indian cities, Calcutta isn't very old. The city was largely created by the British East India Company during the 17th century. Before this, Calcutta existed as a village called Kolkata; during that time, the more important city in this region was Murshidabad. Several years later, the Bengal nawab Siraj-ud-daullah captured Calcutta from the British, who regained it after the Battle of Plassey. In 1772 this city became the capital of British India and remained that way until 1912, when Delhi became the new capital.



Our main course consisted of crispy puris, aloo-kopi - cauliflower and potatoes made the Bengali way, kosha mangsho - mutton fried in Bengali spices, begun bhaja - eggplant slices fried in mustard oil with spices, and cholar daal - Bengali dal. They also served an interesting okra dish made with raw mangoes that was very interesting. My wife has decided to go vegetarian for a few days due to the festival season, which explains why there was less meat and fish than usual on my table!

I did not try the Biryani here tonight which has an interesting story. The Biryani came to Calcutta when cooks from the Nawab of Awadh fled here during the Sepoy Mutiny. The cooks arrived here with their biryani recipe which evolved over the years to create its own identity. The real Kolkata biryani is far spicier than it's other cousins and makes use of potatoes which absorbs the spices and their flavors during the cooking process. However, this biryani is more robust and less refined than the Hyderabad and Lucknow versions.


Dessert consisted of a Leechu-Payesh, made of diced litchis in a sweet rice-pudding, which was very good. And of course, a mishti paan to chew on at the end. All in all, great food, especially for those who have been missing Bengali food. Purists may find some dishes not as authentic as the real thing; the restaurant has modified some dishes (such as the Bhapa Ilish?) to make them appeal to a broader spectrum of tastes. However, I am looking forward to coming here again to try some other items off their menu.

BTW, the bad news in all of this: Oh! Calcutta has opened where Bombay Brasserie once was (City Point, Dhole Patil Road). I loved that restaurant too, and was sorry to see it go away.

Update, Oct 30, 2008: You must try the Rohun Bhapa Maach: a starter of fresh-water Bhetki steamed with extra pungent mustard paste, garlic pearls and chilli paste. Excellent stuff! Also consider the Daab Chingdi, an entree of succulent prawns cooked in tender coconut morsels and spices, and served in a tender coconut shell. The Misti Doi is very authentic here too; this dessert is prepared and served in a earthern bowl. Approx price of above: Rs: 2000, pricey! Ph: 9324032776

Another new restaurant that opened recently is Little Italy, right next to the large Central Mall on University Road. The dining areas are nicely designed and the whole place has an elegant, modern look. Sadly, they only serve vegetarian food and no alcohol. The food itself was good, but modified for Indian tastes. For those who wish to try the real thing, La Dolce Vita and Casablanca offer the only good options right now in this city. The pictures here are of the Bruschetta, Salad and Pizza we ordered that night.



And finally, Barbeque Nation has opened in Pune too. The idea is to try cooking your own kababs and marinated meats at your table (don't worry, they usually come 90% cooked already). It reminds me of dining at Melting Pot in the USA, but there the meat came completely raw and had to be really cooked at the table. Barbeque Nation is located on Nagar Road (near Aga Khan Palace), behind the Dass showroom. Phone: 32327788, 7799

Update, Oct 30, 2008: Here are some pictures of the excellent buffet at Barbeque Nation from our visit about two weeks back. At this time, I would rate this best buffet in town (not counting the 5-star hotels). Move your cursor over the pictures for a description. Enjoy!