Highway Dhaba - between Kolkata and Kharagpur

     A quick small post for the weekend before X-Mas... a week back I was traveling along the eastern corridor of India.. had to make trips to Kolkata and IIT- Kharagpur. I should be hinest in saying that this trip had me worrying quite a bit days before it actually happened... the main reason being food. Having heard so many horror stories I just was not sure what to expect. But everyone that I met, who were familiar with the locality, advised me to stop at a small place called Kolaghat (somewhere between Kolkata and Kharagpur) - a highway dhaba called Sher-E-Punjab. Recommended to have the best highway food in that place. Not requiring more incentive than this, we decided to break here for our lunch.

I was literally starving when we walked in here at 1 pm or so. All I wanted was food... and lots of it.. and quick... The place and ambience is as you would expect of any highway dhaba. Neat, compact and functional usage of space. I let my traveling companion (my boss) who was a native of this area do the ordering. Niceties and proper etiquette went out of the window when we directly ordered the main course - a basket of butter naans, special chicken korma and fish masala. All it took was 5 minutes and the food was on our table.. service and promptness - a big check.

The naans were soft, buttered to perfection and hot. It took quite a bit of will power for me to hold back and click pictures before digging in. The chicken korma is specialty dish out here and is served with a boiled egg in the center. Had never before seen this variation in any other restaurant. But was brilliant to taste. The tomatoes were fresh and it showed in the tangy base that made up both these side dishes. Not too spicy and not too sweet, it was just perfect - a rich dish. The fish masala was equally good. Fried bhetki soaked in the same tomato based tangy gravy. The fish was fresh, tender and well cooked. Fresh herbs were chopped and sprinkled liberally over both the dishes lending a welcome fragrance to the final product. Needless to say, the plates were cleaned out within 5 minutes (including an extra plate of butter naans that were ordered later).
With the main course out of the way, it was time for dessert and of course being in this part of the world it was a no-brainer. They gave us a choice of gulab jamoon or rasogollas... 2 plates of rasogollas for each of us were ordered immediately.

I was told by my boss that these were made out of buffalo milk and hence would be slightly inferior to the ones made out of cow's milk (hahahah not that I knew the difference). But let me tell you, I will not be eating any more rasogollas any more in Bangalore or for that matter any other part of the country. These were amazing... simply exquisite. Light, fluffy and the minute you pop them into your mouth, they just break down effortlessly. Unbelievable and I was informed that the ones in the city (Kolkata) were infinitely superior. Not too big a fan of Bengali sweets, this one dish made me a convert. We could have easily had another plate or so.
With that, the meal was quickly wrapped up - a mere 25 minutes since we entered the place at peak lunch time. The bill surprised us pleasantly topping off at around 500 Rs. only for both of us. Feeling totally stuffed, we waddled to our car and dropped off into a blissful slumber as the drive continued.
Bottom line.. DO NOT miss this place if you are traveling in the regions of Kolkata or Kharagpur and the non-veg options are really worth the ratings.

An evening of Italian Fun at Caffe Pascucci

      I know it has been quite a while since my last post but I had been tied up with some banal stuff.. like work :-) Hope this one makes up for the break.
    Most of us love Italian cuisine and why not.. fresh bread.. olive oil.. huge amounts of cheese.. fresh herbs and veggies. But finding a restaurant that actually does justice to the cuisine has been a pretty tough task for me so far. When i heard that a new Italian restaurant had opened up in JP Nagar Bangalore, I made up my mind to try it out at the earliest. Last weekend saw 4 of us (my wife and I, her cousin and her husband) head over in the evening for dinner. It can be found at 690/8, 14th Main, JP Nagar, 2nd Phase, Bangalore and the contact numbers are +91 9739969767. The place looks like an independent house with a small lawn space out that has been converted into the restaurant - pleasant and comfy.

They have both outdoor seating and A/C inside.We were very quickly shown to our table. The place was not empty nor was it jam packed. The ambience was neat and well-lit inside with a pastry / dessert window bar at the entrance. I was starving (as always) and quickly rattled off a few starters - mushroom caps and fish fingers. The caps were essentially cheese and herbs stuffed mushrooms while the fish were your typical deep fried fingers.

Both the caps and the fish tasted ok but I felt they were a little bit too deep fired for me. That kind of over powered everything else inside, especially the herbs and spices. The fish though was tender and fresh. The crumb fried outer covering felt a little hard for me with excessive flour in it.

A little disappointed in the starters, but I told myself that these were not typical or traditional Italian dishes as we went ahead and ordered the main course - Fusili Florentina (fusili pasta with spinach in creamy sauce), Spaghetti Dellarocca (spaghetti, fresh veggies in creamy sauce) and Pizza Formaggio (mozzarella, buffalo mozzarella, parmesan, feta cheese with jalapenos and olives). First the fusili- it was definitely one of the top two dishes for me. Very well made and perfectly balanced.

The saltiness of the olives blends well with the cheese and the fusili was cooked to perfection. The spinach was fresh and crackled when you bit into it. I would have liked it a little bit more sauce but that was just an afterthought.

Moving onto the spaghetti - very well done and presented again though the sauce lacked the flavors. It seemed an amalgamation of spices without nothing coming clearly out on top. There was a lot of cheese which masked the other flavors probably. But in totality, the dish tasted brilliant and was very enjoyable.

 Finally the pizza - the best dish of the day for me. The specialty and USP of this place is the wood fired ovens which lends a remarkable flavor to their pizzas as they cook. Being a melting point of four different cheese varieties, the richness of the dish really took our breath away. You could clearly taste the different layers of cheese, the pizza was perfectly cooked... even the crust was done right. The jalapenos and olives add to the spice and variety of flavor apart from the cheese. In spite of eating an entire pizza on your own, it felt remarkably light.

 Coming to the only unfortunate part of our entire meal so far. It was just so that my cousin found a small piece of shredded chicken in her vegetarian pasta and that really freaked her out. She did not eat anymore that evening. The restaurant and staff were extremely apologetic and I could only imagine that the offending piece might have dropped onto our plate in the kitchen while preparation. They offered to replace the same but we just moved on. These kind of mistakes should not be happening in the kitchen, as this is a serious matter for quite a few people. So, we moved onto the dessert section - Confuso Caramel and Cappuccino Argemtino. The caramel drink was a mxiture of espresso, amaretti biscuits, confuso coffee cream, chocolate crunch and chocolate syprup. It was absolutely heavenly and a treat indeed.

The bitterness and sharp flavors of espresso blends well with the burnt saltiness of caramel and the syrup and cream balance it with the sweetness. The Cappuccino Argentino was another fantastic concoction - gold espresso, hot foamed milk, Dolce di Latte syrup). The flavors were impeccable and it did remind me of what a perfect coffee should be - hot, intense, bags of flavor and the aroma to go with it. 

That in a nutshell concluded our evening. With the exception of the shredded chicken finding its way into our veggie dishes, I think the place itself is worth more than a few credits of mention. Stick to the traditional Italian dishes and you won't be disappointed. The pizzas and pastas are delectable while their starters can be left out if you want to concentrate on the main course. The range of coffees, cappuccinos and espressos are also fantastic. Now coming to the most important part - the cost. Yes, it is a tad expensive but believe me its well worth every penny. The entire meal described above came to roughly Rs. 1400/- for four of us. I would definitely head back there at the earliest.