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.