Lunch Out: Walking Around College St, Dilkhusha Cabin and Girish Nakur …

The Tramp and I have had many times wandered around, thinking of nothing much, and often enough we have had the pleasure of joining hands with my favorite Ninjapoo, which is a name that was originally given to her by the D-Man, who more often than not would butt in and be a welcome conversationalist.

We would walk around the city, or sometimes move in cabs, buses, metros and other means of conveyance in search of food, life and laughter, and today was one such day. My friends are here in Kolkata for the time being. And we have a lot of catching up to do which extends beyond coffee house.

It so does.

Anyway, so today we were all excited about going on a foodwalk. Which basically was my idea (because of course this is post Pujo where my workload is minimum and I am on a break because I think I need one) and we were supposed to meet at 12.30 in the afternoon at Shyambazaar (and yes, Tramp was supposed to call me to let me know where he was so I could join them, precisely because I am ONE AUTO RICKSHAW away from the damn place). However, 12.30 came and went, and I waited impatiently. No call.

I panicked. I got out of the house and took that auto because I thought my network must be jammed.

Okay it wasn’t jammed, and I was totally early, but thankfully Ninjapoo came in early. But by then I had discovered the initial disaster.

Golbari. Was. Not. Open.

This cannot be. This cannot be. This. Cannot. BE. You know, there are times when I am paranoid and panicky. It often happens when I see that a place where I have promised to feed people is closed.

So after a bit of wait, and buying a pretty red handkerchief, Ninjapoo arrived, and the two of us got in a cab. By that time I’d warned The Tramp not to come down all the way to Shyambazaar but go over to College Street for our next round of eating.

We waited at coffee house, and the waiter took our orders. Tramp arrived, and soon we were eating slightly dried out chicken sandwich and sweet cold coffee while we chalked out our plan. It was then we discovered The Wall.

Coffee House 2nd Floor walls have weird things written on them. Also hilarious, and possibly those things that inspire you to believe Kolkata is a very open minded city.

Coffee House Wall. Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge.

After we’d gaped enough, we paid the bill and walked over to Chakravarty Chatterjee, bookstore extraordinaire, where I lost myself for a bit. There were a lot of books, some sighing and some busy marauding to be done, and we did. Then we left, with a big grin on our face, and our pockets considerably lighter.

Walking out of the joint, we were joined by D-Man, who’d come out of the house finally. We collected him, downed glasses of lebur shorbot, a version of the lemonade, and walked over to Dilkhusha Cabin for the Kobiraji and the Kosha.

Kobiraji Cutlet. An Art in Fluffmaking.

Rumour: Shibram Chakraborty, one of the most respected writers in Bengali could not pun without a Kobiraji in his mouth. I think its totally true. This particular cutlet is filled with fluff which is too good to let go of. Most of my cutlet was finished off by D-Man, who also manfully ate up a plate of Kosha Mangsho (which is again, a totally different thing from Golbari’s Kosha Mangsho, but yes, incredibly good, because the meat is so soft that it virtually melts in your mouth) with a couple of rootis. Here you won’t get the Tandoori ones. These are Bangali ones, thin, very light little ones which are ideal for dipping in gravy.

Kosha Mangsho. While I was taking Pictures, this rapidly got over.

Our bill came to 170/- INR (which included 2 Kobiraji at 52/- each, a plate of Kosha at 60/- and 2 rooti for 3/- each). Perfectly sensible. We made our exit, and Ninjapoo now insisted that we find out where Girish-Nakur was, because she wanted Sandesh.

Girish Chandra Dey and Nakur Chandra Nandi is an institution to be reckoned with. The only shop in Kolkata which specializes in the eternal Bengali obsession, Sandesh, they make nothing but that. And the variety is mind-blowing. I messed up with the directions, but then a friend (Thankyou Tweedledee!!) came to rescue. He instructed with crisp clarity to a way which I soon remembered, and we hopped onto a cab, and checked out the incredible array of food which waited just for us.

The roll is Chocolate Patishapta, The chocolate flecked one is Ferrero Rocher (omg!) and the white one’s a classic!

Disclaimer – I did not eat all three. I could only eat ONE of these because I was showing the D-Man my famous Disappearing Act (as in, Now you see the mishti, and….. Now you DON’T) but he got wise and before I could do the same to the other two, he’d reduced them by half. We drank some water, and rushed over to City Center to meet friends.

I know, I’m boring. But hey, here’s a picture of D-Man after I gave him a book for Pujo. Look, look!

Have you ever done something like this?

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8 Responses

  1. Haha. I didn't have those this time. I had the ones I have not had before. But well, Rahul, Chocolate Patishapta… was AWESOME.

  2. dearest poorna….. i am on a diet….. I OFFICIALLY HATE U….. now i want kosha too…..
    at 11 in the night i am salivating….an di want to eat nokurer sandesh…..

    altho u havnt shown my fav one,,,, the chocolate jolbhora nad butter scotch ones….

  3. The day I ate six different kinds of sandesh and a chocolate avalanche after that. A very productive day. 🙂 Also, my first taste of the kobiraji.

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About Me

Hi, I’m Panushwari

Welcome to my blog which is mostly about Food, Travel, Lifestyle and Beauty. I generally review restaurants and hotels in Kolkata and my work as a Restaurant Consultant and Food Critic in Kolkata allows me to maintain this blog as a showcase of my work. I am also a published author and have been a panelist at many events.

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