Calcutta Cafes

-


CALCUTTA CAFES  -  Oh Calcutta! Addas with Great Tastes



About twenty years back Calcutta boasted of some famous ‘adda’ joints like Coffee Houses on College Street and Central Avenue, Basanta Cabin in Basusree Cinema, Sangu Valley at Bhowanipur, Dhaba at Ballygunge Phari to name a few alongwith a few renowned Tea stalls where people from all walks of life would congregate and spend hours over cups of tea and snacks debating  literally on all topics under the sun. The city earned a name for such ‘adda’ scenario which used to be mostly intellectual in nature. Lyrically depicted in Manna De’s popular rendering of Bengali song ‘ Coffee houser  sei  Adda …’.But over the years this character dwindled with emergence of modern foodscape. Like old wine in new bottle, more costlier versions sprang up – CCD, KFC, McDonalds, Haldiram, Barista to name a few. Returning to Calcutta after many years the one joint that caught my fancy as a foodie and a great admirer of Calcutta ‘adda’ is a café housed in ICCR, opposite US consulate on Ho Chi Minh Sarani (previously Hungerford Street). We discovered this about a year back when we went to ICCR to see a performance of tabla maestro Bikram Ghosh and some other renowned percussionists of India. The café is located on the ground floor, next to the main entrance to ICCR. A glass façade merged with a glass swing door provides a soothing view of the exterior of ICCR. Through the glass one can see the lawn, the pathway, visitors milling around and celebrities and musicians who come there to perform. Interior decoration is simple with properly laid tables and seating arrangement. Some cottage industry handicrafts and artworks are on display in one corner of the space. May be the simplicity in the nitty-gritty of the décor adds to the finer nuances in the ambience. So much so that once inside I feel like spending long hours relaxing and chatting over a cup of refreshing Darjeeling tea and my favourite Cheese sandwich. It is more in the pattern of Flurys on Park Street but  more reasonably priced and offerings of a cornucopia of local flavours such as excellent Ghugni, Mutton Chop, Chicken Cutlet etc.They also offer some continental and Italian delicacies like Pastas as well. I have also tasted their special Pudding which I strongly recommend to all Pudding lovers.

The following pics of the ICCR Cafe were taken by Arundhati Sengupta on her Moto-E smartphone:


Exterior view of the Cafe at ICCR


Inside the Cafe


A LA CARTE

Address

Seating Area


Chicken Cutlet

Pasta & Beverage


Outside view from inside




Some delicacies of Bengal available at the Cafe

Waiters are efficient and hospitable


Ambience


Reactions: India 68, Pratapaditya Road, Lalpara, Sahanagar, Kalighat, Kolkata, West Bengal 700026, India

Comments

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

food - great tastes

-
Image
IN SEARCH OF TASTE - A TALE OF FOUR CITIES


A food aficionado’s mouthwatering journey over the years in cities he lived. Read  Rana's memoir with food.
Cooking has been regarded as one of the greatest arts right from the time of Julius Caesar. Although elements of the art of cooking are easy to define, I have discovered over the years that the tastes which still linger on my tongue are the tastes that mattered. In that respect, my nanny still remains unbeatable as the greatest cook in my life. We called her ‘nannabhai’ derived from the Bengali word ‘ranna’ for cooking. Be it a simple Hilsa egg fry or peas pulao or stuffed chicken or quail (bater) roast, mutton, or chicken stew the food always used to be a gastronomical delight. My mother inherited some of her skills and tickled our senses with dishes like Tomato fish, Mutton kofta curry, and Pudding. Now it's my wife who has mastered the art of tickling my senses. Her talent for improvisation has created a new type of Shammi Keba…
Read more

A Roman Holiday

-
Image
ROMA - Ancient Rome & Papal Rome Imagine going back 2000 years in time and space while standing on the stone floor inside a colossal amphitheater. Amidst thousands of Roman spectators. The booms of drums reverberate as the ceremonial parade enters the stadium. After saying ‘Ave imperator; morituri te salutant’ (those who are about to die salute you) to the Emperor, the gladiatorial combat begins. The crowd shouts jeers and throw their hands up in excitement. 60000 spectators? Like the excitement at Eden Gardens in Calcutta while watching a Cricket match. The gestures, the excitement, the uproar may be different from our present-day Mexican waves. But how does that matter? After all, a stadium is a venue for entertainment – be it the bloodiest sport in the history of mankind. And how the Romans loved watching violence and killings. Historians remain befuddled as to how Romans who are regarded as the precursor of human civilization could have indulged and enjoyed such brutal practice…
Read more

Sound of Music

-
Image
Follow my blog with Bloglovin


In the Country of Symphony - AUSTRIA

Sometime in mid-nineties, my young journalist brother Ambar returned from an official trip to Austria. He invited us to a party, where, over sips on Scotch, he shared his wonderful moments amidst the beauty of nature in Salzburg. With a glint,  mesmerized and carried away, I listened. The scenes from the musical classic ‘Sound of Music’ flashed across in pieces. But somewhere the traveler in me felt jealous. The very thought that I never get what I long for kept on recurring at the back of my mind. It is true that we humans do not get everything we long for in our lifetime. But this was amongst very special and dear to my longings. So while preparing my itinerary for the Europe tour in 2017, I requested my sister and brother in law to join us from Frankfurt, where they stay. We drove down the autobahn, with Arindam at wheel, from Frankfurt to Switzerland and after spending 3 days there we moved into Austria. We were at S…
Read more