Bengali Food

As a child I remember the special occasions when mother made food that was not Assamese – Chinese, Continental (read Anglo Indian), South Indian, North Indian, etc. – but I never remember her making Bengali food. It was much later that I realised how much of the food we had on a regular basis was really Bengali, be it the Kalia or the Charchari! Anyway, to the task at hand – (East) Bengali food at Guwahati.
Right away I must warn you about one fact common to all Bengali restaurants here – they’re noisy, the floors are always wet, the wash basin unusable, the bare wooden tables small and the chairs even smaller and there’s a particular smell about the place! The décor is limited to a picture / statue of a God or a Goddess and the odd calendar, also with a picture of a God or a Goddess. Why they almost deliberately keep the place so shabby and want to make one so uncomfortable I’ll never understand but I do suspect it to be a form of reverse snobbery!  Anyway, no sooner than you’ve squeezed yourself into a table (beware; during the rush hour, you only get a place at the table – not the whole table), the waiter is sure to accost you with a ‘ki khabo?’ – what do you want to eat – to which the standard reply ‘ke asay?’ – what do you have? – will set him off on a rattle of the fish, chicken and mutton dishes of the day. The basic vegetarian platter (rice, bhajas, dal, a chilly, salt, some pickle & ‘saalaad’) is considered a given and not discussed, unless you want a special ‘bhaja’ or you are, or are in the company of, a hapless vegetarian! Vegetarians, the crispy fried potato juliennes are not to be missed. One goes to a Bengali restaurant to eat fish, fish and more fish. Gravies vary from the sweet coconut ones – malai curry - to the fiery mustard ones - charcharis. Of course, particular fish go with particular curries – prawns with the coconut, hilsa with the mustard, etc. The first to arrive at the table are the basic platters with a few designated waiters carrying bhaja and dal replenishments in one container with many compartments. However, the dried fish bhaja – a hot and pungent East Bengali favourite – though a part of the platter, has to be specifically asked for.
At Guwahati, the first area that comes to mind is Paltan Bazar. There’s a place called Maa Kali, which is the established Bengali restaurant in town. It’s off the Paltan Bazar main road – ask any shop, they’re sure to direct you. Make sure you don’t get conned into going into some other Maa Something-else or a Something-else Kali! Unfortunately, at Maa Kali, I must confess most of the curries taste quite similar and only the taste and texture of the fish is different. I’ve had their mutton curry, which I didn’t particularly like but the egg curry was divine. Anyway, the place is tried and tested and one is sure to get a variety of fish on most days.
My favourite at Paltan Bazar, however, is a little away on the Rehabari Road (thus, technically, not even at Paltan Bazar). It’s called Shrikant. If it looks like a temple, don’t fret, half the frontage is taken up by a goddess! The place has obviously been in existence for awhile as one has to actually take a few steps down to the restaurant. Unfortunately, the extra space didn’t change the size of the tables and chairs! However, on a few occasions, the floors were dry! The food format is much the same and so also the menu but the taste of the curries is certainly superior as is the effort to serve typically East Bengali specialities. The mutton here is also quite good.
However, the Bengali Restaurant I rate as the best at Guwahati is Ma Manisha (0361-2570630). Unfortunately it’s at quite a distance from the city centre on the Pandu Road. One has to stop at the Durga temple on the left and take a few paces into the adjoining bazaar. Turn left and you’re at the restaurant. It has two distinct seating areas – one for the hoi polloi and the other for the gentry, which space one sometimes has to share with the fattest dog I’ve seen (‘What to do, ever since the children have left – for higher studies – all her attention is lavished on this dog’ – the owner explains about the dog and his wife. I am witness to her walking in to check on him and give him a ‘rosogulla’ in the bargain, which he greedily ate!). The restaurant’s cash counter is also the glassed cupboard where the day’s delicacies are displayed – prawn malai curry, chittol jhol, rui kalia, a charchari of small fish, etc. Here too, the basic platter is a given but the range of bhajas and the taste is certainly better. The fish curries are all exquisite. The mutton khosha and the chicken curry is also very good. It’s always a good idea to call the owner and ask as to the fish available. On occasion, I’ve been able to goad him to go to the market and report on what’s available! Incidentally, if you have a sweet tooth, a few shops beyond the temple is a ‘mithai shop’ that makes wonderful rossogullas. During the short season when a particular palm jaggery is available, they make rossogullas with it, which are simply divine.

Naga Food

Rather late in life I made the startling discovery that chillies (incidentally, the hottest ones in the world grow here) came to my country only just a couple of centuries ago. I wonder how many people in Nagaland know that. To taste their food, one would think very few! It’s hot, hot and hotter still.
I was first exposed to Naga flavours from friends at school (at Shillong) who would bring dried meat (generally beef, sometimes pork) pickles. With its grainy constituency, it soon got christened ‘gunpowder’ – need I say more!
Here at Guwahati, Naga food was, until recently, available only on one day in the year close to Christmas. I’m told it started as a dinner by the Naga mothers staying here for all the young Naga students and for the general Naga Diaspora at Guwahati. It soon fell on the ears of people like me who still had tearful memories from school and so one evening, my wife and I found ourselves standing in a serpentine queue of many known and a few unknown faces. The venue, the more that a hundred year old Church at Panbazar. As the queue progressed so did the flavours. Soon, money changed hands and we were inside a hall. A long line of tables put together served as the buffet food counter. Under the Naga mothers’ watchful supervision, the food was being served out to people, again in a queue. We soon fell into line and greedily helped ourselves to the food.
Bamboo shoots (either fresh or fermented) & chillies are omnipresent in Naga food. Add to that a variety of meats (including dried ones), herbs (some found only in Nagaland) and you have the many curries that they serve with rice. The boiled vegetables that typically include squash, cabbages, etc are essential pit-stops when your mouth becomes so numb from the chillies that your tongue no longer feels the palate! The chutneys are also as varied in taste and flavour but rest assured, they are all hot. The meat pickles I have already described above but I particularly recommend the dry powdery one. One has to but eat with one’s fingers with the flavours lingering on in you fingertips long after the meal’s over. This in spite of the diligent scrubbing.
Of late, 2 Naga ladies (God bless them) have started a takeaway at Guwahati at Tinali on the RGB Road within the ‘Hangout’ complex. I must say the food is good – try the pork curries. They also have a selection of chutneys everyday. We even got their special herbs on one occasion.
However the restaurant that really impressed me was one at Shillong which I’ll include here anyway (that’s the best part about your own blog-you can make, bend, change the rules as you go along). This tiny place besides the Nongtumai field on the Fire Brigade road is called Naga Mandarin. There’s little mandarin and plenty Naga about the décor, which is commendable. The menu placard on the table informs you of the Naga Food combinations available for the day. These are preplated with little bowls for the curries. The chutneys are placed on a piece of banana leaf in the plate. Full marks for presentation, excellent preparations only I suspect a little toned down for the non-Naga palate. I cannot comment on the mandarin menu as I didn’t so much as read it! My mobile camera didn’t do much justice but I’m putting up the photos anyway. The wooden plates & bowls added to the general appeal.

Yours truly

Assamese food 1

This restaurant is certainly smaller that Paradise. The hand of the owners can be seen almost everywhere, right down to the plastic flowers and to the stylised ‘bota’ – a traditional bell metal plate on a stand – in which the bill is brought. On occation, we've seen the owners' baby on the waiters' laps! But first things first. It’s name’s Akhaj (almost impossible to translate or pronounce in English) which quite simply means ‘a meal’ in Assamese. Tucked into a by-lane on the Zoo Road (now RGB Road), it’s on your right just before the Zoo Road Tinali as you come down from Chandmari. One can park on the lane itself or in the small parking area next to the kitchen garden of the house. It’s on the second floor and a little bird tells me that the owners are on the ground floor. Obviously not intended to be used as a restaurant, I prefer to sit in what was intended to be the living room, overlooking the Zoo Road. The chairs are rattan and the tables stand on the trunk of upturned tea bushes. The boy waiters are all very friendly and terribly unprofessional. They all look as though they’ve done stints (or still do) at the owner’s house. After the mandatory glasses of water, a menu is again produced, once again to be discarded for the usual – the Sunday special lunch. If you let the gourmand in you take over, ask for the special extras – the duck ‘fry’, the elish & the pigeon curry are recommended, the rest are never available!
I discreetly took a picture once with my camera phone, which is thus of a very low resolution. However, it suffices as a guide to what you’ll get.
Step one is to set down each of the bowls on the table but be careful to define table territories first! Again, look for the kharoli to start the meal. Then progress to the omitar (green papaya) khar (I remember Aita –grandmother- would spike her’s with the fins and the tails of fish; I wish they would too). The meal progresses in much the same manner as described earlier. However, the difference is in the dishes. You will certainly get the shrimps and small fish fried with onions, a small bowl of char-grilled fish with onions, atleast one sabjee with local herbs (xhag in assamese). I’ve also had pasala (the tender innermost portion of the plantain tree), koldil (banana florets) and other long forgotten herbs and vegetables of assam here. All this is eaten with a base of rice & dal. Then one progresses to the meat – country chicken cooked in an assamese style gravy comes as part of the meal. The pigeon & duck is diced into unrecognisable small pieces and cooked in a hot fiery gravy, so it’s definitely No or MORE depending on which camp you belong to. As always, the meal ends with tenga, in this case, with two tengas; one with a piece of fish and the other with bors (fritters made with dal paste). The alu pitika (mashed potatos) mixed with onions, chillies and some mustard oil is also different. On occation, they serve a fresh mustard paste which licked with the food, is quite divine.
Tipping is optional

Assamese Food

I suppose it's only fair to start with the home cuisine available in town, which surprisingly, is not much. The hot favourite is of course the Paradise Hotel at the Silpukhuri area (which area, unfortunately, is as far from paradise as I imagine paradise to be) on the GNB Road, to traverse on which is a test of endurance and patience. I must admit that the road's finally being widened but till such time, it's become bumpier & narrower! Once inside Paradise, which is no easy task if you have to park your car (try the lane opposite), you're in a big room with tables all over. The thing is, wherever you sit, you have to thread your way past most of the tables to reach the wash room (to wash you hands). For new initiates to Assamese food, you cannot but eat it with your fingers. Alongwith hurriedly knocked-down glasses of water, harried waiters slap the menu card on the table with the full knowledge that it wont be read. After all, its the Assamese non-veg 'Thali' or nothing.The waiter lands the thali on your table with another loud clatter (all metal utensils, fortunately) and leaves you with the no uncertain impression that he wants you to eat and go, the quicker the better. The first rule of the thali is to make sure you've got all the little bowls, right down to the one with the chilly, lemon wedge and 'kharoli'.You begin with the kharoli and a little bit of rice. Next, it's the dal & rice with the sabjee(s). Then the chicken curry, again with rice. Last, and always last, the fish 'tenga', also with rice but mixed to a very soupy constituency. If I haven't mentioned the mashed potatoes its because it's had with the 'tenga'. The chilly and lemon are optional garnishings. Second helpings of only the rice and dal are on the house. You end with the sweetened curd. Satisfied customers are known to burp on their way back from the wash room (you've eaten with your fingers, remember). Tipping the waiters is not a must.
This, to my knowledge, is the oldest mainstream restaurant serving assamese food. The thali, while retaining the essentials of bland, low fat assamese food, has not been able to retain the exotic vegetables, flavours and cooking methods, possibly due to the sheer volumes. Nontheless, if you want to eat a assamese meal and happen to be in the area, it's most certainly your best bet.If however, you want a more exotic assamese meal, you'll have to wait till it's Sunday. That's when this restaurant serves their special thali and hopefully, that's when I'll get time again to write about the place. Until then.

Welcome Note

It's small, it's hot, it's dusty & it's dirty. And its just a blip, no blot, on the map. All the same, Guwahati's home and home is where the........So folks, welcome to Bites of Guwahati, a blog on the food & restaurants of a small town of India called Guwahati. We like to boast that its not just the capital of our state Assam but also the capital of Northeast India. If you've seen the Northeast of India, you'll know what a boast that is - the Northeast's weather, terrain and climate varies from very hot to very cold, from flat valleys to the highest peaks and the wet, wetter and the wettest places on earth (yes, that includes the vino too!).