Love Bengali food? hop to 25 Parganas, Sahara Star – My review
You don’t have to be a home sick Bengali to enjoy 25 Parganas. This new restaurant at Sahara Star will whet your appetite; make you look up recipes and in extreme case head to the East to discover more. The ambiance pays an artistic tribute to Bengal – gramophones, Bengali books and melodious Rabindra Sangeet in the background.
Making the strongest impression is Kaekda chingri bhapa – a combination of crab meat and prawns steamed with hints of chilli, garlic and mustard.
Ilish Maacher Paturi – boneless Hilsa with mustard
If you love fish but find it difficult to handle the bones go for Ilish maacher paturi, a mustard spiked and deboned Hilsa which comes under a blanket of banana leaf. For the Maacher Jhol (fish curry) the restaurant lets you choose your fish – ilish, rui, pabda, chitol or bhetki. Trade off the rotis and rice for the soft and fluffy luchi, best eaten with spicy Kosha Mangsho, a slow cooked mutton curry. Chef Prasanjit Ghosh treats vegetables with the same care he expends to the fish.
Motorshuti chennar chop a cutlet with paneer and green peas just melts in the mouth.
Motorshuti Chennar Chop – patties with cheese and green peas
The legendary cholar dal crackles with fresh coconut and whole spices. The sauces on the table are so tantalizing that you want to erase every trace before you let it go. Indecisive sweet tooths should go for the Nolen Gur ice-cream.
However not all dishes are stellar. The Daab Chingri presented in a coconut shell is quite unremarkable with its flavours drowned in too much sweetness. Avoid.
Service rivals food in its sumptuousness. The moment you’re seated, someone snaps a crisp linen and drapes it across your lap. They are quiet when you want them to be, animated when you desire some attention.
COST: Rs 6000 for two with alcohol
HOW TO GET THERE: Sahara Star Hotel, Western Express Highway, Santacruz East. Vile Parle. Mumbai. Tel: 022-3980 7162.
I’m Nivedita Jayaram Pawar
Journalist, Writer, Media Consultant, Blogger, Yogini…
Like most journalists I started with the Free Press Journal and went on to work with the Indian Express Group.
However my longest stint was as an Editor and Chief of Bureau with the Images Group where I headed a host of magazines like FNL, Retail, Business of Fashion, Salon International and Food Service International. This is where I spruced up my business writing and specialised in Retail related stories. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I found time to be a wife and mother.
A little more about me.
RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.
Right now I am living the life of an entrepreneur, one that doesn't involve climbing the corporate ladder, appraisals or retirement plan – instead, paving my own road, learning new things, living fully and taking on new challenges each day.
My writing has been featured in: Times of India, Indian Express, Indian Auto, Outlook, Retail, Architectural Digest, Grazia, Business of Fashion, Hindustan Times, The Man, Man's World, Deccan Chronicle, BBC Good Food...
WAYS WE CAN CONNECT
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Write to me at niveditafnl@gmail.com
MORE still?
I secretly want to be a dancer
I strum the guitar
I believe there’s no place better to live than in Mumbai (even with its noise, stink and traffic)
I can do a perfect head stand!
I believe each of us can PLAY A BIGGER GAME
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