Kolkata Street Food Festival at Monkey Bar

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It's that time of the year when Bengali's world over travel back to India to reunite with their loved ones and celebrate the Kolkata's biggest festival - Durga Pujo. The grandeur and the extravaganza of the pandals and the celebrations are spoken about world over and is a festival looked forward to not just by Bengali's but people of different religions and castes as well. Like all festivities, people flock to the pedals not just for worship but also to experience the Bengali gastronomy which is really sought after. 

While Pedals are known to have food stalls set up with some of the traditional bengali delicacies on offer; this year around; Monkey Bar decides to take us on a gastronomic trip down the iconic lanes of Kolkata. 'Next Stop Kolkata' is a special menu curated by Kolkata based home chef 'Its Misra' and Monkey Bar's head chef 'Deeraj Varma' will be available across Monkey Bar outlets in Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai all day from October 4th to 21st, 2018. 

What's different about this food festival is that Money Bar honestly attempts to showcase the classic and traditional street food available in the streets of Kolkata which became available as way back in it's time as immigrants from different parts of the country and world started to make Kolkata its base. It can be said that the Kolkata street food is not the local street food but an inspiration / ode to the global immigrants who have made Kolkata their home.

The menu's got the Chinese inspired prawn dumplings widely available at the Tiretti Bazaar area; Pork momo's widely available at the many Tibetan joints at Elgin Road; Kolkata-Style North-Indian Chaat of Moong Daal Pakodi from Vardaan Market ; Beadon Street Fish Roll and many more. Each dish available on the menu has a Monkey Bar twist to it and it does uplift the preparation for an enjoyable experience. 

During the preview, I tried a few dishes from the menu which includes the lovely deep fried fish fillet breaded on the outside and stuffed with a mince curried shrimp filling called 'Beadon Street Fish Roll' made popular by Mitra Cafe; 'Vivekanand Park Ghooghni' a dish of curried white peas topped with potato sali; normally served with Pav but here was served with a wonderful masala brioche bread.

Continuing the lunch, the Moong Daal Pakodi was served as a chaat topped with khatta-meetha chutney, yoghurt, boondi, sev and crisp fried curry leaves; a Monkey Bar take to the traditional Moong Daal Pakodi served on the streets at Kolkata. 'Esplanade Mughlai Porota' is served in 2 variants - stuffed with egg or with spicy mutton Keema filling. We tried the one with egg and it came served along with Paanch phoron baby potato. 

My top picks for the day were these next 2 dishes:

- 'Girish Park-er Shoitan Deem' aka Egg Devil - This was boiled egg encased in a Shammi Kebab mince instead of the minced potato encasing as available on the streets near Girish Park. Well, another great example of how Monkey does a twist.

- Chitpur Road Chicken Rezala - It's a mildly spiced and flavoured white chicken curry; silky texture getting its subtle flavours from cashew and poppy seed paste comes served with the triangle porota known widely in Kolkata as 'Teen Kona Porota'.

Then; Monkey's got to do cocktails too and so we have 3 cocktails inspired from the flavors experienced and time chef Dheeraj spent on the streets of Kolkata - 'Piara Peara' - Tequila based cocktail with Guava juice spiked with tobacco; 'Puchka Paani Capriojka' - Vodka, Gondhoraj lime, mint and puchka Paani (Pani puri water) and then the 'Thaanda Cha' - Vodka, chillied spices infused Darjeeling Tea.

I'm going back here for some of the above dishes and a round of keema stuffed mughlai porota. When are you headed here?  

Oh! You got to know this; if you hold an original driving licence from Kolkata each day you are in for a treat; courtesy Monkey Bar. 

Bon Appetit!

Address: #610, 12th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Near Crosswords, Indiranagar, Bangalore

Phone Number: +91 80 4411 4455

Note: This visit to Monkey Bar was on invitation but the opinions expressed are solely mine and are absolutely unbiased nor influenced by the brand in any way.
Pictures Courtesy: Monkey Bar