27 May,2011 07:00 AM IST | | Amrita Bose
A famous Kolkata sweetmeat shop opens its second branch in the city with both sweets and savouries on offer and we are not complaining either
The citizens of Kolkata have taken their favourite pastime of snacking continuously throughout the day to a fine art.
At any time of the day you will see them crowding near the panipuri stall at street corners or queuing up near sizzling hot kathi roll counters.
But there is always a bigger crowd that can be seen tucking into sweets at any time of the day. For consuming sweets is not really considered a post meal activity in Kolkata, but is more of a national pastime, something that you can eat anytime like a full meal or a snack.
Bancharam, an old Kolkata institution in all matters of sweet making for more than 35 years, wants to get Bangaloreans into the same habit now. After opening their shop in Koramangala in March, they have a new branch in Cambridge Layout now.
A bright neon orange signboard announces the presence of Bancharam from a distance. Step into the shop and you will find a tiny place set up with glass, chrome and steel tables with orange tops and rows and rows of mouth-watering Sandesh, Rosogollas, Pantuas and what not.
We started off our meal with some Khasta Kachori (Rs 10) and Singara (Rs10). The Kachori was a small, crunchy deep fried dough stuffed with spicy chana dal cooked with ginger and spices.
While the kachori was crisp to the bite from outside, we found the filling a bit too sweet for our taste. The samosa came stuffed with mashed potatoes cooked with green peas, boiled peanuts and green chillies and came together very nicely with the crisp, flaky, fried outer shell.
While we were waiting for our next order of Parota (Rs 12 each) to come from the kitchen, we decided to begin our sweet journey with a favourite sweet from any Bengali's childhood, the Kheer Goja (Rs 10).
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The goja, which is a sweet made out of flour and khoya kneaded into dough with ghee, sugar, cardamom and rose essence, deep fried till it turns a dark brown and then dipped into sugar syrup, was a sweet, gooey mess when we bit into it.
The outside was perfectly caramelised and the inside was oozing with rose flavoured sugar syrup. The Abaar Khabo (Rs 16) (which in Bengali means I want to eat it again) is considered to be a Bancharam speciality and can be considered to be a kind of steamed sandesh pudding. Set in a tiny plastic bowl, the top is a layer of crumbly khoya sweetness only to reveal a sticky sweet cottage cheese layer beneath and is not really cloyingly sweet as you would expect a sandesh to be.
Our order of Parota or the Bengali version of a paratha came in the form of crisp, flaky flour parathas accompanied by a simple potato curry that had a hint of spice as well as sweet. A typical combination to break bread for the day for Bengalis, we suggest you definitely try this in place of your regular breakfast someday.
Even though made out of flour that has a tendency to make parathas chewy and hard, these were soft and easy enough to tear and mope up with the potato curry.
We finished our meal on a sweet note with the Rasa Malai (Rs 30). Served chilled, this was the perfect end to our meal with soft spongy mini Rosogollas hidden from view beneath sweet, thickened milk flavoured with green cardamom, rose essence and dusted with powdered nuts.
Bancharam also serves an array of small and big sized Rosogollas, Langchas (a longish Gulab Jamun), pantuas (another version of the Gulab Jamun) and sandesh including Jol Bhora (a kind of sandesh that oozes out sugar syrup when you bite into it) along with Mishti Doi and some regular sweets like Kaju Kathli too.
But when in a Bengali sweet shop, we strictly advise you to do just what a Bengali would do, give everything "non Bengali" a miss.
At: Bancharam, No114, Fifth Cross, Cambridge Layout, Ulsoor (near Sai
Temple) and No 153, Sheela Arcade, Koramangala, 7th block
Call: 42181748/40967340
Meal for two: Rs 200
