Street Food and Light

Last evening I finally took the leap for light, meaning I went to Poddar Court to buy much needed and long awaited light fittings for my house. Poddar Court is the Mecca of all things light. We went into a couple of shops before we came to the one from where we actually got the shades. When we walked in and looked around, we didn’t quite fancy any of the fancy lampshades that were on display, till one of the sales boys attached himself to us and quite impressively spoke to us in English enquiring what exactly we were looking for. He showed us into a backroom and voila just the kind of stuff we had in mind. We went through a couple of them as he switched them on as we went along, till we finally decided on one set and got four of them. Once we had bought the lampshades, I indulged in something I was waiting to do all day; Eat some street food.

We started with some Kachori Chaat right outside the Light Shop on the Pavement. I first tried one of his plain Kachori’s and then asked him to make the Chaat. After finishing the Chaat, we paid him Rs. 18/- for the Kachori & Kachori Chaat.

The next stop was just a couple of feet away from him. Fortified by huge plastic bags of Moori, we noticed the Moori walah. Jhaal Moori it was. These guys in Central Kolkata have a distinct taste. I guess every area in Kolkata has it’s own unique recipe of stuff.

That done, we headed to the car and drove off in search of the main item on the agenda for the evening; ‘Shingara’ and ‘Cha’. After wondering where we would get both, we came to the conclusion that at this time Russel Street Dhabha would be the best bet. Sure enough, when we got there and parked the car, one of the waiters ran up enquired and in a couple of moments was back with two Shingaras followed by two teas. After having those hot shingaras, we just had to have two more. So we did.

Now the next temptation on the agenda was Ice cream. So we headed to what we thought was an ice-cream parlour on Russel Street but were misled by the huge SWIRLS signage on top of the coffee joint. So we decided to go to the one outside Music World. So on the way there we came across a Liquor Store and decided to buy some wine to have at home. We had heard about the new UB Group launched ZINZI and so picked up a bottle of white wine which was only Rs. 275/-.

After that when we were just near Music World, temptation got the better of us and we headed into Flury’s and bought some Pastries. After that we got some Ice cream from the Kwality Swirls counter just outside Music World and then headed home.