It was Friday night and I was looking to go out to some place I had never been before. My wife suggested south Indian food and this place called Tamarind. I had kind of heard of the place but couldn’t quite recall where I had heard about it. So here we were parked in front of what looked like a small little restaurant. Walking up the stairs, I could already get a good feeling about the place, just by its décor. Once inside, a courteous young man showed us to a table which was just a little away from the entrance.All that wood décor gave this place a warm and enriching feel. I was immediately taken up by the copper drinking glasses that were on the table and along with the menu came two earthen glasses of butter milk. While my wife was going through her menu, I was a bit confused about the one in my hand. I thought we were having south Indian food, so why did all the dishes sound like north Indian stuff. I asked her where in her menu she had the south Indian food because I couldn’t find any south Indian stuff on my menu card. Apparently they do have north Indian cuisine too and they had given me the north Indian menu. I immediately exchanged that for the menu that had the cuisine this place was famous for. The dish names on the menu were a tongue twisting delight but fortunately they had descriptors and exact names of states to which they belonged.
So we ordered a portion each of Meen Moilee (Kerela) which was a mild preparation of cubes of fish cooked in coconut milk, Mutton Uppu Kari (Chettinad) which was tender pieces of mutton tempered with mustard, curry leaves, tomato and southern spices, Mutton Hyderabadi Biryani and 2 Aapams each. I don’t think we took a break from eating till we were licking our fingers at the end of the meal. The food was simbly superb. Well actually we did have a brief moment of distraction when a gentleman walked in the door and we looked at each other in surprise and it struck me that he was Gautam and he owned the place. He was glad to see me and enquired about the food, which I had just about started to eat.
Finally we decided to go in for a sweet dish and since there were only three things on the menu decided to try some payasam. Oddly enough just as we were about to order, each of us was given a small bowl with what looked like some sweet stuff with a rose petal on top. We were told that this was the speciality of the place and if we still wanted to order payasam, we could. We decided against it once we had finished this sweet dish called “meetha do baar” and all I can say is that it was yum and finally when the bill arrived, it was actually on the house.
But no Indian meal is complete without the finger bowl. And yes it did come with hot water and a slice of lime. Oops, actually no Indian meal is complete without Paan (beetle leaf) at the end and so once the bill was paid, two square pieces of Paan were placed on our table. I had never seen a paan made and clamped together with a clove. Well my wife explained that this was the south Indian version, it’s called “beeda”.
I really loved the food and true to its specifications on the menu, the chilli icons 1, 2 or 3 actually signified how potent the dish would be on ones palette. This dining experience was definitely worthy of a good tip, be it ambience, service or food.
Tamarind
177 Sarat Bose Road ,
Kolkata - 700026.
Tel: +91-33-24638799, 64548011
24 hours helpline: +91 9830051705
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