The flavours waft across at all street corners. Artisan food that is cooked on the spot and eaten immediately. In my walks I have seen so many of these all over India. And all over the world. Street food is a wonderful mood capture. A snack before dinner, or the dinner itself. It’s great seeing the execution of the first bite in slo-mo. All negativity gets purged with the energy of that bite that slowly tumbles down the throat and the mind connecting with solace and completion.

My biker friends took me to the Flavours of Bengal, a fine dining restaurant that presents the cuisine of Bengal. The walls were painted in culture colours and handicraft was all around. Everyone ordered everything. There were 5 of us and more food than we could handle. The mustard stood out. Strong and steadfast. I put a bit on plain rice, mixed and ate. Delicious. We had prawns, mutton, banana fish and so on. Endless.

There were a good number of people around, all finely dressed. A compliment to the restaurant. Soft conversation was the rule. Bikers were exempted. No alcohol was served. The restaurant believes its food doesn’t deserve a distraction. Nice. So I had a guava juice with Tabasco. A five star culture pervaded in the service and presentation. All staff smiled.

While all had malpua for dessert, I tried something I have never heard of.

Jaggery ice-cream.

Goodnight!