The Bengali New Year celebration is popularly known as 'Poila Boisakh' (Poila = first, Boisakh = the first month of the Bengali Calendar), which marks the first day of the Bengali New Year and falls in mid-April every year. Bengalis adore food and their penchant for gourmandizing good food comes through best on this auspicious day, when household kitchens exude the aroma of freshly prepared delicacies. Those who prefer to go out to eateries get to have some pure pleasantries for the palate, and other mouthwatering dishes as most Bengali restaurants have a special menu to mark the New Year! The Poila Boisakh cuisine for lunch, of course, contains various preparations of fish, rice and sweets as it's thought to be a good omen to start the year with mishtanna!
At the suggestion of our foodie friends, we had gone for the Special Lunch Buffet at the Bijoli Grill outlet in Powai next to Hakone’s Children Park. Priced at INR 750 (excl) it promised to be an expansive affair with all the famous Bengali Dishes & I am glad it lived up to its expectations!
We reached the restaurant at 2:00PM only to find that there was a 30 mins waiting, but the restaurant had made good searing arrangements under the shade for people. Our turn came sharp at 2:30PM and were guided to a table at the corner by the area manager. The first thing that struck me was that, despite being a buffet where self-service prevails, they had waiters who would serve you at your table. Later I found out that this is the typical Bengali way of serving food to guests even in Bengali weddings & functions.
Chanar Chop & Mutton Kobiraji Cutlet
We started off our starters with Veg Chop which was a small piece of aloo cutlet well fried in mustard oil. It was crisp on the outside and soft & warm on the inside. After this I went for the Chanar Chop, which is basically a paneer cutlet – again crisp on the outside and soft paneer chunks on the inside. I loved this so much that I ate 3 of these. The specialty of Bengali food lies in the perfect blend of sweet and spicy flavours.
Bhetki Fish Fry
Next up was the Mutton Kobiraji, essentially a minced mutton cutlet & deep fried. It was just too soft to bite into. I gobbled two of these with mustard oi, much to the delight of the waiter serving me! Sensing my growing adoration for the food, the waiter nearly sprinted towards to me with their much famed Bhetki fish fry. Its basically fish fillet rolled in a coating of eggs and breadcrumb and then deep fried, to make the brown, crunchy fish fry. I took one bite of the the crunchy outer layer, revealing the sweet fish inside and I was in food heaven!
With starters done, I decided to move on to the main course. It started with the light & crispy Luchi and spicy aloor dum. What really struck me as delightfully different about the aloor dum was the complete lack of garam masala, cilantro or tomato. What I later came to find was that the masala was cooked in the traditional Bengali panch phoran, which enhances the taste of potatoes! After devouring 2 luchis, I figured that I had not been through even half the menu and decided to slow down. I then asked the waiter to serve me shukto, a slightly bitter vegetable dish with drumsticks and bitter gourd cooked in a light milk & mustard gravy. This famous Bengali dish is usually eaten first & is served with steamed rice!
Pabda Fish
After a good helping of shukto & bhat, it was time for Aamer Diye Dal (Dal with raw mango), Kancha Lonka Mangsher Jhol (or green chili mutton curry), Chingri Malai Curry (prawns curry) and Pabda Macher! The famous Bengali dal is best eaten in summers and is prepared with raw mangoes which gives it a sour taste! The mutton curry was light yet flavorful, while the Pabda fish curry was out of this world! The highlight of the main course was definitely the prawns curry and the fish. The fish though had some small bones, but that did not impede me and gobbling it down! What sets Bengali curries apart are the distinctive flavours of mustard oil, poppy seeds and turmeric with sweet undertones that warm spices like cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and mace impart.
Desserts: Payesh, Rosogullas & Raw Mango Chutney
No Polia Boisakh meal can ever be called complete without the authentic sweets. On the menu, they had Payes & Rosgulla. The Payes was nothing extraordinary, the Rosgulla was extremely soft & dripping with chaashni, while the raw mango chutney was very homely. I nearly licked the plate dry!
All in all, the buffet cost us INR 785 inclsive of service charges, a fair amount to pay for this luxurious feast! It’s a pity they didn’t have Sandhesh and Kosho Mangsher on the menu! And going by the menu, buffet on the weekdays is total VFM! As they say in Bengali, su tripti!
