Bohemian redux

If you live in Calcutta, or plan to go to Calcutta or are visiting Calcutta, you have to go to Bohemian. It is that good – I have said this before and I will say it again. No one is pushing the envelope of Bengali cuisine as much as the most excellent Chef Joy.

Bohemian introduced their new menu a while back, but I have not had the opportunity to go since, so this visit home was the perfect opportunity. My beautiful sister-in-law, who I had not seen in five years, what with her living in Australia, was visiting.

We decided to take her to Bohemian for dinner. My sister-in-law is a skeptic when it comes to food and does not do experiments. This, despite her being a chef in an Indian restaurant in Melbourne.

She loves her daal and rice and fish. So the gracious chef ordered an amouse bouche of lentil soup for us. Lentils cooked with garlic and coriander oil with whole chickpeas in it. Immensely comforting. Incredibly creative. Surprisingly subtle despite garlic.

Next was a deconstruction of another Bengali classic, Daab Chingri. Prawns in mustard paste cooked inside a young coconut. We were served one succulent prawn each on a soup spoon, cooked in mustard paste. The coup d'état was a piece of young coconut flesh resting on top of the prawn. Heaven in a mouthful.

By now, the skeptic moved on from frowning to a couple of well placed “yum”.

That explosion of flavours was followed by cumin smoked becty. The presentation was nothing short of high drama. Soft cubes of cumin crusted fish came under glasses, almost shrouded with smoke. As the chef removed the glass with a flurry, we inhaled deep aroma of roasted cumin in a smoke form. Sensual, seductive, sensational. Let me not go into the fantastic quality of the fish.

The main dishes were like gladiators protecting the prestige of the appetisers that have paraded already. The fillet of 'parshe' (a kind of freshwater fish oh so dear to Bengalis!) swimming in a herb-rich sauce reminded us of lazy Sunday lunches.

Prawns were simmered in a coconut milk gravy with lime leaves. A brilliant nod to our Eastern cousins of Siam. I have always marveled at the similarities between Thai and Bengali cuisine. The subtlety in both is unmistakable.

Possibly the biggest surprise for me was the goat meat stew with drumsticks.

Drumstick is a quintessentially Bengali vegetable but rarely if ever used with meat.

And I could never imagine goat meat in that light a gravy. No sign of onion and garlic paste that we so easily associate goat meat with.

The meal ended with a set mousse which sang the songs of adda, another thing close to the heart of a Bengali. The flavour of the mousse was tea and tobacco, two things without which an adda is incomplete.

We found the consistency of the mousse to be a little dense and as we mentioned that the very efficient waiters brought us another mousse to try. This time we were in haute couture zone. A coffee and cigar flavoured mousse. Never imagined that could exist.

The mousse was light and airy as it should be. The bold coffee flavour mellowed into a mild rich tobacco aftertaste.

To say it was satisfying would be the understatement of the century. Hence I say, Bohemian is a must if you are in Calcutta. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Photo: Kaniska Chakraborty