From Calcutta With Love: You'll Love To Gorge On Authentic Delicacies At This Bengali Food Festival

Now that the Vivanta by Taj has rebranded to Taj Gurugram, the general picture of the place is more pristine and now in line with the Taj philosophy. Their new all-day dining Culina 44 is a picture of modern, contemporary ambience and delightful service, very much the mark of the Taj.

This week they're hosting a Bengali Food Festival with Chefs flown in from Sonar Bangla of Kolkata and the home recipes of executive chef, Subrata Debnath, with a clear Dhakai influence, it's quite the change from the usual regional food festivals.

The touch of home food adds a certain warmth to the gourmet spread and this is one meal where we enjoyed every dish we tried. From Rui machher patishapta, Jhargramer narkel mochar chop, smoked Ilish, Dhakai mangsho and bhaapa chhannar mohima along with accompaniments such as phoolko luchi and rajokiyo radhaballabi, it was all a true treat for all the senses. With ingredients like nolen gur and kasundi flown in and recipes that had a history attached to them, this is a food festival worth savouring.

It would have been great for the festival to have been on for a longer time, so we could have gone two or three times.

Go with a huge appetite, despite how heavy luchis can be, you're going to want a whole lot of them and keep space for dessert since this is the season for the delish nolen gur and that's exactly the kind of warmth you need in this weather.

If you enjoy fish and mainly seafood then make sure you order all those curries, the kosha mangsho is the Dhaka version and has a distinct flavour of tomatoes that usually is missing from the typical Kolkata version, adding a bit of sweet tartness that complements the mutton perfectly.