Blog Date (Oct 29, 2007)
Here is more from our days in Calcutta. Restaurants of Calcutta (a sampling) We usually check out different restaurants and places to eat. Not every place suits our palate or wallet, but we keep trying to explore more and more.

Peerless Inn Hotel Restaurants
This hotel chain in Calcutta tries to keep the feeling of Bengali culture strong. They have a restaurant called Aheli who did the catering for our reception party in 2003. The menu was all Bengali foods and desserts, plus alcoholic beverages.

This time around the prices have doubled, and with the weaker dollar we were feeling the pinch even more. We first ate at the restaurant on the day of our arrival. We ordered the Shad-mustard preparation but we felt that the fish was not fresh (probably because it was off-season for shad). We then spoke to the manager and chef, and told them to up the standards for our upcoming family party.

On the day of our party we were given the top floor for the event. We asked the hotel to arrange for folks to play some Bengali hip/traditional music CDs. The Hindi language of North India has well invaded Calcutta and so most people like Bollywood music now-a-days.

About 30-40 people from Sangita's side showed up. A small group of people were just into the alcoholic beverages. We made sure that we served Indian versions as we wanted to keep the feeling authentic. Seasoned alcoholics of Calcutta like the foreign stuff but it also costs much more here in India.

We kept the menu totally Bengali with poppy seed preparations, some mustard oil based veggie dishes, fish and goat-meat. Some people are strict vegetarians, but few in Calcutta can resist the temptation of fish. We also had Bengali desserts. The Aheli kitchen staff did a great job of keeping the menu authentic, tasty and fresh.

We also stayed at the hotel during the days of our party but the generic buffet was not up to the mark. I guess the kitchen staff does a better job for custom requests.