Babu Culture restaurant; Bengali cuisine in vegan avatar
Telegraph | 8 March 2025
The Babu Culture chain of Bengali restaurants turns three on March 15 and the celebrations begin from Salt Lake. The CF Block outlet will be the first to launch a new menu on March 10, followed by the other branches in the coming weeks.
“It has been a wonderful journey for us thus far and we have treated everyone, not as customers but, as guests who are a form of the lord. Out of our gratitude we now present them with new delicacies to choose from,” said Mridula Mazumdar, who runs the chain.
The menu card now has fun twists, starting with vegan meals. “The trend across continental eateries now is to offer vegan options (food without animal products, including milk) and since we too have been receiving a few inquiries for this, we thought of taking the plunge. We must be the first Bengali restaurant offering this option,” says chef Sumanta Chakrabarti.
Bengali dishes, he says, make liberal use of khoa, mawa, chhana, and ghee so they had to rack their brains to come up with, say, Mocha Narkol Koraisutir Paturi, Sorse Charmagaj Posto Potol or even two special lentils prepared sans ghee.
Another new segment is Firingi der Khabar, inspired by the European influence in Bengal down the ages. So there’s a Portuguese take on the Devilled Crab (Rs 577) where the meat is scooped out of the crab, cooked with cheese, mustard, bread crumbs, egg yolk, cream, and then served inside the same shell.
The French Bhetki Roll (Rs 220) has a stuffing of slow-cooked bhetki and Murgir Brown Stew is another French-inspired recipe where the butter and flour are slow-cooked till the stew darkens and is propped up with chicken stock and vegetables.
“All the chops and cutlets Bengalis are so fond of are inspired by British cuisine,” says Chakrabarti. “So we have Dimer Devil with egg and minced meat and two kinds of pantheras, that is a thin crepe, stuffed and fried.” Niramish Pantheras is made of mocha ghonto and there’s also Loitta Pantheras (Rs 661) where the fish is slow-cooked with generous doses of chilli and garlic.
But don’t stuff yourself with starters alone, as there are now 27 preparations of fish, 11 of chicken and eight of mutton to choose from. Fish-lovers get to pick from koi, pabda, ilish, crab…. There are classics like Chitol Petir Rossa, Jashorer Chitol Muitha (Rs 419) as well as Tiffin Box Bhapa Pomfret, which is both cooked and served inside a steel tiffin box to retain the moisture and the delicate mustard flavour.
“In the mutton section, I expect stiff competition between the Kala Bhuna (a tender, slow-cooked rich, dark gravy dish), Double Onion Ghee Roast (that uses baby onions while cooking and onion birista for garnish), and Kancha Aam Diye Pora Lonka Mangsho (that is both spicy and tangy),” says chef Chakrabarti.
But Mazumdar complains that main course items always steal the show while the staples are an after-thought. “So we now have got eight innovative pulaos and 11 kinds of breads,” she says. There’s Kancha Lonka Aamsotto Mochar Pulao and Tribhuban Pulao, an old recipe from the Nepal border cooked with shrimp, chicken, egg, green peas, and spring onion. Murgir Pulao and Pathar Pulao use the aromatic tulaipanji rice from Dinajpur.
Among breads, try Malaikari Roti where coconut and mustard cream are kneaded into the wheat or Brahmananda Puri, an almost-lost recipe where mawa, elaichi powder, crushed black pepper and chopped green chilli are used as stuffing and fried like kachoris.
Some favourite dishes have been retained from the old menu, however, like Daaber Payesh under desserts, while new ones like Caramelised Tiler Kheer have been introduced. All guests on the restaurant’s March 15 anniversary will also be served a complimentary sweet platter.