<p>A new destination for Bengali food lovers is the Banga Bhavan offering finger licking dishes</p>.<p>If you crave authentic Bengali food in Delhi, but are loathe to empty your pockets at expensive restaurants, there is a new eating-out option for you. Head straight to Banga Bhavan in Chanakya Puri. They have recently opened their canteen to outsiders and are serving the real taste of Bengal.<br /><br />The Banga Bhavan came into existence in 1952 as a guesthouse for dignitaries from Bengal. Back then, a modest canteen served only the in-house guests. In 1995, it expanded its menu but still remained closed to outsiders. Late last year, the canteen was commercialised and outsiders allowed. It is now run by Kolkata’s famous restaurant chain Bijoli Grill and dishes out some awesome Bengali fare.<br /><br />If you visit them during the breakfast hour, which starts 8:30 am, you can smell loochis and radhabollobhis being prepared with spicy aloor dom. At lunch time, you can order either a special Bengali veg thali, which includes loochi, chholar daal, aloor dom, begun bhaja and a dessert of one’s choice or else you can go for their special Bengali non-veg thali. This one includes rice of two kinds - steamed and melt-in-the-mouth ghee bhaath, moong daal, bhaja, bhetki patudi, mutton kosha, chatni, papad and mishti doi.<br /><br />Their other specialties are pabda jhol/jhal, shorshe eleesh, prawn malai curry, daab chingri, fish tandoori, prawn sweet and sour, prawn butter masala, prawn golden fry and prawn butterfly (it is plated like that).<br /><br />Evenings promise to be even more exciting with a variety of snacks - mostly non-veg on the menu. Fish fry, roll, cutlet, kobiraji (fish cutlet with egg cover), munia (bhetki fish in a butter gravy), orly (fish batter fried), chicken, mutton and prawn cutlet and kobiraji, chicken pakora and paneer pakoda find many patrons.<br /><br />Speaking of Bengali food, how can one possibly miss out on sweets? The list of desserts here is not huge, including only raj bhog, rosogolla, baked rosogolla (that’s true) and mishti doi; but they make seasonal delicacies too like khejur gud-er paayesh (rice pudding with jaggery), peethe and patishapta in winter.<br /><br />Their weakness, however, is vegetarian food. Besides a handful of vegetarian preparations like potol dolma, chhaanar dalna, dhokar dalna, enchod kofta, mix veg and veg navratan korma, there is not much variety in this section. They justify that Bengali cuisine is anyways all non-vegetarian fare only, but that is obviously not true. There is more to Bengali food than just umpteen varieties of fish.<br /><br />They could, however, be granted some concession in this matter as the canteen has just been revamped following its handing over to Bijoli Grill and they are still in the process of expanding their food items. For a six-month old canteen, though, it is doing pretty well. Bengali food lovers are streaming in from as far as Gurgaon, Dwarka, Faridabad and even Greater Noida.<br /><br />Besides, this canteen, being a part of Banga Bhavan, has received its fare share of star power already. Bengal supremo Mamata Bannerjee is said to have enjoyed fish fry here on her last visit to Delhi while Railways minister Mukul Roy also orders food from here very often. Deliveries are also made to Supreme Court as Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Altamas Kabir enjoy Bengali fare, the canteen staff informs.<br /><br />Even though the food is equally and reasonably priced for boarders and non-boarders, they are soon planning to separate the rate list to cover costs and run the canteen efficiently. We suggest all Bengali food lovers make a quick trip here before this happens.<br /></p>
<p>A new destination for Bengali food lovers is the Banga Bhavan offering finger licking dishes</p>.<p>If you crave authentic Bengali food in Delhi, but are loathe to empty your pockets at expensive restaurants, there is a new eating-out option for you. Head straight to Banga Bhavan in Chanakya Puri. They have recently opened their canteen to outsiders and are serving the real taste of Bengal.<br /><br />The Banga Bhavan came into existence in 1952 as a guesthouse for dignitaries from Bengal. Back then, a modest canteen served only the in-house guests. In 1995, it expanded its menu but still remained closed to outsiders. Late last year, the canteen was commercialised and outsiders allowed. It is now run by Kolkata’s famous restaurant chain Bijoli Grill and dishes out some awesome Bengali fare.<br /><br />If you visit them during the breakfast hour, which starts 8:30 am, you can smell loochis and radhabollobhis being prepared with spicy aloor dom. At lunch time, you can order either a special Bengali veg thali, which includes loochi, chholar daal, aloor dom, begun bhaja and a dessert of one’s choice or else you can go for their special Bengali non-veg thali. This one includes rice of two kinds - steamed and melt-in-the-mouth ghee bhaath, moong daal, bhaja, bhetki patudi, mutton kosha, chatni, papad and mishti doi.<br /><br />Their other specialties are pabda jhol/jhal, shorshe eleesh, prawn malai curry, daab chingri, fish tandoori, prawn sweet and sour, prawn butter masala, prawn golden fry and prawn butterfly (it is plated like that).<br /><br />Evenings promise to be even more exciting with a variety of snacks - mostly non-veg on the menu. Fish fry, roll, cutlet, kobiraji (fish cutlet with egg cover), munia (bhetki fish in a butter gravy), orly (fish batter fried), chicken, mutton and prawn cutlet and kobiraji, chicken pakora and paneer pakoda find many patrons.<br /><br />Speaking of Bengali food, how can one possibly miss out on sweets? The list of desserts here is not huge, including only raj bhog, rosogolla, baked rosogolla (that’s true) and mishti doi; but they make seasonal delicacies too like khejur gud-er paayesh (rice pudding with jaggery), peethe and patishapta in winter.<br /><br />Their weakness, however, is vegetarian food. Besides a handful of vegetarian preparations like potol dolma, chhaanar dalna, dhokar dalna, enchod kofta, mix veg and veg navratan korma, there is not much variety in this section. They justify that Bengali cuisine is anyways all non-vegetarian fare only, but that is obviously not true. There is more to Bengali food than just umpteen varieties of fish.<br /><br />They could, however, be granted some concession in this matter as the canteen has just been revamped following its handing over to Bijoli Grill and they are still in the process of expanding their food items. For a six-month old canteen, though, it is doing pretty well. Bengali food lovers are streaming in from as far as Gurgaon, Dwarka, Faridabad and even Greater Noida.<br /><br />Besides, this canteen, being a part of Banga Bhavan, has received its fare share of star power already. Bengal supremo Mamata Bannerjee is said to have enjoyed fish fry here on her last visit to Delhi while Railways minister Mukul Roy also orders food from here very often. Deliveries are also made to Supreme Court as Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Altamas Kabir enjoy Bengali fare, the canteen staff informs.<br /><br />Even though the food is equally and reasonably priced for boarders and non-boarders, they are soon planning to separate the rate list to cover costs and run the canteen efficiently. We suggest all Bengali food lovers make a quick trip here before this happens.<br /></p>
