Many of Calcutta's venerable eateries shot to fame by playing unprejudiced hosts to endangered lovers tailed and troubled by overbearing kins. Park café of Paikpara, being one of such dwindling lot, was adored as much by dwelling neighbours as by furtive lovebirds.
This matter-of-fact café, brazenly shabby and ‘uncool’ on today’s scale, flaunts a diminutive menu that ends sooner if told than read. I lately paid a curious visit to Park Café seeking morsels of a delicious past. Chicken Cutlet was ordered. A brief gap, before the food could appear, allowed retrospection. Cracked and peeling top of the wooden table offered glimpses of a resonant past – besides bringing the golden, long and fat Chicken Cutlet into relief. An over-fried crumbing sadly failed a gentle and passably tasty filling of spicy shredded chicken. Park Café’s Chicken Pakora was a culinary abstraction – a scaled-down Chicken Kabiraji – dainty, delicious and unique with the same delicate lacework, weaved with beaten egg, on a much smaller base. I relished them with rich Kashundi [mustard sauce] and salad.
I won’t recommend Park Café to rabid foodlovers. But those lovers, who at leisure flirt with food, can safely take a sneak peek into this blink-and-you-miss-it eatery.
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