Thursday, October 18, 2012

Ki Hangla

On my way home last night, I made one of those discoveries that change your life. It turns out we have a Bengali restaurant next door! I had already had my dinner packed from this indifferent Chinese place (note to self: do not order from iSpice again), when I saw a delightful yellow colored neon sign. Ki Hangla, delicacies of Kolkata, it said. I said hello to the two people manning the counter (ah, that yummy bengali accent) and picked up the takeaway menu.

We'll order dinner from here tomorrow night, I told the flatmates. And then, perhaps because I'm reading Alexander McCall Smith these days, an utterly random thought presented itself: this simple declaration is so fraught with uncertainty. We make these grand plans....we'll buy a house in Goa two years from now, we'll travel to Japan next year, we'll celebrate new year's eve in Amritsar, we'll order dinner from the newly discovered restaurant. Aren't these acts of supreme courage, planning future like this, I mean? So much can happen from tonight to tomorrow, that can decide whether or not we have the bhetki or the aloo posto (I do know my bong food, thank you).

Oh well. Nothing surprising did happen today. I worked on slides and documents, went for a run, chatted with my brother, and ordered food from Ki Hangla. It's good to have a predictable life.

Ki Hangla, what a beautiful name (turns out it means 'how greedy'). And it absolutely did not disappoint. They seem to have bengali people cooking bengali food, which helps I suppose. Even the woman who took my call had that lovely bong lilt in her voice. She helped me choose a meal that I'm not likely to forget in a hurry. Ilish bhapa, paach meshali sobzi, steamed rice and tomato chutney. It was delicious, and I ate it with all the respect it deserved, with my fingers, licking them clean. My only, and minor, grudge is that they don't make their roshogullas in house. Don't ask me how I know, I just do. I have deep love for roshogullas and I think it's a terrible shame to serve Haldiram's in a place like this. Still, I forgive them. Next time I'll order mishti doi instead.

Ki Hangla, highly recommended.

4 comments:

  1. Not only I had my mouth watering with those favorite names, but I loved the way you build all those random fantasies and calmly shattered them to pieces, albeit 'Ki Hangla' :)
    Your responsibility to ensure a dinner from there the next time I am in Gurgaon!

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  2. Reminds me of the good old calcutta cabin here...
    n of course thanks to all our bong friends our knowledge of bengali food has increased from just roshogulla to bhetki n poshto n cham cham n wat not!

    n btw random fantasies...isn't that what mojo is all about :D

    sorry mojo, couldn't control the last comment :)

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  3. I dont like this website because there is no way to let Neha know that her last comment is awesome! :P

    My take on random future plans is that it is an essential part of life. It gives me a purpose to look forward to tomorrow.

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  4. I absolutely love your blog and find a lot of your post's to be precisely what I'm looking for. Would you offer guest writers to write content for yourself? I wouldn't mind composing a post or elaborating on a lot of the subjects you write regarding here. Again, awesome blog!

    ReplyDelete

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