Date: 14 July
Venue: DLF Cyberhub, Gurgaon
Ask any seafood fan in India and they would have an opinion on the Hilsa. People in West Bengal swear by their “Ilish”. It is there go-to item for any sort of celebration. We finally got our date with this delicacy in Delhi. Oh Calcutta! CyberHub is hosting “Hilsa Festival” and we rushed as soon as we came to know about it.
The festival menu is long. They are serving this fish in as many conceivable avatars we can think of. They have the standard fish fingers and fried fish. Along with that they have some unique dishes that can be attributed to West Bengal and in fact even the cuisine practiced in Bangladesh. In fact, we are told that they are serving “Poddar Ilish” or hilsa from the river Padma in Bangladesh.
The Bengali between us went bonkers and we landed up trying a lot of varieties. This piece would get very long if we spoke about all the dishes. However we would recommend the “Mocha Ilish” as a must try. This is a boneless serving which is prepared coating hilsa with grated “Mocha” – Bangla for banana flower. Also try the smoked varieties. These are not deep fried and retain the taste and flavour of the fish.
Another must try that is quintessential to this cuisine is the “Ilish Paturi”. A slice/ of the fish is coated with mustard paste and wrapped in banana leaf. It is then roasted till the fish is cooked inside. Since the fish is not fried in this case, it retains the taste and flavour while imbibing the taste of mustard and soft earthy flavours of banana leaf. While you can always opt for boneless varieties we suggest you be a little adventurous and opt for the regular boned slice. Maybe you can request for a segment that is a little less bony. Hilsa is a fish that has dense bones. The deboning process consists of multiple rounds of cooking and pounding. This also washes away some of the taste and flavour of hilsa. So if you have the regular hilsa slice, you would be able to appreciate the full taste and unique flavour of hilsa.
While the focus was on hilsa, we also had a serving of our very favourite luchi and chlola dal (Bengal gram cooked in Bengali style). The luchi bread was divine and tasted great with the chhola dal as well as with tomato date chutney later.
Given that it was a Bengali meal we could not have done justice without trying some dessert. We had chhanar jilipi , bhapa sandesh and payesh. The chhanar jilipi and bhapa sandesh were to die for tasty and we had second servings.
The Hilsa Festival is on till September for both lunch and dinner. If you are the sort to try regional cuisine in India do attend this event. It is not your regular meal but a celebration for sure.
Incidentally hilsa is had when it rains in West Bengal and when we attended the Hilsa Festival at Oh Calcutta! it was pouring that afternoon. We could not have asked for more.
Yumm yumm love the indian food. We have been in Sri lanka. It was amazing!
Indians share their sea food cooking styles with Sri Lankans.
This all sounds so delicious! I wish I knew more about Indian food. My husband isn’t very adventurous with his food. Maybe I’ll take some me time to try some these dishes.
We think salmon is a close substitute for hilsa. You can use salmon in an Indian hilsa fish dish. Suggest you use fresh and not frozen.
I’ve never been to India but there this amazing place down town that has indian curry. I have to tell them to make it “white girl hot” because it’s sooooo spicy! 🙂
This place had a moderated palate.
Glad to learn about Bengali food culture here. Yes,I would love to try out the fish coated with mustard paste and wrapped in fragrance banana leaf! The taste just make me curious!
Very delectable.
Sounds like an amazing time, with delicious food. The Hilsa Festival sounds amazing, I would have a difficult time to not try all the food.
Sounds lovely! I haven’t tried Hilsa yet and there aren’t good Bengali restaurants here.
Hilsa is very easy to cook; recipes galore on internet.
love it when I find out things about other countries thanks so much for informing us all about calcutta
We love Indian food! You should try our favorite Indian Cream Liqueur
Its exciting to see dishes from different cultures , very cool ! thank you for sharing your experiences.