Coastal cuisine these days is not at all unfamiliar to Kolkatans along with some lip smacking Tribal cuisine, thanks to Santa’s Fantasea and their two outlets catering to thousands of food enthusiasts in the city.
In fact, I have heard more than couple of times people conversing on telephone like this,
‘Konta nile?… oh achha… keno bash pora mutton nei naki?… Aare ota khaoni kono din, tahole ota aage nao, ekhuni nao. Tarpor octopus tao kheo.. okay thik ache, cholo khao mon diye, pore shunbo, tata’
(people conversing in Bengali asking some friend what he/she has ordered for, and asks him/her to order couple of dishes which happen to be the signature dish of that eatery whose name was not mentioned in the call which I heard)
And believe me, after these couple of lines that I heard I very well knew where this person on the other side of the line was located; it has to be at Santa’s Fantasea restaurant. Because there is no other place in the city serving both coastal and tribal cuisine. And Baansh pora mutton along with smoked octopus to follow are no doubt the must-haves at this place, which has beautiful tribal and under-sea themed sections to sit and dine in.
But anyway, this was a brave start-up with such off-beat cuisines to try with, but I am sure the owner knew very well about Kolkatan’s taste buds and so this endeavor became a big success in a short time span. In fact now, to tackle the insane rush during the Durga Puja days they have crafted a special menu which is basically a subset of their large regular menu. All these items on the special Puja menu will be available during these few days. Out of these puja special items, we ordered for some of the star items (apart from Bansa Pora Mutton and Smoked Octopus which we had tried several times). Here are the ones we actually tried for this Food Tasting session, at this Saltlake sector-1 branch of Santa’s Fantasea:
Jadoh: I simply love this tribal cuisine from Meghalaya named Jadoh rice which is a combination of red rice with mutton pieces. It is bit on the spicier side but very flavorful.
Jhupu Pisi’s Mutton: This was no doubt the star item of the evening. It is a dish from Mizoram locally termed as Voksa Rep Chum. It has got smoked tender mutton with mustard leaves in amazing flavorful gravy. And yes, it tastes heavenly.
Sea food Beijing Rice: This was an orange colored aromatic fried rice which tasted nice, if not great.
Oyster Chili Basil Octopus: This had fried octopus tossed in a dark colored gravy with spicy oyster sauce and aromatic sweet basil leaves. Worth a try!
Schezwan pepper squid: Here in this dish, the squids were fried and then cooked in schezwan sauce with minced garlic. The squids were far too fried and they were tad chewy, but the gravy was anyway quite tasty.
Just a general information – This outlet of Santa’s Fantasea is near the Saltlake Sector-1 Swimming pool (close to the Chowman) and has got good amount of space inside to accommodate large groups.
In this Puja Menu you will get total eleven Tribal dishes here, like:
• Bansa Pora Mutton
• Bansa Pora Chicken
• Ngatok
• Voksa Meh
• Voksa Rep Chum
• Kori Gassi
• Kkhra Ko Masu
• Jadoh
• Wild red rice
• Soru Chakli
• Tilho Kheer
And in Coastal cuisine you are still getting loads of options in the Puja menu, so there’s nothing to worry 🙂 Hope this information provided here will help you and you will have a lovely time over food at this brilliant casual dining joint!
Would love to know the names of your favorite dishes at this place and general feedback about Santa’s Fantasea in the comments section below. Till then happy eating and happy pujas to all my readers!
Cheers!
foodiedada 