Bengalis are super-sensitive about their maachh-bhaat, adda and lyad! And yes, there is one more thing that comes up quite often in the evenings to invade the Bong taste buds – no prizes for guessing, that’s Phuchka! We, Bengalis, generally immerse all our tensions and frustrations accumulated during the day in that holy tetul jol (tamarind water) of those phuchkas and try to rejuvenate our senses! 🙂 But it’s believed that the taste of classic Kolkata phuchka available on the footpaths often gets accentuated by the dirt, pollution and sheer lack of hygiene of that innocent phuchka-wala, which the new generation health-conscious city dwellers often try to avoid.
That’s why these days we tend to get our phuchkas from that stall which uses mineral water to prepare the filling or that tamarind water! With this very basic idea, there is one eatery that has come up recently in the Golf Green area, called The Phuchka Parlour which serves you your lip-smacking phuchkas and more in a hygienic and comfortable environment perfect for that evening adda.
But there is much more to this eating joint, it serves nearly fifty flavors of phuchkas including some signature flavors that you won’t get anywhere else in the city. Like, you have to try their spicy ice cream, chatpata chicken, savoury Alphanso delight, Mayo Magic, Chocolate Tease and many more. You will get amazing chaats in this place that are sure to impress your foodie soul! Apart from that, you will also get mocktail, juice, pasta, pizza, sandwich as well at this place. This is a lovely little place that promises loads of flavors and quality! There is nothing much to talk home about the ambiance though, which is very basic and can accommodate ten people or so. The place can be made to look more interesting with some quirky wall art and fun bong quotes maybe, the place is after all young, colorful and vibrant!
The Phuchka Parlour is the brainchild of a student, who has immense business acumen and potential. She is Ishita Roy and has completed her graduation in Economics from Jadavpur University. With her knowledge of economics, she opted to go for a start-up rather than going for an MBA. If we start talking about her that will be surely a separate blog post altogether, she has immense determination, planning and innovativeness and this dynamic professional deserves all our support and the recognition.
Coming back to the food talk, all the phuchkas at ‘The Phuchka Parlour’ is made of semolina or sooji fried in sunflower oil and it’s not that crispy super-thin oily ones you get at the footpath phuchka-wala’s place. There is a spicy and tasty potato filling that obviously goes inside the semolina phuchka and you get a topping and chutney as per the flavor you choose. You will get the tangy water separately that you can add as per your preference. Apart from the spicier varieties, you get several sweet phuchkas as well at this place, though I primarily tried the spicier ones during my last visit.
Let’s check out quickly what all I tried at this place. The phuchkas I tried were called Chatpata Chicken, Mayo Magic, Bong Special and Dragons Kiss. The Chatpata chicken phuchka has chicken shreds in there and a generous touch of a tangy, spicy topping that tasted so insanely good! That simply blew me away! This one is surely a must-try item. The Mayo phuchka was quite as expected, it was filled with mayonnaise and it was almost bursting with mayonnaise, maybe a bit less of it would have been better. The Bong Special one was pretty nice but the sauces and toppings were a tad too spicy for me, maybe because I tried it after the Chatpata Chicken one which was already very spicy! The Dragon Kiss was an innovative one where you are given a bowl of spiced up and tad tangy ice cream and there are phuchkas with a little bit of potato filling in them, you have to put in a spoonful of ice cream in that phuchka and have it! Pretty amazing and out of the box!
Their ‘chaats’ followed up next. And I tried Meetha Bhel, Aloo Katori, Crispy Noodles Katori and Creamy Chicken Katori. Of course, you can eat those katoris which are edible bowls holding those generous spicy fillings in them! The Aloo Katori was nice with loads of flavorful chopped potato filling. The Noodles katori had spicy pre-cooked Maggi in there which was okayish according to me. The Meetha Bhel was truly amazing with that tangy and sweet chutney smeared over the puffed rice, chopped tomatoes and coriander leaves. And yes, the creamy chiecken katori was pretty awesome as well with loads of chicken pieces and bits in there.
Also I tried their Creamy Cheese Pasta, Mango and Pineapple flavored mocktails which were nice but I would prefer the cheese pasta to be prepared without onions! The food items were prepared definitely with loads of care and passion. The team out there is small but very dynamic and motivated.
The service is pretty prompt and the prices are somewhat reasonable keeping everything in mind. So, the next time you think about these little globes of desi flavours, think about The Phuchka Parlour, this place has got loads or flavours, promises and potential in store!
Cheers!
P.S. The writer was here at this place on management invitation for review purpose.
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