Don’t be fooled by the mention of Tangra at The Tangra Project pop-up in Mercure, Hyderabad. Unlike the popular belief, it’s not just about Indian-Chinese cuisine. The pop-up that ends this Sunday showcases Kolkata’s distinctive cosmopolitan culinary convergence.
Delhi-based The Tangra Project, a restaurant presents the food of Kolkata in a different light and beyond the usual suspects like dab chingri, murgir jhol, cholar dalna etc. This restaurant brings under its roof all the flavours of Kolkata including puchka, shrimp paturi, gondraj fish and chives dumpling, and an array of Anglo-Indian specialities.
Curated by Chef Vikramjit Roy, the founder of The Tangra Project, the menu for the pop-up is designed to cater to all palates. “Mughlai food to Anglo-Indian specialities, from classic Bengali dishes to famous Indian-Chinese inspired by the Hakka community who migrated to India, we serve them all. The handcrafted menu features meals and expertly picked delicacies from Kolkata’s major culinary areas,” he explains.
Vikramjit also says, “The Tangra Project is a structured balance of cuisine and nostalgia. Every element of the restaurant brings to the forefront, my love for Kolkata culture and the fact that food is ingrained in the anatomy of the city. It’s like the circle of life for me.”
What can one expect at ‘The Tangra Project’ pop up? To begin with there are some dishes that will leave the diner in awe with the selection of ingredients and combination. For example, when a beautiful roll that looked like the cham cham was presented in a creamy sauce I was taken aback thinking this pop-up serves dessert first. This, until I dug my fork in it. It turned out to be a tightly blanched palak roll in a creamy sauce of sesame and poppy seeds. It wasn’t something I tasted before. The surprise elements in the menu didn’t just stop there. There was guacamole made from parvel, it was served with air-fried plantain and sweet potato chips. This was a game-changer like the spinach roll.
The other dishes that followed had an element of Kolkata’s food fusion. They include murrel dimsum with gondhoraj lebu. Sunday Mutton Curry with jhur jhuri aloo, kancha lonkar mugrir jhol with chilli oil paratha.
The murrel dimsum for fish lovers will be a winner. The Sunday Mutton Curry with jhur jhuri aloo was a revelation. The crunch from the crispy fried potato with the gravy of mutton curry was a lovely combination.
This pop-up is a cut above the rest and needs every food lovers’ attention so that they can stop relating Bengali food with just sorshe bata ilish, kosha mangsho and cholar daal.
The a-la carte pop-up ends on December 19.
