A piece of Bengal....in the heart of Chennai

Since childhood I have always loved Saturdays,well very few people do not I guess.While in school it was the day that would break the monotony of getting up early,running for the school bus,spending majority part of the day learning some interesting and some not so interesting stuff.In college it was the day I went back home after spending 5 hyperactive days in the hostel with friends.

But since coming to Chennai,the day has a permanent slot marked in the calendar,between say 1 to around 3 in the afternoon.It is the time marked for rejuvenating the taste buds with the food which is closest to my heart.

Hidden in this city is this restaurant called "Annapurna of Kolkata" in Pantheon Road,Egmore which gives respite to hundreds of people from the eastern fringes of the country.With a pan shop,which sells Ananda Bazaar Patrika at the entrance,it reminds you the eateries back home.Believe me, Chennai is totting with quite a large number of restaurants and eateries serving food termed North Indian,but which generally do not serve anything which has slight resemblance with Bengali cuisine.

My first visit to he place could hardly be termed memorable ,I found that almost the entire bengali population in Chennai had decided to descend upon the place to celebrate the Bengali New Year.After waiting for eternity to find a place ,we gave up the idea and moved on to another of those North Indian restaurants.Its been a year and a half since then.....

Annapurna is the place to savour the best "chingri malai curry","vetki paturi","rui kaliya","sorshe ilish"....and the not so common "hans dim kosha" or the "macher dimer bora".The preparation of these delicacies is sure to satisfy the taste buds of most hardened Bengali gourmets .The only complaint I have about the place is its size,since it becomes increasingly difficult to find a table on saturday or sunday afternoon.

There are several restaurants in Chennai,around the Bengali Youth hostel near Chepauk on Wallajhah Road,which claim to serve Bengali food,but one or two visit to these eataries is enough to establish how tall these claims are.So if you are in Chennai for some reason or the other and yearn for some good quality Bengali food Annapurna is the place to be.

PS:Legend has it ,that when the great Mithun Da was in Chennai for shooting of the film,Guru, he had his lunch delivered from the very place.