22-07-2025
There is no ‘kosha mangsho' or biryani at this new Bengali restaurant in Kolkata
At the newly-opened Amar Khamar Lunch Room in Kolkata, the ceiling bears an artwork showcasing the indigenous varieties of rice grown in Bengal. The design sets the tone for the lunch titled 'Chhuti-r Bhat', that literally translates to holiday meal. The spread at the approximately 20-seater restaurant, situated in Ballygunge, is served in four courses on a banana leaf. Each course has a rice variety cultivated by the farmer partners. But, there is no gobindobhog, the most popular aromatic rice from the region.
Amar Khamar or 'my farm" is a social enterprise, and was founded by Sujoy Chatterjee in 2019 with the objective of empowering farmers, mostly women, to cultivate rice on a small piece of land. Today, it boasts of a store called Annaja (same location), and retails a diverse variety of folk rice, and hyperlocal, organic products like lentils, honey, ghee, jaggery and spices sourced from across the state.
'The culture of ingredient-driven, home-cooked conscious consumption of food is a way forward," says Chatterjee, explaining why he decided to open Lunch Room (in May) almost six years after founding Amar Khamar. 'We want to serve food that comes from years of experience and wisdom from everyday kitchens," he adds. There is no kosha mangsho, biryani, or dishes that one would commonly associate with Bengali cuisine, and popularised by (Bengali) restaurants in the city.
For the first course, I am served chine kamini — its delicate fragrance fills up the room — along with shaak bhaja (stir-fried greens), aam shorshe (ripe mango with mustard), deshi potol-er khosa bata (ground peels of pointed gourd), and the classic vegetarian stew shukto. To accentuate the aroma of rice, the server drizzles a spoonful of ghee over it.
It is not just the variety of rice that the meal highlights. Every course showcases the regional and seasonal diversity of Bengal, like the aam diye masur-er tok dal, a hearty sweet and sour masur dal cooked with green mango, or the pat pata-r bora, jute leaf fritters popularly made by the bangal community, or those migrated from East Bengal. Both the dishes are a common occurrence in Bengali homes during summer. The duo is served with dudh potol shorshe, or small pointed gourd cooked in a milk- and mustard-based sauce, and laal shada (red and white) rice.
The menu spans across the state, and brings in specialities from both bangal and ghoti (those originally from West Bengal) kitchens. One such dish is chui jhaal mangsho, a mutton curry cooked with chui, a pepper native to the region. Chui or Piper chaba/chilli was used to spice fish and meat before chillies were introduced by the Portuguese colonisers in the 15th century. While the pepper grows in abundance in Bangladesh and parts of Bengal, the restaurant sources it from partner farms in north 24 Parganas. The flavour profile is a cross between black pepper and mustard. The roots as well as stem are used in cooking. At Amar Khamar Lunch Room, the former is cooked with mutton, while the latter is turned into a pickle. The deem, maach, mangsho — egg, fish and meat courses respectively — are served with soru siddho mohonshal bhat. Soru siddho means parboiled rice, which is a staple in Bengali homes.
The dishes also reflect the tradition of zero-waste cooking. 'We make our shukto with watermelon rind instead of the usual bitter gourd, drumstick and plantain. It surprises our guests," says Rekha Das, chef and daughter of one of the oldest partner farmers Aparna Das from the Sunderbans. The kitchen team is predominantly women, who come from an agrarian background, and bring their recipes, and cooking techniques. The bori (dried lentil drops), pickles and chutneys served with the meal are all made in-house.
Kancha aam-er tawk, a sweet and sour soup made with green mango, acts as an interlude to the meal before the mishti course arrives. There's payesh (rice kheer) made with badshahbhog rice, and mishti doi topped with the summer speciality taal-er gur, a jaggery made with the sap of tal or ice apple tree. It is thick, grainy, and milder in sweetness, when compared to nolen gur, the more popular winter-special date palm jaggery.
On the Friday noon I visited, the restaurant was packed with both locals and outsiders. 'Many of our younger patrons (not living in the city) are reserving meals for their parents so that they can come over and eat with us. Even guests from Kolkata frequently end their meal with 'I'll bring my parents here the next time,'" says Chatterjee.
The meal at Lunch Room holds a great deal of nostalgia for the locals, and for the people visiting the city, it is a great way to learn about the region's cuisine beyond the dominant narrative of Kolkata food.
'Chuti-r Bhat' ( ₹1,290 + taxes for veg, ₹1,690 + taxes for non-veg) is available on weekends, Friday to Sunday, for lunch and dinner. 'Dal Bhat' ( ₹450 + taxes) is available on weekdays (lunch) and weekends (dinner).
Shirin Mehrotra is a Delhi-based food writer and researcher.
