Tulleeho at my place!

Wild.

Now that's what we can say when a good bunch of friends have food and their favourite tipple for over 6 long hours and then say again - Yeh Dil Maange More!

And even though I don't cook more often than not. I did manage to cook up a storm that Saturday evening.

From Friday evening itself, the weather had turned cool and in the wee hours of Saturday, Calcutta had its first brush with the monsoonal rains. The whole of Saturday remained cloudy and windy - typically one of those "English" weather (Well Calcutta may not have been even remotely infrastructurally similar to London, but somehow the weather definitely was).  

We had friends coming up for dinner and the wife and me got down to planning the menu. Having always preferred menus that are kept short, crisp and simple. So, the following was decided upon:

- Chicken Pakodas

- Butter Garlic Chicken Sausages

- Egg Pulao

- Chicken Chaap [Calcutta's own contribution to Indian cusine]

- Beer.

Lots of Beer.

Whisky and Vodka.

Dessert was kept optional. Only if we wanted to, we would drive down to Sharma Dhaba, opposite Ballygunje Maidan Camp, to enjoy their lassi - one of the best in town and one of the few shops that remain open late at night in Calcutta.

Chicken Chaap

Egg Pulao

Chicken Pakodas

Woke up early on Saturday - managed the bazar - and got down to marinating the chicken pieces for pakodas and pulao. Skipped lunch that day - since a lot was pending to be completed. When we ended up cooking the pulao and chaap it was past 3 in the after noon.

Went to the nearby liquor shop and bought all that was required.Beer was stashed into the refrigerator.

Pakodas were fried. And sausages were steamed then butter fried. Just in time for the guests.

 I took a quick shower - and man - I was dog tired. Could barely manage standing on my feet.

We were able to convince the folks that the pakodas were bought from the local para snacks counter.And the pulao too was bought from Lazeez near Elgin road. Well, I guess definitely easy to convince people over a round of drinks. There were 7 people in all.

And we had a great time, chatting, sipping, biting, drinking.

And the cycle did keep on repeating.

When it was dinner time - we were all too full. It was then that the rains again started. It was raining very heavily and the dimly lit room with a red light peering through the corner of the room made quite a setting. 

When it was past 1 - my tired body - even though relaxed by now- when I decided to sleep.

Sharma Dhaba was excluded from the menu and and we slept it off!

Thats all folks.
Till the next post, goodbye!