Paramount~Taste of Legendary Calcutta
Hello Friends.. Good evening.. Today, I will share a new experience with you all. Actually today's story is related to travel obviously, but today I will not take you to any new destination. But if you want to travel Kolkata this place is really an attraction. Or if you are from Kolkata and want to explore your city, then this place is a must visit for you. So, lets start the new story. Hope you will enjoy.
Since last couple of months many of my readers has requested me for a food blog. Someone, very dear to me and a reader of every story in this blog even has tagged me that I am not a food lover. But thats not true, I am very much food lover and like tasting different street foods of places which I visit. But its really tough for me to take picture of delicious food in front of me before tasting it. For that reason, I had taken travel as my subject in this page, rather than food. So, lets start today's totally different journey, where I am coming to you as a food taster, not a travel story teller as usual. Now, its upon you, you will judge me on what subject I am better, travel or food.
Before starting this story, first I will make you aware that this story is about food, but not a full course lunch or dinner, nor about a breakfast. From the heading, I think many of you had recognised the historic place. For those who could not get it, let me introduce that, today I will take you to Paramount, a legendary drinking house of Central Kolkata. No, not hard drinks, it is sherbet. Paramount is situated at Bankim Chatterjee Street which is the road just behind the College Square Puja Pandal.
Paramount is the oldest sherbet centre in Kolkata, which is still running. And for that reason a lot of noted personality of different field had visited this place. Some of them are Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Dr Meghnad Saha, Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, Biplabi Satin Sen, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Satyendranath Bose, Pulin Behari Das, Satyajit Roy, Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, Bidhan Chandra Roy, Sidhhartha Sankar Roy, Shibram Chakraborty, Samaresh Basu, Samaresh Majumder, Sakti Chattopadhyay, Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Manohar Aich, Rabi Ghosh, Amartya Sen, Udai Sankar, Bhaichung Bhutia, Sourav Ganguly, Surya Sekhar Ganguly etc.
There are quite a few good places for Sherbet in Kolkata, specially Central Kolkata, but I selected this place is mainly for its colourful history. In 1918, Nihar Ranjan Majumdar set up this shop, which is 100% dedicated for Sherbet. Actually, Nihar Ranjan Majumder was associated with freedom movement and this joint was used by freedom fighters of Anushilan Samity. From the front it served as a joint for Sherbet, which is very common in Kolkata due to its hot and humid summer and monsoon period. But behind the scene it was a meeting point of Anushilan Samity activists. From the starting till now, this joint is only for Sherbets. With time they has changed their menu and introduced new types of Sherbets to meet the demands of new generations, but all newly introduced items are kind of Sherbets or Syrups.
If this history and traditions is the primary reason for visiting this place, then the secondary reason is there quality and ambiance. This joint is still run by the Majumder family and the family still now has maintained their quality. Almost all the sherbets of this place is really great. And another point is their ambiance. Still now entering the restaurant you will get the flavour of Old Calcutta.
And there was a third point too, that my office is very near to College Street. And that day, when I visited this joint, I had very less time with me and I felt really thirsty and decided to have a sherbet and also have a look that how this legendary place is going during this unlock phase. And also to check whether all the items are being prepared. And what I had seen here is, almost all the items are available. The only change is previously they used glass utensils to serve sherbets, but presently they are using plastic disposable glass and spoons, which I can't support as too much use of plastic is harmful.
Now, what I had taken here and what I can suggest you to taste here? The answer to the first question is I had visited the place almost 8-9 times and had tasted many Sherbets here. I like the Daab Sherbet, Mango Mania, Cream Green Mango, Passion fruit, Rose Malai, Tamarind Juice. And I can suggest you that if you are here try to have sherbets which are either curd base or Malai based. In such drinks you will get a very different flavour, and very delicious. Other than those must try the Daab Sherbet, which is their signature drink, as you cant have it in any other joint of Kolkata. This daab Sherbet is very much associated with the history of the joint. The other wonder is Tamarind Juice. Generally we see juice are sweet, but this juice is not so.You will get a sweet and sour type flavour in this juice.
The most popular drinks here is the Daab Sherbet. Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy had shared the recipe to the owner of Paramount so that students can have a nutritious drink in a low cost and still today the recipe of this item is a top secret. So, if you like the drink, you have no chance to prepare it at home and again have to come here to enjoy it.
How To Reach:- You can board any bus heading Sealdah/Rajabajar from Howrah or Dalhousie and reach College Street More, from where anyone can guide you to the place. The name is enough. From Sealdah Railway Station, a 15 min walk will take you here.
Other Places Nearby:- The college street is the famous book market of Kolkata. You can also have a walk in College Street footpath, and explore the book market. If you are a book lover, you will just love this place. Thanthania Kalibari, a famous Kali Temple is just a 500m walk. Another famous Temple, Firangi Kalibari is about 1km away. You can also explore the House of Swami Vivekananda, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Raja Rammohan Roy which are situated nearby. You can also visit Indian Coffee House, Dilkhusa Cabin, which are some famous restaurant of Old Kolkata, just about a 150m away from Paramount.
Hope I have given you all the necessary information regarding this food joint. May be as travel is my basic point of interest, I had also given you some places located nearby which you can explore from here. Now its totally upon you. Hope this story would be enjoyable to you and must comment me about the story and you can also suggest me new places. As you know, I like to travel. For me travel as a subject is my comfort zone. Here, I had tried a different subject, so if there is any problem with fluency or any shortage of information please let me know.
For readers who waits for travel stories from me, I am assuring you that, my next story is going to be a travel story. And this story too is very much related to travel. If you are visiting Kolkata, its must to keep a afternoon for College Street and visiting College Street is incomplete without having a visit to Indian Coffee House and Paramount is total foolishness.
So, today its all over. Will be back with a travel story very soon. Good night.
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