Suta Kebab from Adam's Kebab Shop, Chitpur

I had heard of Chitpur’s “suta kebab” more than a decade ago. Kebab that is so tender that the meat has to be tied to the skewer with a string. It is only recently, thanks, to Iftekhar Ahsan of Calcutta Walks, that I have had the pleasure of tasting it, and after countless sessions over a period of a year or more, I can tell you with great confidence, this is the best kebab you will ever taste in Calcutta.

Adam's Kebab Shop

Chitpur is located in the heart of Calcutta, near the central business district of Burrabazar, and the shop that you want to go to, to taste suta kebab is Adam’s Kebab Shop, in Phears Lane. It should actually be called Phear Lane or Phear’s Lane, since it is named after John Budd Phear, a British judge who was sympathetic to the Indian cause. Getting there is simple. From Dharmatalla crossing, take the road to the right of Victoria House, the big art deco building with a globe on top. This is Central Avenue. Continue down Central Avenue, and you will find the first traffic stop to be the crossing with Ganesh Chandra Avenue. Further down, the second traffic stop is B.B. Ganguly Street crossing. A little ahead, to your left, will be the exit of Central Metro station, and a large black statue of Maharana Pratap on a horse. The road to the right of the statue is San Yat Sen Street. Enter this road, and you find the first right turn to be a dead end lane. The second right is Phears Lane. Walk almost to the end of the lane, and to your left you will see the neon sign for Liyaqat Sweets. Just before you get to the shop, on your left will be the little hole in the wall kebab shop. Every evening the enticing aroma from this shop fills the entire neighbourhood.

Adam’s Kebab Shop began its journey some 45 years ago, under a Md. Adam. After his death, the business was taken over by his brother, Md. Salauddin. Adam’s son, Md. Abbas currently runs the shop, assisted by a young boy. The meat used for suta kebab is beef. Same goes for the boti kebab made in this shop. So if you're not a beef-eater, tough luck. But if you are, stick around and observe how the kebab is made before you place your order. I have attempted to capture the four main steps.

1. Meat is wrapped on a skewer

2. The meat is tied to the skewer with string

3. The kebab is roasted over a coal fire

4. The string is removed prior to serving

Served with lemon, green chillies and chopped onions, suta kebab is delicious, and easy on the pocket. While the shop can pack it for you if you request, my advice would be to stand there and have it. You could always bring it home and heat it up before having it, but somehow it never tastes the same. And that taste is something that sets Adam's apart from some of the biggest restaurants in the city. I am yet to encounter a restaurant that has this kind of consistency in taste. Adam's never has a bad hair day. You could walk a little further down the road and try the kheeri kebab, and round off your evening with some aflatoon from Haji Alauddin, but those are stories for another post.

- by Deepanjan Ghosh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to Iftekhar Ahsan for introducing me to Adam's Kebab Shop. Iftekhar is the man behind Calcutta Walks. Check out his website here.

SOURCES

A History of Calcutta's Streets - P. Thankappan Nair

Winter Special: Nihari @ Islamiya

There aren’t many dishes that you have to get up at 4am to have, and even less that justify such torture in winter. Nihari would satisfy both those conditions.

For those not in the know, Nihari is made mostly with beef, but sometimes with mutton. It is meat, cooked all night with special spices, on a slow flame, and served at the crack of dawn, as a heavy spicy, soup. This is a dish available almost exclusively in winter. The best Nihari in Calcutta is served in the Chitpur area, in the neighbourhood of the Nakhoda Mosque. The trick is to get there before the very limited stocks finish. What this means is that you have to get there around 5:30 am, because proceedings start drawing to a close around 6 am.

The most famous Nihari serving shop is of course Sufia, which is right opposite the Nakhoda Mosque. But the problem there is that people line up their cans outside the shop from the previous night, and you may, like I did, be greeted by the waiter’s cheeky grin and “Nihari khatam hai”. The only way to guarantee that you get Sufia’s Nihari in the morning, is to add your can to the queue at night.

Unbelievable as it may sound, even before sunrise on a winter morning, Sufia was packed with some fifty people, all slurping away at their Niharis, with rotis or daal-puris on the side. I walked out, and asked the shopkeeper across the street if there was any other place serving Nihari, and the name I got was Islamiya. The man assured me that their stocks of Nihari last quite a while. It was simple enough to find, just walk in from Nakhoda, along Zakaria Street, and take the right turn from the 2^nd big crossing and walk right till the end of the lane.

Islamiya is not exactly what one would call fine dining, but has the very typical atmosphere of a traditional Muslim eatery. But even though the surroundings may be humble, the food served is a class apart. There is no concept of a private table in places like this. Your waiter simply seats you at any table that happens to have an empty chair.

I ordered half a plate of Nihari, which I was told would have two pieces of beef. The full plate would have four. With it I asked for tandoori rotis. Served with chopped coriander leaves and lemons on the sides, the Nihari was thick, beautifully spiced and the meat was literally melt-in-your-mouth. The fresh coriander and lemon juice cuts through just right. It has a sinful looking layer of oil on top, but I learned from the other folks at my table, that it was possible to request the waiter to serve the Nihari without that layer on top. But somehow, I don’t really think about calories when having such delicious beef. The tandoori rotis were soft, fresh, and warm and I sat there tearing off pieces of roti, dipping it into the Nihari and chomping away, feeling completely blissful.

The best part about eating at a place like this of course, is the bill. Half a plate of Nihari, two tandoori rotis and a cup of hot tea and I paid the princely sum of Rs. 65/-.

Later in the day, on a walk through the Maidan, I had the good fortune of meeting the owner and he recommended the malai kofta at Islamiya. I think I’ll try it next.

Until then, keep munching.

DIRECTIONS:

You can find Nakhoda Masjid here and here is Islamiya's address...

Islamiya Hotel,
73, Maulana Saukat Ali Street,
Kol - 73