Sunday brunch at Westin and few stories

Ravioli counter

Brunch is a strange thing. Can we call it as a mashup between breakfast and lunch ? “Nah, there has to be more to it than this”- I thought and then started reading on this. Okay, so all this happened before I was invited for a tasting session at Westin Kolkata over their brunch and as usual, being a studious student all throughout my younger days, I started digging out.

A brief history …

The term “brunch” was first used by the Englishman, Guy Beringer in his essay, “Brunch: A Plea.” Appearing in an 1895 issue of Hunter’s Weekly, he preferred a lighter mid-morning meal after church rather than the traditional, heavy, Sunday dinner. Many food historians believe that brunch originated with “hunt breakfast” in Europe, where servants prepared the fresh hunt and naturally the meal was delayed than a typical breakfast. Also, there goes a second line of thought that it was the catholics who preferred a late morning brunch, to make it up for their sunday pre-church fasting. But around 1920’s brunch was considered as an upmarket event, where men got an excuse for day-boozing and female, a doorway for socializing. Bloody Mary was a likely choice, as a cure for the last night’s hangover. However, the brunch as we know today, evolved only around 1930’s in USA and 1980’s in India, where the factor of high disposable income and need for socializing came in a big way.

So, let the debate and discussion continue and let us go ahead with the big fat sunday brunch at Seasonal tastes, Westin Kolkata.

You can check my staycation experience at Westin New Town Kolkata here

Back to modern times …

Now, this brunch at Westin Kolkata is called a market brunch, which showcases the specialties of Indian and international food with their own stories. Here, as you step out of the lift at 10th floor, don;t be surprised, if one chef cuts a green coconut and offers you, even before you step inside the restaurant. And, that’s the beauty. In fact, the entire food offering is divided into various sections like fish market, chaat corner, panipuri, cheese counter, cold cuts, Asian street and numerous others. So, the first job for you should be to have a tour of the entire area just to understand what will you have.

Jhal muri counter

Banarasi pani puri

Fish market

cheese counter

cold seafood counter

Ravioli counter

Indoori Chaat counter

Mumbai chowpatti

Sentosa island street mart

But, sadly, at my age, I prefer to choose and eat and frankly, I doubt whether anyone can encounter so many items or not. And, being a bong, I have a soft corner for freshly grilled fish. Secondly, cold cuts is something, which I personally crave for in a five star buffet. So, these were my first choices.

Live grill

The next course had to be my favorite and luckily, Westin Brunch had an assortment of Biryani. And, off course, I chose the non-veg variants – Chicken Hyderabadi biryani and Mutton Shikre Biryani. Both were nice, but mutton variant worked better for me. Now, needless to say, some lamb shank can’t go unnoticed and hence, some of it came to my plate as well.

Chicken hyderabadi biryani and mutton shikre biryani

And Baklava. this is one item, which is absolutely rare to find in Kolkata. so, when I found one whole counter dedicated to Baklava, I actually went bonkers and asked chef to prepare an assorted platter for me. And, it looked somewhat like this. Out of all, the pistachio variant worked best for me.

Assorted baklava platter

And, you can actually understand that after all these, having anything else is impossible. So, I rest my case.