Try a Manipuri dish of snails with pork at this restaurant in Kalina

Pic/Rane Ashish

What! No. Eeeew," goes our colleague when we offer her a pork dish with snails. Her restricted palate, you see, is repelled by the idea of viscous meat that you have to suck out of a hard shell after cracking it with your teeth. Well, more fool she, because as far as we are concerned, it's love at first bite when we try hoksa with escargot, a Manipuri dish from Kalina's Thotrin Café.

So, let's use this article to send out a plea to her, and all other non-vegetarians who limit themselves to the staid options of chicken, mutton, pork and - if you can lay your hands on it in this city - beef. The world is your oyster, after all. So, go on, don't be scared. Open up your taste buds to other possibilities.

Start with the hoksa with escargot. The dish consists of fatty chunks of pork and beautiful little black snails swimming in a thin, slightly pungent gravy. The snails are sourced directly from a town called Ukhrul in Manipur. They are smaller than the escargot that the French consider a delicacy. But the fact that they are added to the dish right at the start of the cooking process means that they lend an earthiness to the gravy, which is further flavoured with ginger, garlic, king chilli and a type of Mexican coriander
called maroi.

The end result is balanced perfectly with a serving of rice. But no, our colleague would still stick to humdrum chicken wings. Where's the fun in that, though, we ask. You'll end up being a frog in a well when it comes to tasting different food, won't you? Speaking of which, why not give frog legs a shot too? We've tried them and they taste almost exactly like chicken, no joke.

Time 12 pm to 11 pm
At Jamlipada, Vidya Nagari, Kalina, Santacruz East.
Call 9619067860
Cost Rs 250

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