MC Recommends: Best experiences and possessions to splurge on this week

La Table Hermès creative director Benoît Pierre Emery worked with skilled artisans to design the Soleil d’Hermès tableware collection.

Kolkata’s culinary heritage

Tiretta Bazaar has that early morning and late evening buzz you associate with eateries across India. There are sacks of vegetables, bowls of noodles, pots of pork and chicken boiling over blackened stoves, and sauces lying around on the counters of little Chinese eateries that are famous for the scrumptious food they send out by the minute.

Popularly known as Old Chinatown or Cheenapara among the locals, Tiretta Bazaar (mentioned in A. Upjohn’s map of Calcutta in 1790 and named after its erstwhile Italian owner Edward Tiretta) has made its way to the World Monuments Fund list 2022.

The neighbourhood in central Kolkata is one of the oldest continuously running marketplaces in the country around which the Chinese community first settled in the late 18th century.

Calcutta Walks (calcuttawalks.com) offers a Tiretta Bazaar tour that takes you across its labyrinths and introduces you to the culinary cauldron and its famous dishes: A breakfast of mildly sweet Ham Jeen Piang (fermented yeast dough batter) stuffed with sesame seeds; Youtiao or Chinese crullers that will remind you of doughnut sticks; Chilli pork or Char Sui roast pork or the pork with red wine sauce at Tung Naam, and Fung Mei Mian (noodles in sweet soya sauce). This is one walk that always ends in a great meal.

Also called Old Chinatown or Cheenapara by the locals, Tiretta Bazaar in Kolkata has made its way to the World Monuments Fund list 2022.

A spot of sunshine with Hermès

The French luxury brand’s new tableware collection is inspired by the sun. Benoît Pierre Emery, the creative director of La Table Hermès, worked with skilled artisans to design the Soleil d’Hermès tableware collection. The sun-kissed aesthetic of the 24-piece collection draws heavily on art deco design that showcases geometric designs depicting stylised palm fronds and flowers, alongside graphical, abstract patterns that reference natural forms. They are imprinted on deep sunshine yellow and outlined with delicate black lines, against a background of pure porcelain white. If the dinner plates are covered with an interlocking pattern arranged around a white centre in a doughnut shape, the teapots are a canvas for a modern rendition of palm fronds.

Manolo Blahnik bows to comfort

When Manolo Blahnik, a high-fashion brand made famous by the American series Sex and the City, creates a collection high on comfort, you know the pandemic has left nothing untouched. The brand has collaborated with BIRKENSTOCK, which defines everyday comfort, to create a whole new range of glamorous sandals. The two-strapped sandal and clog mule have been transformed by Blahnik in three colourways, including two new designs that replace the standard leather and suede with plush velvet in bright colours such as fuchsia and sapphire blue. Each regal-looking sandal is finished with an embellished silver clasp and black sole. Seemingly, Birkenstocks has become a magnet for high-fashion labels since the beginning of the pandemic when consumer appetites shifted toward extreme comfort.

Manolo BlahnikxBIRKENSTOCK sandals and clog mules come in colours like fuchsia pink and sapphire blue.

Ready for a coffee bonbon?

Cascara, or the husk or peel of a coffee bean, considered a waste product, has been repurposed into a delicious treat by the coffee makers at ARAKU. The brand’s Cascara bonbons are a zero-waste dessert with 75% dark chocolate and coffee bean husk.

Handcrafted at ARAKU Café in Bangalore, these ready-to-eat bonbons come in 16 vegan and gluten-free varieties. They are a tiny nod to the idea of circularity in the food system, and the regenerative agricultural practices in ARAKU valley.

The coffee brand that is available in Paris as well as Bangalore (both cities have an Araku café) has launched several other products. Early Harvest specialty coffee is made with the season’s first harvest of coffee cherries and has berries, citrus, and herbaceous notes. And the single-serve drip coffee pouches of ground coffee held in folded paper stands can be suspended over any cup or bottle to create an instant brew.

Cascara bonbons are a zero-waste dessert made with 75% dark chocolate and coffee bean husk.

The art of mapping

Mumbai’s Asiatic Society’s neoclassical interiors are home to a month-long exhibition of rare maps that depict the work of early explorers, travellers, and cartographers who once mapped an unknown world. Over the last few years, experts in Asiatic had been working on conserving rare maps from its diverse collection. A selection of 30 gems, spanning 300 years in Indian history, is being displayed for enthusiasts, art lovers, and collectors. Meandering Through a Mapped Canvas introduces us to the art and visual artistry involved in map-making.

The collection includes handmade maps as well as prints that were hand-painted or hand-coloured at the time of or after printing. Keep a look out for a 7-and-a half foot map showing one of the eight sections of Punjab and a fascinating 1652 Mughal map of India. The Bombay showcase includes an 1898 Plague map and an 1855 map of the Fort of Bombay pitched against the Native Town of Bombay.

A map from the 'Meandering Through a Mapped Canvas' exhibition.