The horse-drawn tram is one of the most eye-catching features of sprawling City Centre. And the streetcar, apparently, holds much to be desired as well.

The piece of heritage at the mall is not just eye-candy. It is a tiny gift shop.

“I think Calcutta needed a one-stop souvenir shop, where tourists could stop by to pick up a few things to take back home without having to scout the markets,” said industrialist Harsh Neotia, who developed the Salt Lake destination.

This is meant for the quick traveller looking for something quintessentially Calcutta, but wouldn’t know where to go looking for a specific item from a particular area.

“Shops such as this usually become popular abroad by word of mouth. That is what we hope will happen here over time,” adds Neotia.

The gifts are a hit already, but the venue is pulling more crowds for sheer curiosity value, with casual shoppers eager to take a peak into the tram, reeking with old-world charm.

“We could have just taken up any other shop in the complex and made it into a gift shop, but that would have spoilt the concept,” adds Neotia, who bought the streetcar from Calcutta Tramways.

“I wanted to add something inherent to Calcutta to City Centre, since the design of the place is meant to replicate the by-lanes of old Calcutta with a chai shop in one corner and criss-crossing roads going all over the market,” explained Harsh.

Kantha work, colourful papier mache dolls, little wooden carvings, dokra… This is a must on every tourist hit list.

(Top): The horse-drawn tram doubling as a heritage store at City Centre; (above): foodies dig into the spread at the Russian food festival at HHI. Pictures by Rashbehari Das

Russia roster

What are the first images to come into mind when you think Russian food and drink? Salads for starters and vodka for sure. But Russian cuisine obviously has far more to offer.

That is what The HHI hopes to bring to the city with its Russian festival, called Russkie Gulyania at Palm Court, the coffee shop.

The festivities were kicked off by Yuri . Zozulya, Russian vice-consul general on Wednesday. In keeping with Russian tradition, the large turnout of guests invited for the evening waited for the bread-breaking ceremony to take place before digging into the delectable fare.

“In Russia, we do this little gesture to open an auspicious event,” explained Zozulya. A freshly-baked loaf was sampled by Yuri before he declared the festival open.

The two-week affair hopes to educate the Calcutta foodie as far as Russian food goes.

“We are going to concentrate on breads, salads, snacks and desserts,” explained executive chef, HHI, Utpal Mondol.

Vegetarian and non-vegetarian Russian specialities will be added to the main course of the multi-cuisine buffet.

To combat the lack of knowledge about the cuisine in the city, only the snacks have been kept a la cart while the salads, desserts and main-course entrees have found their way on the buffet so guests can sample a little bit of everything.

In the snack section, try the leaf-shaped blinis with cheese or salmon. Oysters stuffed in arborio rice or Kartofalianki (or potato cakes) are the options.

These are served with olives, plain and salted cucumber and sour cream.

So get set for the Russian rage and wash it all down with a vodka over lunch on a rainy afternoon.