If there’s one thing that brightens up the gloomy monsoon, it’s the hilsa. Steamed, fried, baked or roasted — have it any which way, and it tastes just as good. Fish eaters were spoilt for choice at Hilsa Fest, presented by Ecospace Business Park and t2, as eight city restaurants and caterers set up shop at the New Town address  from August 19-21.

 

TCS employees (L-R) Souvik Guha, Subhankar Chowdhury, Swagata Basu, Siddhartha Sarkar and Soumili Mukhopadhyay decided to try the ilish preparations from various stalls and ended up with a mix of Doi Ilish, Shorshe Ilish and Ilish Paturi. “We know there are a lot of bones and it takes time to eat but that’s half the fun of having hilsa!” said the group.

 

(L-R) Colleagues Ajit Biswal and Swayamsiddha Nath were excited about the hilsa festival coming to Ecospace. “Hilsa is the tastiest fish and the best preparation is definitely the paturi,” said Swayamsiddha, a TCS employee, armed with an Ilish Combo from Bong Connection.

 

Moutuli Sarkar, a Cognizant employee, came to Ecospace from Unitech for the hilsa fare. “I came to know about this festival from my sister, so I decided to drop by for lunch. I like ilish bhapa the best, which is what I’m eating today,” she said, with a plate from Naba Krishna Guin Caterer.

 

This group of friends from TCS had a blast at the hilsa festival. “It’s a welcome change from the cafeteria food and once in a while it’s fun to have lunch like this with friends. Two of our friends are trying out ilish for the first time,” said Arka Dutta (fourth from left). The first-timers’ verdict? “Really delicious and soft,” chorused Aniket Badal (far left) and Jogmaya Thapa (third from left).

Avisek Chowdhury tucked into Doi Ilish from Bong Connection on the final day. “I look forward to monsoon all year round for hilsa. Yesterday, too, I had my lunch from the stalls at the festival,” said the TCS employee.

Paramita Das (left) chose to have the Bhetki Combo from Bong Connection, while friend Lalpi Sen settled for Ilish Pulao from Khawab. “Ilish is truly the queen of fish. It’s healthy too,” said IBM employee Lalpi.

This gang of girls from Maven Infotech was very excited to see the Hilsa Fest taking place in their office campus. “I had been counting days for the festival to start ever since I saw the ads. Now that it’s here, we’ll probably have lunch here all three days,” said foodie Payel Chowdhury (second from left) while sharing her Ilish Paturi Combo from Bong Connection with friends (L-R) Purba Mitra, Gitika Demblani and Saakshi Agarwal.

On the first day of the fest, Maven InfoTech employees (L-R) Gulrez Kazi, Rezina Banerjee, Shreyashi Biswas and Shailja Jaiswal decided to have an ilish lunch. “Ilish is the queen of fish and the best way to prepare it is definitely the bhapa,” said Gulrez, before tucking into her Ilish Bhapa Combo from Naba Krishna Guin Caterer.
 

TCS employee Aniket Roy loved the Ilish Bhuna Khichuri from Puran Dhaka. “The theme is perfect for the weather since ilish is a monsoon favourite. There is variety to choose from and the price is reasonable too,” he said. 

Besides hilsa, the festival stalls also served chicken, mutton, prawns and more. Sutrishna Pandey (left) and Maitrayi Chowdhury settled for mutton and prawn dishes from Bong Connection. “Whenever a food fest takes place at Ecospace, we give it a try, especially if it’s Bengali food,” said Reliance Jio employee Sutrishna.