‘Nosh’talgia PAST PERFECT— KOLKATA STYLE! In this warm, memory-soaked journey through the city’s festive past, writer PROMITA MUKHERJEE revisits Kolkata’s Christmas rituals, iconic bakeries and the beloved plum cake that defined generations T he year is sometime in the 1960s. It’s a crisp, foggy winter morning in Kolkata. The smell of luchi floats through the air even as households slowly wake up to their Sunday routine. A dainty Studebaker Commander glides out of the garage from a narrow lane in north Kolkata. Not too far away, a highway-hardened Hindustan Ambassador roars out. The destination for both is the same – Sahebpara, loosely translated to mean the areas of Chowringhee, Esplanade and Park Street. The occasion: Christmas, which is around the corner. Hence a cake must be bought. The choices? The same two, mostly – Flurys or Nahoum & Sons. Decades later, a little girl would repeat what her parents did while growing up in the City of Joy – just that she would always choose Nahoum for the plum cake and Flurys for the birthday cake. Cakes as Childhood It would be the same routine for a Parsi girl for whom cakes were an integral part of childhood. Because Christmas and December meant cakes from all relatives. “Grandma would get us a cake from Nahoum, the Flurys cake came from grandpa 16 DECEMBER 2025 • FRESH.DAILYPIONEER.COM
17 Publizr Home