Flurys: An old flame

Today is all about Flurys.

The patisserie that was, is and always will be, my favourite (yes, even after a lifetime of Hugo and Victor, Laduree, Pierre Herme and Adriano Zumba). A hometown hangout. A powerhouse of childhood cravings and memories. A white cake box that would be waiting in the refrigerator when I get back from school. Layers of butter-cream and sponges stacked high on a sweet shortbread base. Chocolate fondant masking a goop of pistachio cream. Pretzels nuttier than nuts.

The historical cake-house has always been a tradition in my family. [And numerous other families in Kolkata, I imagine.] It was the first of its kind and dates back to its foundation in 1926 as a tearoom. Some wouldn?t hesitate to brand it to be the ?first? patisserie in Kolkata. After Nahoum?s of course, but Nahoum?s is another story for another day. My grandparents were patrons of the place, passing on the love to their children. My mother often reminisces about her childhood memories of Flurys at family gatherings…those at which our relatives would sit around the coffee table in the living room, a cup of sugary chai in one hand and a plate of pastries (from Flurys no doubt) in the other.

Through the numerous transitions that the shop has gone through over the years, jumping from plain white cake boxes to glossy pink ones, Flurys stood through birthdays, anniversaries, new jobs, old jobs, retirements, romantic dates, ad-house interviews, boyfriend-gossips, bachelorette parties and every cake-eating event imaginable. I have distinct memories of walking through the doors of the older shop and immediately being hit by a heavy waft of treacle. The treacle would give way to a very woody smell of freshly baked short-crust. But all the heavy sweetness in the air would immediately be shattered when I bit into a chocolate-pista cube. Shattered, because you see, what I love most about Flurys is that their pastries always have a generous dose of salt in them. The saltiness cuts through all the sweetness of fondant and pastry-cream, in a fabulous way. The downside though, is that you can easily eat through 8 or 9 pieces of pastry without all the sugar making you feel nauseous. Dangerous. For your skinny jeans…and your ability to focus on anything else for the rest of the day.

Double Chocolate Walnut Brownie

Today, when one walks into the new, refurbished, trying-to-be-modern-and-traditional-at-the-same-time shop, the dark high-back chairs and pillars covered in diamond shaped patterns somehow remind you of some bygone era. The pastry glass boxes are however a different story. They hold confectionary that are still prepared the way they were 50 years back and then there are the innovative, bitter-chocolaty and swankier ones. In fact, it is quite easy to physically draw a line between the two, right down the middle of the semi-circular glass box. And in spite of an impressive array of double chocolate brownies, truffle cakes, strawberry tarts…I still somehow opt for a chocolate pistachio pastry or a shapely chocolate boat, an almond puff or the legendary breakfast-lunch-dinner-all-in-one monster of a rum ball. The Chocolate-Pista is exactly as it sounds. Layers of chocolate sponge alternates with creamy pistachio pastry cream and is topped with chocolate sugar butter-cream with a single slice of pistachio. Simple and potent. The rum ball however is from another planet altogether ? take two fistfuls of dark and solemn fruit cake, soak in rum, coat in chocolate fondant and there you have it. One rum ball at breakfast can sustain you till dinner. Speaking of breakfast, it must be stressed that Flurys, considering how it started out as a tea-room, still remains one complete with a bomb for a breakfast menu. I had gone gaga over the chicken omelette once when I was five (or so I was told) and I still go gaga over it. However, the liver omelette and the club sandwich remains worthy contenders.

Chocolate-Pista

The Rumball

My last walk through the glass-and-wood carved doors was with Arundhati and Diya. In a flurry of snapshots we devoured our selected favourites. I gasped over the almond sugar-brushed tartlet, Diya struggled to finish her rum ball while Arundhati nagged us about tasting her choice of the day, the chocolate brownie with a generous and wavy layer of chocolate ganache. There was, I forget to mention, a lot of discussion about how to hide a big paunch from future boyfriends and how dreamy Kowloon?s chilli pork can be. Flurys over the years has become a hang-out. You wouldn?t want to treat the Oldie-Goldie as you would your local coffee place or chai ki laari. You wouldn?t treat it as your friend?s messy bedroom or the ground-floor corridor at the girls? hostel. But somehow, you can take all your business there, spend all your time, money, catch up with all your acquaintances and then head back home with a boxful of marzipan cakes and chicken envelopes and a crispy baguette. If you do happen to visit, don?t forget to get a bar of 70% dark and a couple of Pineapple Cubes for me.