When I am visiting Kolkata, there are a number of things on my to-do list. One is to have locally made bread, especially the one from BSB company. It is softer and sweeter than the regular branded, sliced breads, which tend to taste like sawdust. The local bread, or pauroti, comes unsliced, in pound, half-pound and quarter-pound sizes. It’s available at select neighbourhood shops and you can ask them to slice the loaf for you. The other place to have this bread is at the numerous roadside tea stalls dotting the city. The bread is toasted in a grill basket on a coal fire, buttered and sprinkled with sugar or pepper as per taste. Some order an omelette with it—deem-pauroti. Sweet, brewed chain earthen cups makes an ideal companion. Dipping the bread in that tea lends it a kind of umami. If the Japanese have their shokupan, Bengalis have BSB. —Nipa Charagi
The Effingut brewpub in Delhi’s Saket area has a nice mix of craft beers to choose from—be it their Belgian wit beer, the Hefeweizen or the very distinct jowar pilsner and very berry cider. But given the slightly rainy feel of the season, the one brew that really hits the mark is their Scotch ale, which I tried during a recent visit to the brewpub. Just like its slightly caramel colour, the Scotch ale has a malty flavour, with a tinge of raisins in its aroma. The caramel touch doesn’t restrict itself to the appearance. You are sure to experience a smoky (and sweet!), caramel-like aftertaste with this beer, giving it an almost Scottish feel. With an ABV of almost 4.5%, the Scotch ale is also quite a potent brew. —Nitin Sreedhar
If you were taken by the oddball mix of Western, sci-fi and mid-20th century showbiz talk in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, there’s a companion book to the film out. DO NOT DETONATE Without Presidential Approval: A Portfolio On The Subjects Of Midcentury Cinema, The Broadway Stage And The American West is a compendium of eight new pieces, 20 older ones and a new interview with Anderson about the film. The older pieces include essays by greats like Jorge Luis Borges, Lillian Ross, Georges Simenon, Hilton Als, Sam Shepard and Pauline Kael (I would have expected her Aranyer Din Ratri review, given that Anderson borrows the film’s “memory game” scene, but it’s her rave for Robert Altman’s Nashville that’s included). —Uday Bhatia
Sometimes, you have had enough of dark, broody shows displaying the worst of humanity and just want to snuggle in with some romance—but Hollywood doesn’t make romcoms any more. Thank god the Brits do, because Starstruck is just that show; goofy and funny with a lot of heart. Focusing on the on-off relationship between Jessie (a brilliant Rose Matafeo, who is also the series creator) and Tom Kapoor (a dishy Nikesh Patel), it’s an opposites-attract romance. Jessie, a drifter, and Kapoor, a certified movie star, meet at a New Year’s eve party and hit it off straightaway, before she finds out he’s famous. Over three seasons, the last and final one of which just dropped on Amazon Prime, they navigate love, helped and hindered by a bunch of outrageous friends who are sometimes more interesting than the show’s leads. —Shrabonti Bagchi
