1.    Hire a guide from Calcutta walks (www.calcuttawalks.com/ 9A, Khairu Place, Kolkata, West Bengal 700072) and explore the by-lanes and bystanders of Kolkata.

2.    Experience a Kolkata market. Every area has them since the Bengalis are so fastidious about their food. Gariahat is convenient but Manektala fish market in North Kolkata, is the real deal. You’ll find the day’s catch – rui maach, shiny silvery hilsa, bhekti, live crab, soft shell crab and mounds of other smaller fish in an environment that smells of the sea and lakes and not stale fish. Placed on mounds of crushed ice like bejeweled deities or laid out neatly on bright green banana leaves, fish is worshipped.

3.    Try Gondhoraj lebu, the most fragrant lemon India has to offer which adds a new dimension to any fish dish. Once you scratch the rind, this fantastic green lemon (as opposed to lime or nimboo) fills the air with a heady lemony fragrance and can be compared to the Thai magrut from which we also get the aromatic kaffir lime leaf.

4.    Buy an ugly bottle of kashundi, a tart delicious mustard paste once only available in these re- used rum bottles.

5.    Pick up some Bengali mithai from Girish Chandra Dey and Nakur Chandra Dey, near Beadon St. Marwari families send their drivers all the way to these rather shabby shops, from fashionable addresses in south of the city, just for a box or two of their fresh sondesh. Sondesh is considered the healthier of Indian sweets since they are made with chhena, a curd cheese like paneer as opposed to mawa, khoya or ghee. Must eat the rossogola at Nobin Chandra Das (77, Jatindra Mohan Avenue, Bag Bazar Tel: 65472071). True to its reputation, it melts in the mouth and the syrup is light and not that sweet. A very convenient address for all traditional Bengali sweets is Mithai near Park Circus (48-B, Syed Amir Ali Avenue, Beck Bagan, Tel: 22873590,  22473590). They also happily pack everything for you to take on a flight, including a very authentic mishti doi (yoghurt made in a terracotta pot and sweetened with date molasses or jaggery).

6.    Try Nolen gud (date palm syrup which rivals maple syrup), another Bengali wonder ingredient used to make certain sondesh in winter months. It is pure nectar and rivals Maple Syrup at a fraction of the price.

7.    Taste and buy some of the world’s best teas from the light and fragrant Jungpana and Lingia estates from Darjeeling and Doomni from Assam.  Buy from run of the mill shops like tea merchants Star Tea Co. Pvt. Ltd (8/188 C, LaL Bazar Street, 22462630, 22300559) and Mahabodhi Tea House (Mr. P. S. Dutta Gupta 224253390) and Sancha teas from Aap ki Pasand, all chosen by owner and tea master, Sanjay Kapur, available at their stand alone shops, online and at airports. They probably have the widest and best range of teas in India.   (www.aapkipasandtea.com)

8.    Stop for tea at Flury’s (www.flurysindia.com). It is still considered an icon and rightly so. The Viennese coffee and collection of teas are excellent and the rum ball and asparagus sandwiches, memorable. “it still evokes nostalgia among Brits, Bongs and the old Kolkata schoolboys’ club”, says a friend who takes us there.

9.    Do a real Bengali meal. For fine dining, then Sonar Tori, though a trek @ 1½ hour’s drive from the city on the Ganges in the stunning Ganga Kutir resort). Guchhi@ The Hyatt Regency does a mean  Dhaka style fish curry, a sublime aloo posto with ridge gourd mixed in with potatoes, a simple yellow home-style masoor dal with just a tempering of cumin ( what bliss to have a light dal in a restaurant), lovely fragrant gobindobhog rice and perfect mishti doi to end (kolkata.regency.hyatt.com). For something really basic, Bhojohari Manna (www.bhojohorimanna.com) which has several branches in the city and is as near to home style food as you can find; Aaheli, in Peerless hotel (www.peerlesshotels.com) on Chowringhee which serves up consistently good traditional food; 6 Ballygunge Place is my favourite at the moment and 6 Ballygunge for the most sublime Daab Chingri. Oh! Calcutta (Add: 10/3, 4th Floor, Forum Mall, Elgin Road Tel; 033 22837161, 033 22837162) is now a successful chain all over the country. It’s where everyone takes you when you first visit Kolkata; kakra chingri bhapa, crab in a mild mustard paste, steamed in banana leaves; lonka bhapa murg, chicken strips mixed with pickled chilli and mustard and steamed and the classic bhapa ilish, a full fillet of hilsa in mustard and green chilli, steamed again. I have to have the smoked hilsa, luchhi (maida puris) and cholar dal and the railway mutton curry.

10.    Lunch and art At Bomti Iyenger’s. Art collector and dealer, Bomti lives in his ancestral property in the Metropoiltan Building, a colonial structure with a golden dome on Chowringhee. How can you top that? He conducts heritage tours, gastronomic walks and also organises home style cookery demos in his enchanting abode. It is almost too good to be true. (Tel: 09831314990).