Another way to relax and renew is dinner with friends.

Well, Bob Garner met an old friend at a popular restaurant in Winston-Salem called Oh' Calcutta.

Here's the story.

- [Bob] Freddy Lee, who's Chinese, and Gopal Chandarana, who's Indian, grew up and went to school together in Calcutta.

Through a long chain of circumstances, they ended up partnering with Oh' Calcutta on Winston-Salem's 4th Street.

With this place, Freddy now has a full handful of Twin City restaurants.

And guess which came last?

- Already had all different kind of restaurant.

I have Italian, have Brazilian, have French, have Asian.

I see I haven't done Indian yet.

That's why I ended up doing an Indian restaurant, so.

- I told Freddy, "Hey, I want to open a restaurant.

Can you help me out?"

He said, "Yeah.

Well, let's do it together."

That's how we came up with the modern Oh' Calcutta name with a modern Indian cuisine.

I want to open something very different from any other restaurants, Indian restaurants.

Because if you go to a Indian restaurant, they have all mostly, more or less, the same kind of food.

- These are choti plates, small plates, appetizers, whatever you want to call them is okay.

So let's just pull the trigger on that starter pistol.

And that's a good thing to call them too.

Starters.

This is kamla pani puri.

It's basically a fried puff topped with yogurt.

And there's chickpeas, there's potatoes, there's onion, there's cucumber, other things in there.

And what you do is squirt a little tamarind juice on there, which makes it totally unique.

Mm.

Tamarind juice totally transforms that.

This is basically a beet and sweet potato croquette.

They may pronounce it a little bit differently, but it has a mustard aioli, which always indicates a little presence of garlic.

You can certainly see the beet in there.

Sold.

Yeah, yeah.

This is basically a lamb meatball, perfect to be eaten with a spoon, by the way.

They do this in different ways around the world, but not like this.

This is crumble goat cheese topped with cilantro in a simple masala sauce.

And it ain't complicated, mm, but it sure is good.

Now for some body, or main plates, along with drink possibilities.

A nice Malbec or your favorite red, whatever it may be, will go perfectly with a braised lamb shank served with basmati rice, a spicy tomato butter, and sort of a common combination here of Brussels sprouts, fingerling potatoes, and rainbow carrots.

Mm, that is right up my alley.

Look at this.

Salmon cooked in a tandoori, along with a nice vegetable mixture, which I really like about most of these dishes.

A nice spicy, but not overwhelming sauce.

[upbeat music] And a little bit of the naan with truffles in it.

Chenin blanc or your favorite white will go perfectly with that.

By the way, proteins are often cooked threaded onto standup rods in the clay-lined tandoori oven, while naan bread bake stuck to the inside wall of the tandoori.

There are plenty of beer choices to go with entrees like the chicken tikka masala, which I make at home all the time.

Personally, I would drink white wine with the tikka masala and red wine with the goat rezala, which is delicious and has extra flavor from being cooked on the bone.

When I tell you Indian spice bread pudding is a big dessert hit, you'll hopefully realize the rules are kind of off here.

- The great thing is you don't have to be afraid about going to an ethnic restaurant not knowing what to do, because his staff is trained.

They come, they know the menu.

They'll stand at the table for 10 minutes and explain.

And that makes me very comfortable when I come here.

- [Bob] General Manager Brooks Ruvolis and his excellent staff know this menu backwards and forwards and will make it a cinch to order and enjoy the incredible food fusions.

I strongly urge you to give Oh' Calcutta a try, quickly.

- Oh' Calcutta is at 310A West 4th Street in Winston-Salem, and they're open for dinner every day except Mondays.

For reservations and more information, give them a call at 336-999-8855, or go online to ohcalcuttaws.com.