The Fish and Meat Balls that you write about are very much alive and cooking. The person making them and is famous for them is dad and he still doe sit the old fashioned way; like all those years ago. Eau Chew is still vey very famous for their soup. If ever in Calutta you should take a walk down memory lane and go visit Eau Chew and have a bowl of soup. Do remember to pre order the Fish Balls as they are now a special item and is not on our al carte menu.

Please post here if you do visit EAU CHEW………..HAPPY EATING!!!!!!!!!!

Yes you can still get in touch with the Eau Chew Clam – Now run by Joseph and Josephine Huang and their son Joel Huang – who is the 4th generation of the original Huang family who started Eau Chew.

The address is now 12 Ganesh Chandra Avenue and the phone no. is +91-33-22378260.

Do seek out Joel or his parents and mention this site – you will still be able to find the personal touch in service.!

if you are interested in contacting the Eau chew family, one glimpse of hope is refer to #2 on this post, that person is one of the family members.

As for the restaurant itself it was mentioned in the Ny times article
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/travel/03calcutta.html

I heard of Mr Eu Chew the Grandpa migrating to Canada on my 1995 visit. Would love to catch up with the Eu Chew clan as I occassionally go to YYZ. Could any one help ?
M P Deva

You see, I was a student there from Malaysia in Calcutta in the early 1960’s and my friends from Malaysia used to go to Eau Chew Restaurant for Chinese food usually for dinner. It was very often we patronize Eau Chew whenever we were sick of eating Bengali food.

Being a Chinese myself, albeit from Malaysia, I missed Chinese food when I was there although I love south Indian curries very much, but not northern Indian curries. Luckily Kolkata (Calcutta as it was called then) had a sizeable Chinese population mainly in the leather industry, around Tangra, and I was quite comfortable with the local Chinese there, making many Chinese friends there.

If I am not mistaken, Eau Chew was in a street, or near a street called Mission Row back then in the 1960s, which is now changed to Ganesh Chandra Avenue. In fact one Mr. James Wang whom I know when he was a little child has written a comment inside your guest book, and I was surprised to see his name there. He is now in the United States, married to a Taiwanese girl, and he is doing very well there as an engineer, a lawyer, a business and a politician combined. What a small world! I also knew his father Mr. Wang Yin Min, who was the Editor of a Chinese newspaper there. I know his very hospitable mother and we as students used to go to their house to enjoy her Hakka cooking. She and her children are all in the United States now, and off and on I do exchange e-mails with them.

I specially love Eau Chew prawn fried rice because the prawns served there were very big and plenty inside the fried rice. I always tell friends here about this. There were many other dishes we usually ordered and shared among ourselves, but I can’t really remember the dishes now as it is so long ago.

I have a good friend by the name of Prof Dr MP Deva also from Malaysia who also studied in Calcutta, and even today wherever we recall the good old days in Calcutta, we always mention Eau Chew. He is now a Senior Psychiatrist. In fact Prof Deva revisited Calcutta some years back, and brought back a menu from Eau Chew for me. But I do not know where I place it now. Maybe you should post your menu on your website with the prices on it, or e-mail me a copy for remembrance. I would love to look at the menu once again.

Maybe you should also e-mail me about your family history of running that restaurant, and the names and whereabouts are the children who were there. I would like to hear from you, and Chinese families living in Calcutta, but I understand many of them have migrated overseas – Canada, US, UK, and Australia for brighter future.

I love to go back to Calcutta for a revisit, and if I do, I certainly would visit Eau Chew once again to walk down memory lane, have a good meal there, and have a good chat with the owners and his family.

Has Calcutta changed a lot? It was a terribly dirty and inefficient city, from public transport to getting things done when I was there. Everyone there all seemed lazy, sleepy and indifferent. Most countries, even in Asia have gone by leaps and bounce, and are now very clean and neat with very modern cities, but with Calcutta I am not sure even now, half a century later? I hope things have changed for the better with India now rising up economically.

Regards

Lim Ju Boo
Malaysia