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A blink-and-you-miss signboard directs you to Eau Chew, nestled in an old Central Kolkata building, above a redundant petrol pump on Ganesh Chandra Avenue. Run by the Huang family (for four generations now), the restaurant was started in the early 1920s as an eating house for Chinese immigrant workers in the city (it is, reportedly, the oldest surviving Chinese family-owned restaurant in the country). Almost a century later, Eau Chew has its reputation intact. The unassuming interiors hardly prepare you for the food, essentially family recipes handed down through generations, the Huangs cook in their kitchen. The dishes are light and fresh, cooked in little oil and subtly flavoured – a far cry from the typical soy and chilli sauce-smothered Tangra-style Chinese. But Eau Chew’s greatest accomplishment is perhaps the chimney Soup (it goes by the name of hot pot in fancy up market restaurants nowadays) – a giant bowl, fitted with a chimney filled with hot coals, of flavourful broth loaded with meat, fish and vegetables, simmering away at your table. Another must try dish is the roast chilli pork, one of the best in town.