There is a concept in Baishnab families in Bengal – it is the narkeler ‘gangajali’ mishti. It can either be a naru or a sandesh or a chhapa sandesh. The word gangajali eludes to two things – pristine white and dissolves in mouth like water. It is said that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a great…
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Continue ReadingLast week my maître d’home, Rekhadi, landed with a huge bunch of sojne shaak that was given to her by her neighbour, to be passed on to us. In the passing, Rekhadi mentioned that her neighbour, Habila, a Bengali Muslim from Malda in West Bengal makes a sojne shaak chhana. A lot of us urban…
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Continue Reading‘Aashine randhe, kartike khay Je bor mange, shey bor paey’ The above limerick translates into, ‘One who cooks in the month of Aashin and eats it in the month of Kartik is blessed with all the boons she asks for…’ When Ma all of a sudden mentioned that today is aat anaaj, it brought back…
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Continue ReadingPatishapta is a story to pass on to coming generations, lot of memories to hold on to and a personal experience for me. Such was my father’s love for this deceptively simple looking dessert that I often suspect that if there is anything in this world that my mother felt jealous of, it must have…
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Continue ReadingMa would make kosha mangsho once in a while. Especially in the winters or when she got bored of having chicken every weekend. We were pretty much a minimal red meat, less salt, less oil household, owing to Baba’s cardiac problems. And I loved chicken so much that Ma blamed it on the fact that…
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Continue ReadingA Bengalis love for sweet is legendary, and why shouldn’t it be so. After all, the 5th century physician Charaka argued that the word ‘gur’ for jaggery in many Indian languages comes from the word ‘Gaud’, the ancient name of Bengal. That says a thing or two about the antiquity of Bengal’s love for gur.…
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Continue ReadingA day that almost sneaks past in the shadows of Naba Barsha is Chaitra Sankranti, the last day of the Bengali calendar and infinitely more interesting in symbolism than today’s gluttony-infected celebrations of Naba Barsha. Since childhood, Chaitra Sankranti was personal and comforting. It is the last day of Chaitra, the last month of…
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Continue ReadingIt would be an understatement to say that I was a finicky eater as a child! Given a choice I would not eat or take two hours to finish a meal. I was infamous. One of those children who were allotted the corner seat in sit-down wedding feasts, so that batch after batch could finish their…