I remember once when Baba had brought home some 10 kilos of peas from a village because the farmer sold them at Rs.2 a kilo! The driver had dragged a gunny bag behind him. Ma had made Baba and me sit through the entire Sunday and pop peas, much to my charging! When Didi and…
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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…
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Continue ReadingIn 7th century the Chinese traveler Xuanzang described Chittagong as “A sleeping beauty rising from mist and water” – since I heard that I want to go and visit Chittagong. And yes, it is famous for pink pearls. And then, there is the Mezban tradition. The word Mezbaan comes from Persian, in which it means…
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Continue Reading“Shesh paate chete-pute chaatni” is what my mother would say to us. It means “finger licking chutney at the end of the meal”! In Bengali households, chutneys are a must when special meals are served. The chutney is usually not had with the meal but it is a separate course towards the end, after the rice…
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Continue ReadingBeyond all religious and cultural significance, festivals and food are personal diaries for most of us. We script our memories, likes and dislikes in them and revisit the well-thumbed pages year after year, while adding new pages to them. While growing up in Assam, we had no clue about any religious ritual that might…
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Continue ReadingI bought this seasons’ first radishes with their tender greens, with mulo shak pithali in mind. Mulo shak pithali is an heirloom recipe of tender radish greens cooked with ground red lentils (musoor/masoor dal). It is a very seasonal dish and tastes best when made with the season’s first radish greens. It is a Dhakaiya…
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Continue ReadingOff late I am realising that most food or recipes that make me nostalgic or I think of as comfort food are the one that as a child were forced down my throat by my mother or other enterprising members of the family. It wasn’t as if I disliked the taste of most of these…
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Continue ReadingThis recipe is from Renuka Debi Choudhurani’s cookbook – Rokomari Aamish Ranna. It is a treasure to have in any kitchen that loves Bengali cooking and food. It uniquely combines Hilsa and chana daal. It is beautiful to look at, it is rich, fragrant and one of the best Hilsa recipes I have tried. For me…
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Continue ReadingOne of the many ironies of life is that the best, the most complex is often born out of tough constraints and frugality. This is also true for Bengali vegetarian food, most of which came from the highly restricted and frugal kitchens of the widows. Left with so little to do personally and socially, it…
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Continue ReadingI choose to start with a disclaimer that this is not a commentary on the appropriateness of animal sacrifice. This debate scares me, because of the tendency of forming arguments based on half baked understanding of genesis of religious beliefs. Animal sacrifice (‘Bali’) is made in a lot of Hindu shrines, specially dedicated to Shakti…