“For sheer inventiveness with milk as the primary ingredient, no country on earth can match India.”- Harold McGee Very true to McGee’s reflections, any Bengali ceremony is incomplete without payesh. From offerings to Gods and goddesses to birthday parties and even a baby’s first rice eating ceremony, payesh has
Sheherwali cuisine, the Royal Food Of Bengal As I gorged on an exquisite and lesser-known meal of mamra khajoor, resham patti chillies, sharbati dana wheat mixed with a dash of panch phoron spices and cashew nut paste, at a well-known five-star restaurant of Kolkata, I wondered where did
The true flavours of Kolkata are not to be found in the rich, commercial biryani handis or the mass produced momos. Neither will you be able to savour them at a fancy 'Bangali' restaurant that claims to have unearthed grandma's secret recipe. It is likely
Famous playback singer Manna Dey might have sung Coffee House er Shei Adda reminiscing the storm raised over tea cups in College Street’s Coffee House. But, in real-life whenever he came down to the city, he made it a point to enjoy the blissfully cool kesar malai sherbat of
College Street is a 900-meter-long, busy street in Central Kolkata that derives its name from the presence of numerous colleges and universities that line this stretch. Originating from Bidhan Sarani up to Bowbazar (before Nirmal Chandra Street) via MG Road crossing and Surya Sen Street
“My problem isn’t that I have a sweet tooth. It’s that I have several of them.” And as everyone knows, that’s the problem with a majority of Bengalis. Bengalis absolutely love sweets, so much so that sweetmeats like ‘sandesh’, ‘mishti doi’ etc remain an integral
My ancestors are from Barishal, Bangladesh, and we shifted to Kolkata in the ’40s. My grandfather and grandmother started to live in Hooghly district. They had a family of four sons and three daughters. They all grew up in a South Kolkata locality. When I
The foggy days are already in as monsoon clouds play peek-a-boo with a clear autumn sky. Around October in rural Bengal starts the season of preparation for winter delicacies. With the frost setting in and the new paddy ripening in late October-November, North Bengal comes
Winter is here and so is the fragrance and flavor of the first khejur jaggery that goes into the new paddy harvested and turns into Pithe. Chilly winters in Bengal is all about enjoying the special dessert called Pithe. Considering the busy schedules of most working women today, the making
Khichuri has always been the reigning queen of Bengali kitchens. There is an interesting anecdote in the ‘Manasamangal Kavya’, the oldest of the Mangal-Kāvyas where Goddess Durga orders her husband, Lord Shiva’s personal attendant, Nandi to fetch green coconuts because the ‘Lord’ has desired to