Friday, June 18, 2004
The Subtle Art of Bengali Cuisine
This started as a conversation with a friend of mine:
Pizza, I'm sure many of you would agree, is absolutely NO comparison to good continental food. It's really an art, turning out good continental food, I mean. Much like understated, subtle Bong food. I mean not just anyone can get a shukto right or a simple kancha muger daal, illish machher morich jhol or a mochar ghonto (with or w/o chhingri machh), you know what I mean...it's just not about dousing everything with spices and drowning it in oil! Everything has to be just right...even for a chhechki or lau-khoshar torkari. The exact spices & the exact timing. Even the shape of the vegetables. Have you ever pondered about all the different shapes of alus that go into different dishes? Machher jhols, mangsher jhol, bati chochchori, dimer dalna, potoler dalna, alur dom, jhur-jhure alu bhaja...think about it...
In Abhi's words, this exactitude of spices & timing is something so fondly christened by our mom's and grandmom's as 'aandaj'!
I got so inspired by this that I went and cooked some good 'ol mangsher jhol with you-know-howly-shaped alus yesterday! Oh heaven! Even if I say so myself. Mangsher jhol and bhaat on a carefree Sunday afternoon...that's what childhood memories are made of. Fragrant cooking, papa in a white kurta/pyjama, opening out all the windows and playing 70's melodies on a LP record-player...Manna Dey...Hemanta...Anand...Julie...Bobby...and crabs! Papa used to get crabs on Sundays & Ma'd cook them into something wicked!
Pizza, I'm sure many of you would agree, is absolutely NO comparison to good continental food. It's really an art, turning out good continental food, I mean. Much like understated, subtle Bong food. I mean not just anyone can get a shukto right or a simple kancha muger daal, illish machher morich jhol or a mochar ghonto (with or w/o chhingri machh), you know what I mean...it's just not about dousing everything with spices and drowning it in oil! Everything has to be just right...even for a chhechki or lau-khoshar torkari. The exact spices & the exact timing. Even the shape of the vegetables. Have you ever pondered about all the different shapes of alus that go into different dishes? Machher jhols, mangsher jhol, bati chochchori, dimer dalna, potoler dalna, alur dom, jhur-jhure alu bhaja...think about it...
In Abhi's words, this exactitude of spices & timing is something so fondly christened by our mom's and grandmom's as 'aandaj'!
I got so inspired by this that I went and cooked some good 'ol mangsher jhol with you-know-howly-shaped alus yesterday! Oh heaven! Even if I say so myself. Mangsher jhol and bhaat on a carefree Sunday afternoon...that's what childhood memories are made of. Fragrant cooking, papa in a white kurta/pyjama, opening out all the windows and playing 70's melodies on a LP record-player...Manna Dey...Hemanta...Anand...Julie...Bobby...and crabs! Papa used to get crabs on Sundays & Ma'd cook them into something wicked!
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