Beginnings- 2

As a child, I remember our parents throwing dinners & get-togethers for friends, where along with one or two non-veg dishes, there were more than five or six vegetarian fares, all great to look at and delicious to taste. Chochodis, dallas, paanch mishali, chhechki, bhaja, tok, jhaal, paturi, kalia, jhol, and so on. And I don't remember anyone cribbing for lack of fish fry. 

But, I find it's different now.

Lately, I have noticed that the fondness for non vegetarian food among Bengalis has turned into a sort of crazy craving. To the extent, that even at the Pujo pandals where Maa Durga is being worshipped as the supreme Mother, chicken, mutton and fish bones lie scattered in a stinking pile. The smell of maacher chop, fish fries and mughlai parathas invade the serene pujo atmosphere. The fragrance of the flowers, camphor, the dhuno, the shanti’r jol, are all masked by the smell of the fish. Kind of disrupts the sanctity of the worship, if you ask me.

Then again, it is a sarbojonik place and people are free to eat what they want. Many non-Bengalis flock the place only to gorge on the maach maangsho and chicken. But even in the few Bengali restaurants hat have opened, the menu isn’t balanced. As a result, I find that more and more Bengalis are losing touch with a large chunk of their cuisine and delivering a lopsided view of our food to the rest of the world too.

An intriguing fact about Bengali cuisine is that everything can be turned into a non-vegetarian meal by just adding fish or meat along with the vegetables. So a curry can go either way. Also unlike many Indian vegetarian dishes, which are made adding onions & garlic, in a vegetarian Bong dish one can get the same taste, flavor, and consistency, without an overdose of onions. And there's an interesting history to this- in the past, widows weren’t allowed fish, meat, onions, garlic, masoor dal and pui shaak. So every vegetarian meal that contained onion and garlic had to have another version minus these ingredients. 

This Jamai Shoshti, I was discussing the typical Bong thali with my son-in-law who happens to be a vegetarian Punjabi (yes, we're sailing a similar boat). We all know how popular the Punjabi cuisine is the world over. And like most others, he too thought that Bengali food revolved around fish.  Over the years however, he has tasted and loved the typical vegetarian ghorwa ranna that I have cooked for him. Anyway, it was during this discussion that my daughter and son-in-law came up with the idea that I ought to start a blog about vegetarian Bengali food. So while I supply them with the recipes, nostalgia, factoids and other tidbits, the job of updating the blog shall rest entirely on their technical shoulders. 

And that's how I am here. :-) Let's see where the blog takes me. Do keep visiting. 

Cheers!

Beginning- 1

Hi, I'm Kay. I am a Bangali. A probashi. And like all others my kind, I quite like to be that way. We get to keep the best of both worlds; be the cosmopolitan citizen when required & as Durga Pujo approaches, turn into the nostalgic Bongo shontaan eagerly awaiting Maa Durga’s descent to the earth and yearning for the beautiful autumn or shorod ritu- the kaash phool bushes, the slight nip in the early morning and late evening air, the clear blue skies & pristine white clouds against it during the day, the deep nilaambari night with the sparkling stars in their full glory, the aagomoni tunes, the smell of fresh new clothes and finally of course, the food!

Bongs are big time foodies but we are known especially for our sweet tooth. The endless variety of channaar mishti (sweets made of casein), the creative shapes and the innovative styling sets us apart from the rest of India. Mishti rules every household and no meal of the day is complete without something to sweeten the mouth. Word of caution: never argue with a Bengali about the ABC of sweets.  

Of course, not just sweets, us Bongs are also known for being fanatic non-vegetarians. And this fame has spread so far and so wide that most non-Bengalis I meet nowadays assume that we must be miserable without a bite of fish with every meal. As a community, we’re known to love non-veg food. But I find the hype getting to be a little out of control today.

Not many people seem to know or care that we do have our fixed quota of greens. And surprisingly enough, there are vegetarian Bengalis such as myself and my family who are surviving just fine and healthy without the maach and maangsho.

I know that we have an array of delicious and nutritious vegetarian dishes to offer, which are quite unique in taste, preparation & presentation. Then why are we kind of branded the animal eaters? To some extent are we to be held responsible?