While cooking a meal, most women and some men, think about what to prepare for the next meal of the day. The kitchen is the hub of all intrigues and strategies – is it going to be a ‘kasha mangsho and Basanti pulao’ jugalbandi for lunch or a satvik ‘niramish’ platter with ‘Shukto’ after the gastronomic excesses of the Durga Puja? Bangalis has a heavy cross to bear with such important decisions to make almost immediately after waking up. Social media adds its own ‘tarka’ by way of reels and influencers insinuating that if you do not partake of the Basque cheesecake or the Kothey Momos this season then you are not being able to keep up with the Joneses, my friend. Food has become the currency of snobbery and status in today’s world. One cannot but look down upon people who do not know the distinction between cappuccino, espresso, Americano, Affogato, and Macchiato.
In food parlance, nothing succeeds like excess! Once found only within the confines of household kitchens or the magical domains of celebrated chefs of fine dining restaurants, food has spilled over even to the cloud! Cafes have proliferated in Kolkata along with food trucks, Dine-ins, cloud kitchens, kiosks, hole-in-the-wall roadside eateries, and the evergreen Dacres Lane ‘Chitto Da’r dokan’. The variety of cuisines available in the city today is mindboggling. The old favorites – Chinese, Continental, Thai, and Mughlai are jostling to be in the fray and being given a run for their money by Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Moroccan, and Romanian cuisines, to name a few. Never before have people been so spoilt for choice while embarking upon their culinary adventures! Shrewd food businesses have discovered that the most certain way to the Bangali heart is definitely through the stomach and curiosity did not kill the Bangali cat, erm, palate. The more the merrier in terms of variety seems to be the mantra.
While the Bangali palate expands its horizons of taste, the household kitchen fires have somewhat dimmed. The time crunch faced by working professionals has led to many of the amazing recipes that were once de rigour in every Bangali kitchen to languish. The present generation may or may not have tasted the heavenly ‘Chalkumro’r shukto’, ‘Kharchol pata bata’, or home-made ‘Chitol maacher muitha’ to name a few of the forgotten gems! The palate has tasted variety, but it is fast losing out on food that was once comfort for the soul, no less. The well-crafted Dhakai porota, the street-food superstar of yesteryears with its ‘Vera of the seven veils’ mysterious layers which was the go-to evening snack not so long ago, is only barely to be found in few stalls in Bidhan Sarani in North Kolkata which also boasts of the ‘mutton pantherus’ of Baruas, ‘maacher kochuri’ at Neelachal. ‘Magur maacher hingi’ was a superb creation of catfish in asafoetida tempered curry that my grandmother fed us after we had started exhibiting the aftereffects of having gorged upon her delectable goodies. An astute lady, she knew how to convert the least likable fish into a delicacy of sorts. When she was widowed, a Pandora’s box of niramish delicacies was opened up for us and nary a complaint could be heard.
Bangalis, like Shakespeare, have drawn inspiration from everywhere and made a unique creation out of it, quite different from the original. Take the case of the Kolkata ‘Phuchka’, not puchka as the rest of the country crows about. Historically, known to have originated from Pataliputra (Patna, of the modern times) it received its venerated spot in Kolkata. Phuchka is not food, it is an emotion, as is the Biryani with the aloo! Wajed Ali Shah, we are forever grateful to you. Heretics are those who decry the presence of the potato in biryani! We love the Portuguese for introducing the ubiquitous potato to the ‘Bangali’‘henshel’/kitchen.
Food has been ascribed to various functions in our lives. There is no greater bonding than bonding over food. Breaking bread breaks down barriers set up by caste, creed, religion, geopolitics. Let us therefore cook up a storm and bear its aftermath with utmost glee!
Ruma Chakraborty
Ruma Chakraborty is a senior English faculty in a premier institution in Kolkata. Teaching is both a profession and a vocation for Ms. Chakraborty. It is but one of the hats donned by her. A painter, a budding poet and compulsive storyteller, currently she is in the process of writing a compendium of short stories and poems.
An alumna of Loreto School, St. Xavier’s College and Calcutta University, an intrepid traveller; a typical ‘Bangali’ in matters of food; an example of the argumentative Indian; an inquisitive learner to boot—she is a quintessential Renaissance woman.
