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Showing posts from May, 2018

The Blue sky of every Bengal Monsoon - Ilish Pulao

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Ilish - The Wonder Fish Your ties actually strengthen much, when that lovable pleasure comes along only once, in a long while. A Bengali's love for fish has stood this foolish test of time and a whole lot of judgemental eyes. We have learned to wait patiently for that perfect time of the year if our kind Mother Nature has promised to gift us the best, it has in store, to enjoy. So, come monsoon and what a true Bong can only fantasize about is Ilish ( the beautiful, Hilsa ) . The silver lining to all their traffic jams and waterlogging worries. Ilish is special. It has an aura of its own and doesn't stand any competition among its peers with respect to its grandeur flavour. Ilish is one of those weekly expensive items in their baazarer jhola ( bag ) which a Modhyobityo ( middle - class ) Bangali never says no to. Its loaded with hundreds of minute bones but still has the ability to unite the Bangals and the Ghotis of Bengal with their Bangladeshi coun

EGGS!!! Would you like it this way?

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Turkish eggs !! Overloaded happiness I didn't quite like the fact of being the youngest sister in the latest generation from my maternal side. You never get to participate in any of the cousin bonding sessions when a dozen of your big brothers dominate on the carrom board, play a game of cricket happily neglecting their younger counterparts or experimenting with their first puff in early adolescence. It was only when they wanted some messages to be transmitted to the parent community I , the youngest, would be summoned. So, I completely adored ( still do, of course ) my little sister ( coincidentally, with whom I share my birth date too ), my Pishi's ( baba's sister ) daughter. She used to spend majority of her summer vacations as a child at our place, her mamabari ( her mom's paternal home) and we had some real fun playing around. I remember Dadu ( our common grandfather ) being blindly in love with his youngest grand-daughter would usually let her win

Doi Maach - A lighter Fish Curry with cute little potatoes

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Fish . We are that part of the society who are true to its name of Maache - Bhaate Bangali . And do not even get me started about the varieties available in this country. Be it fresh water or saline, we might not get to repeat a particular fish, if we decide to have different kinds on each day, for a month !! We find opportunities to serve fish on every occasion of our lives, starting with annaprashan ( the first rice eating ceremony after birth ) till the Matsya - mukhi ( the day symbolised for eating fish after a period of mourning the death of a dear one ). And seriously, why not? If we have our fertile rivers and ponds to provide us with the protein rich perfect food and given a Bengali can find a million intellectual ways to spice that up in form and texture ( read : fish fry, fish chop, fish kabiraji, fish cutlet, baked fish, grilled fish, tandoori fish apart from the usual, fish parts in otherwise vegetable dishes or simple maacher jhol which itself can be made in