Rituals and Reverances – Hilsa in Bengali Household
Hilsa in Bengal is more of a culinary delight, it symbolises prosperity, festivity, and a cultural heritage.
Shutki or Dried Fish: An Age-old Technique of Preservation
‘Shutki Maach’ as we call the ‘dried fish’ is an acquired taste. You’d only have to look at the love people have for dried, smoked or fermented fish. Of course, many stories tell us that from the times of the Roman empire and even in Icelandic cultures, people were smart enough to figure out that fresh fish doesn’t last forever.
The Art of Chopping Vegetables in a Bengali Kitchen
Bengali cuisine is marked by certain typicality…first, there are no set masalas for preparing a particular dish, and second, vegetables have to be cut in a particular way for every dish, be it chochchori (a mixed vegetable preparation) or dalna (curry).
Celebrating Hilsa: Bengal’s Favourite Fish
The hilsa or ilish is the star of Bengali cuisine on both sides of the Indo-Bangladesh border. An elaborate festive spread is considered incomplete without the Ilish.
Mumma’s Bindis (I)
Momo entered middle school that Fall, but Dadu never came back from that trip to India. The scrapbook that he had started for Ujaan from newspaper and magazine cuttings lay incomplete.