Bengali cuisine ( bn, বাঙ্গালী রন্ধনপ্রণালী) is the culinary style of
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
, a region in the eastern part of the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...
encompassing
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...
and the
Indian states of
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
,
Tripura
Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the ea ...
,
Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...
and
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
's
Barak Valley. The cuisine has been shaped by the region's diverse
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
and climate. It is known for its varied use of flavours, as well as the spread of its confectioneries and desserts. Bengali cuisine has the only traditionally developed
multi-course custom in the
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...
that is analogous in structure to the modern ''
service à la russe'' style of
French cuisine
French cuisine () is the cooking traditions and practices from France. It has been influenced over the centuries by the many surrounding cultures of Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, in addition to the food traditions of the re ...
, with food served in
courses
Course may refer to:
Directions or navigation
* Course (navigation), the path of travel
* Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
rather than all at once. There is a strong emphasis on rice as a staple, served with fish, meat, vegetables, and lentils. Many Bengali food traditions draw from social activities, such as
adda, or the ''
Mezban''.
Culinary influences
Mughal influence
Muslims conquered Bengal around the mid-thirteenth century, bringing with them
Persian and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
cuisine. Such dishes as ''
biryani'', ''korma'' and ''bhuna'' had once been meals of the higher courts, but the cooks of the Mughals brought their recipes to the lower and middle classes.
The influence was reinforced during the rule of the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was him ...
, where Kolkata became the place of refuge for many prominent exiled
Nawab
Nawab ( Balochi: نواب; ar, نواب;
bn, নবাব/নওয়াব;
hi, नवाब;
Punjabi : ਨਵਾਬ;
Persian,
Punjabi ,
Sindhi,
Urdu: ), also spelled Nawaab, Navaab, Navab, Nowab, Nabob, Nawaabshah, Nawabshah or Nobab, ...
s, notably the family of
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He i ...
from
Mysore
Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude o ...
and
Wajid Ali Shah, the ousted
Nawab of Awadh
The Nawab of Awadh or the Nawab of Oudh was the title of the rulers who governed the state of Awadh (anglicised as Oudh) in north India during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Nawabs of Awadh belonged to a dynasty of Persian origin from Nish ...
. The exiles brought with them hundreds of cooks and ''masalchis'' (spice mixers), and as their royal patronage and wealth diminished, they became interspersed into the local population. These cooks came with the knowledge of a very wide range of spices (most notably ''
jafran'' and
mace), the extensive use of ''
ghee
Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from India. It is commonly used in India for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for religious rituals.
Description
Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from ...
'', and marinating meat with yoghurt and chilli.
In
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...
, this food has become common fare for the population while in West Bengal, they have remained the food of professional chefs. Further innovations include ''chap'' (ribs slow cooked on a
tawa), ''rezala'' (meat in a thin yogurt and cardamom gravy) and ''kathi'' roll (kebabs in a wrap).
The Mughals had a particular fixation on meat, bringing
mutton and
beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus'').
In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...
into mainstream Bengali cuisine as well as already known kinds of meat like chicken and venison.
Furthermore, traditional desserts had been primarily based on
rice pastes and
jaggery
Jaggery is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Africa. It is a concentrated product of cane juice and often date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and ...
, but under Mughal influence moved towards significantly increased use of milk, cream, and sugar along with expensive spices such as cardamom and saffron.
Influence of widows
In Hindu patriarchal tradition, widows were not allowed to eat foods that would not be classified as "bitter", necessitating experiment and innovation. While most Bengali
caste
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultur ...
s ate meat and fish, this was barred for widows. Widows also could not use "heating" foods such as
shallot and
garlic
Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus '' Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Welsh onion and Chinese onion. It is native to South Asia, Central Asia and northeas ...
, but
ginger
Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of ...
was allowed. This style found a core place in Bengali curries in general, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. Expensive spices such as
saffron
Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma (botany), stigma and stigma (botany)#style, styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly ...
,
cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus '' Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakf ...
or
clove
Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands (or Moluccas) in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring or fragrance in consumer products, ...
s were used very sparingly—if at all. Nuts, dry fruits, milk and milk products (such as
cream
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...
,
ghee
Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from India. It is commonly used in India for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for religious rituals.
Description
Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from ...
or
curd
Curd is obtained by coagulating milk in a sequential process called curdling. It can be a final dairy product or the first stage in cheesemaking. The coagulation can be caused by adding rennet or any edible acidic substance such as l ...
) were similarly scarce. These economic and social restrictions influenced Bengali widows to create a brand new set of meals that utilized only vegetables and cheap spices.
Partition of Bengal
The large-scale displacement along religious lines as a result of the
partition led to changes in meal-taking, as to adhere to religious restrictions. In
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...
(former
East Bengal
ur,
, common_name = East Bengal
, status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan
, p1 = Bengal Presidency
, flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg
, s1 = Ea ...
and
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Myanmar, wit ...
),
Mughlai food is common, and includes foods that are less popular in West Bengal, such as beef
kebab
Kebab (, ; ar, كباب, link=no, Latn, ar, kabāb, ; tr, kebap, link=no, ) or kabob (North American) is a type of cooked meat dish that originates from cuisines of the Middle East. Many variants of the category are popular around the wor ...
. Additionally, sweets such as
zarda and firni-payesh are eaten. In rural Bangladesh, many people eat
makna
MAKNA (Majlis Kanser Nasional) or National Cancer Council Malaysia is a is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to reducing the pain, suffering and morbidity that cancer patients often experience. The organization provides curative care, pr ...
fried, popped, or raw.
In
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
, the only restriction is beef, which applies only to Hindus.
During the colonial period, many Western food shops were established in Kolkata, making puff pastries, channa, chocolate, and chips especially popular. Dishes such as chop, gravy cutlet, sponge
rasogolla, and
ledikeni.
As a result of a multi-cultural community, Kolkata city's cuisine continuously changes, and takes heavy influence from Chinese and Marwari palates.
Characteristics
Bengali cuisine can be subdivided into four different types of dishes, ''charbya'' (), or food that is chewed, such as rice or fish; ''choṣya'' (), or food that is sucked, such as ambal and tak; ''lehya'' (), or foods that are meant to be licked, like
chutney
A chutney is a spread in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion or mint dipping sauce ...
; and ''peya'' (), which includes drinks, mainly milk.
Regional specialties
Different parts of Bengal are famed for certain dishes, food items and ingredients. For example,
South Bengali districts around the
Sundarbans boast of the expensive ''
chui jhal'' chilli, which they peel and chop into small pieces to be cooked in their dishes and give off a strong aroma. On the other hand,
North Bengal
North Bengal ( bn, উত্তরবঙ্গ/উত্তর বাংলা) is a term used for the north-western part of Bangladesh and northern part of West Bengal. The Bangladesh part denotes the Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. G ...
are the homes of many Bengali desserts such as the
Mishti doi
Mishti doi ( bn, মিষ্টি দই) or Mitha Dahi ( or, ମିଠା ଦହି) is a fermented sweet dahi (yogurt) originating from the Bogra District in Bangladesh and is a very popular dessert throughout the country. It is also consum ...
of
Bogra, the Kachagolla of
Natore and the
Chomchom
Cham cham, Chomchom or chum chum ( bn, চমচম) is a traditional Bengali sweet, popular throughout the Indian subcontinent. The sweet comes in a variety of colors, mainly light pink, light yellow, and white. It is coated with coconut or ...
of
Porabari
Porabari Union ( bn, পোড়াবাড়ী ইউনিয়ন) is a union of Tangail Sadar Upazila, Tangail District, Bangladesh. It is situated southwest of Tangail city. It is the place of origin for the chomchom, a sweetmeat eaten ...
. However, other regions also have famous desserts like the ''Balish Mishti'' (pillow-sweet) of
Netrokona, the
Monda
Monda is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is located near Sierra Blanca and Sierra de las Nieves in the comarca of Sierra de las Nieves. The municipality is ...
of
Muktagachha, the
Red Yoghurt of
Nabadwip and the famed
Roshmolai of
Comilla.
Chittagong
Chittagonian culinary tradition is mostly known for
Mezban and mixed rice dishes like
kala bhuna
Kala Bhuna or Kala Vuna ( bn, কালা ভুনা, ctg, হালা ভুনো, Hala Bhuno) is a famous dark and tender dish native to Chittagong prepared with shoulder pieces of beef and traditional spices; usually served during Mezba ...
, which has shoulder pieces of beef and traditional spices.
Dried fish (''shutki'') is more available in the Chittagong region than in other parts of Bengal.
Mezban
''Mezban'' (locally known as ''Mejjan'') is the Bengali word for special occasion feasts in the
Chittagong
Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in ...
region of Bangladesh.
Historically Mezbani is a traditional regional feast where people are invited to enjoy a meal with
white rice and
beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus'').
In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...
, besides other dishes rich in animal fat and dairy.
It is held on the occasions such as death anniversary, birth anniversary, celebrating successes, launching of a new business, entry into a new house, the birth of a child, marriage,
aqiqah and
circumcision
Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. Top ...
,
ear piercing of girls and naming of the newborn.
The invitation of the Mezban ceremony generally remains open for all and various people to different places and neighbourhoods convey the invitation for the feast.In urban areas, attending a mezban is by invitation only. Usually, the consumption of food at Mezbani takes place from morning to afternoon.
Beef-based dishes are preferred by Bengali Muslims and are a symbol of social prestige for a Mezban feast.
The rich and the poor arrange feasts on various occasions as much as circumstances allow them. It has a distinct style of cooking and proper Mezban meat demands a certain skill;
for example:
The unique beef curry served in this feast is known as ''Mezbani gosht'', that carries a distinctive recipe, knowledge of which is essentially confined within the Chittagonian cooks.
Fish is used instead of beef while cooking Mezban in Hindu tradition. The Hindu community of Chittagong organises Mezbani each year under the banner of "Chittagong Parishad", with curries made from fish, vegetable and dried fish.
Dhaka
Dhakaiya food is one of the most notable regional cuisines. The rich culinary customs are influenced by
Mughlai,
Central Asian
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the form ...
,
Armenian,
Hindustani and native Bengali cuisines. However, it also has dishes unique to Dhaka.
The
Nawabs of Dhaka had brought Mughlai cuisine to Bengal, that were wholly retained by Dhaka's culinary community. Due to the high costs of producing Mughlai food, the recipes were limited to the elite classes in colonial India, and slowly expanded as Bangladesh's economy grew. The main focus on lamb, mutton, beef, yoghurt, and mild spices define the taste of the style. Such dishes as kebab; stuffed breads; ''kacchi biriyani''; roast lamb, duck, and chicken; ''patisapta''; Kashmiri tea; and ''korma'' are still served at special occasions like
Eid
Eid as a name may refer to:
Islamic holidays
An Eid is a Muslim religious festival:
* ''Eid Milad un Nabi'', alternate name for Mawlid (, "Birth of the Prophet"), the date of observance of the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
* Eid al-F ...
and weddings.
Due to the high class of the food, using an excess amount of expensive ingredients like ghee, and making the food melt in one's mouth were essential to the feel of the food.
Old Dhaka boasts a variation of the famous
pilaf
Pilaf ( US spelling) or pilau ( UK spelling) is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some techn ...
- the Morog Polao - in which the rice is cooked after and the chicken pieces are cut. Other include and . Dhakaiyas are noted for introducing
paneer and boiled eggs to
khichuri.
[ Dhakai bakarkhani is a thick, biscuit-like flat-bread which is a traditional street-food snack, famed for its quality and taste. It is mainly dished up with tea. Dhakaiyas proudly hold a heritage of creating the best '' khili paan'' using various herbs and spices. They also offer a khili paan for diabetic patients called the "paan afsana". ]Haji biryani
Haji biryani (also known as Hajir biryani) is one of the oldest restaurants in the heart of Old Dhaka, Bangladesh, selling Goat's meat, chevon biryani (dish made with highly seasoned rice and goat's meat). The restaurant also sells borhani (a salt ...
is a dish, invented by a restaurateur in 1939, made with highly seasoned rice, goat's meat and number of spices and nuts. The restaurant has become an integral part of Dhakaiya culture.
Kolkata
In Kolkata, many local street vendors own small shops from which they sell their own homemade goods. Items like cheeses (''paneer'') can be eaten as is, or can be made into sweet '' sandesh'', ''rosogolla
Rasgulla, also known as rasagola, rosogola or rosogolla, is a syrupy dessert popular in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent. It is made from ball-shaped dumplings of chhena and semolina dough, cooked in light sugar syrup made of suga ...
'', or ''chanar payesh''. Milk is especially used in Kolkata's various types of payesh, differing in use of different grains and additives like dates, figs, and berries. In addition to European foodstuffs like chocolate, Kolkata takes culinary influence from its Chinese diaspora. ''Phuchka'', also copied by the rest of India as ''panipuri'', is a common kind of Bengali street food made with a fried dough casing and a potato and chickpea filling, usually found in small stalls alongside bhelpuri, masala chai
Masala chai (, ; Urdu: مصالحہ چائے, Hindi: मसाला चाय) is an Indian tea beverage made by boiling black tea in milk and water with a mixture of aromatic herbs and spices. Originating in India the beverage has gained worl ...
, ghugni and chaat stalls.
Influences
During the 19th century many Odia cooks migrated to Bengal to work in the households of affluent Kolkata families. They were also hired to cook in weddings and other family ceremonies. Introduction of Odia
Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to:
* Odia people in Odisha, India
* Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family
* Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
cooks into their kitchens brought in subtle but significant changes to Kolkata's cuisine. Many of Kolkata's classic dishes were originally from Odisha but were refined in Kolkata kitchens by Odia cooks. In fact some researchers say that dishes like '' kanika'' (Bengali ''mishti pulao'') were first introduced to Kolkata kitchens by Odia
Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to:
* Odia people in Odisha, India
* Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family
* Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
cooks although this is contested by other researchers. Even to this date most of the cooks in Kolkata kitchens and hotels are Odia cooks.
The Chinese of Kolkata originally settled into a village called Achipur south of Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
in the late 18th century, later moving into the city and finally into its present home in Tangra at the eastern edge of Kolkata. The Chinese-origin people of Kolkata form a substantial and successful community with a distinct identity. With this identity came Chinese food, available at almost every street corner in Kolkata at present, due to the taste, quick cooking procedure, and no similarity with the original Chinese recipe other than the use of soy sauce. They were mostly Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...
tradesmen and sailors who first settled down here and decided to cook with whatever items they had at hand.
Calcuttan immigrants to other countries have started carrying this abroad as well; Indian Chinese restaurants have appeared in many places in the United States and UK.
Indian Chinese food has been given a second boost in popularity since the 1950s when a large number of Tibetans migrated into Indian Territory, following the 14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...
's flight. Tibetans brought their own taste preferences to add to the genre, such as the popular momo (a kind of dumpling) or thukpa (a hearty noodle soup). Tibetans and Nepali immigrants found ready employment in the many kitchens that can now be found on virtually every street in Kolkata.
Adda
Adda ( bn, আড্ডা) is a traditional Bengali means of socialising over food during the work day. Food taken during adda consists usually of mishti or sweetmeats, tea, and coffee, although heartier meats such as fried fish may be brought out as well.
The adda saw a rise during the colonial era among the Bhadralok
Bhadralok (, literally 'gentleman', or 'well-mannered person') is Bengali for the new class of 'gentlefolk' who arose during British rule in India in the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent.
Caste and class makeup
Accord ...
guild members to meet and talk about a range of topics:"You could be discussing Charles and Camilla's marriage this moment, and the next moment you're swinging over to the latest cricket series between India and Pakistan, and then swing back to the recent controversy over Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
."
Being a hobby for artisans, women were largely secluded from adda, a sentiment that has begun to disappear with the democratization of adda and women occupying a larger space in social life. For this reason, adda was seen as a refuge "...from the home, a neutral rendezvous away from both the perceived drudgery of the workplace and domesticity".
In the post-colonial era, the adda has been fading due to the more rigid structure of work and exploitative perceptions of unnecessary laziness. This has inspired a sizeable movement of Bengalis who believe it integral to the idea of ''lyadh'', or doing nothing to relax and recharge. However, adda does still exist, being attended during vacation time or after work at clubs or coffee shops. The tradition even has an equivalent to the Greek symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...
, as students may meet for a study session over food or have a teacher teach in a more relaxed environment.
Sylhet
Sylhet
Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate ...
boasts a variation of the famous pilaf
Pilaf ( US spelling) or pilau ( UK spelling) is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some techn ...
dish – Akhni
Akhni ( bn, আখনী) is a mixed rice dish with its origins among the Bengali Muslims of Chittagong and Sylhet, in eastern Bangladesh. It is often considered to be a particular variation of biryani or polao. The dish is especially popul ...
– in which the rice is cooked after and the chicken pieces are cut. Commonly consumed varieties of meat include beef, chicken
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...
, Mutton and duck/goose in dishes such as Hash O Bash. They also proudly hold the heritage of Beef Hatkora, a rice dish consisting of a wild citrus fruit not found in other parts of Bengal.
During the British period, biscuits and loaves were introduced in Sylhet and received popularity within the Muslim community. The middle-class Hindus
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
of Cachar
Cachar district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. After independence the undivided Cachar district was split into four districts in Assam: Dima Hasao district (formerly North Cachar Hills), Cachar district alongside ...
and Sylhet however were very suspicious of biscuits and breads as they believed they were baked by Muslims. In one occasion, a few Hindus in Cachar caught some Englishman eating biscuits with tea which caused an uproar. The information reached the Hindus of Sylhet and a little rebellion occurred. In response to this, companies started to advertise their bread as "machine-made" and "untouched by (Muslim) hand" to tell Hindus that the breads were "safe for consumption". This incident is mentioned in Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal ( bn, বিপিন চন্দ্র পাল ; 7 November 1858 – 20 May 1932) was an Indian nationalist, writer, orator, social reformer and Indian independence movement freedom fighter. He was one third of the “L ...
's autobiography and he mentions how gradually culinary habits of Hindus eventually changed.
File:Kichuri 2.jpg, A softer style of khichuri is consumed in Sylhet
Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate ...
.
File:7 color tea, Sylhet .jpg, Srimangal is famous for the Seven Color Tea
File:ꠟꠔꠣꠞ ꠢꠥꠐꠇꠤ ꠡꠤꠞꠣ.jpg, ''Lotar Shutki Shira'' (fermented fish curry)
File:Chicken Tikka Masala KellySue.JPG, Chicken tikka masala was said to have been invented by a British-Bengali chef from Sylhet.
Utensils
Bengali food is often served on plates which have a distinct flowery pattern often in blue or pink. Another characteristic of Bengali food is the use the boti (also called ''dao'' or ''da''). It is a long curved blade on a platform held down by one or both feet; both hands are used to hold whatever is being cut and move it against the blade, which faces the user. This method gives effective control over the cutting process, and can be used to cut anything from prawns to large pumpkins.
A korai is a cooking vessel for most Bengali sauces and stir-fry. The dekchi (a flat-bottomed pan) is used generally for larger amounts of cooking or for making rice. It comes with a thin flat lid which is used also to strain out the starch while finishing up cooking rice. The tawa is used to make roti
Roti (also known as chapati) is a round flatbread native to the Indian subcontinent. It is popular in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Trin ...
and paratha. The other prominent cooking utensil is a hari, which is a round-bottomed pot-like vessel. The three mentioned vessels all come in various sizes and in various metals and alloys.
A flat metal spatula, khunti, is used often, along with hata (scoop with a long handle), jhanjri (round-shaped sieve-like spatula to deep-fry food), the shanrashi (pincers to remove vessels from the fire), the ghuntni (wooden hand blender) for puréeing dal, the wooden ''belun chaki'' (round pastry board and rolling pin), and the ''shil nora'', which is a rough form of a mortar and pestle or grinding stone. The kuruni is used only to grate coconuts.
Silverware is not a part of traditional Bengali cookery.
Etiquette
The typical Bengali fare includes a certain sequence of food—somewhat like the courses of Western dining. Two sequences are commonly followed, one for ceremonial dinners such as a wedding and the day-to-day sequence.
Historical
Bengalis usually eat sitting on the floor with food served on a dostorkhan. They historically ate without silverware, with a large banana or plantain leaf serving as the plate, or with plates made from dried sal
Sal, SAL, or S.A.L. may refer to:
Personal name
* Sal (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname
Places
* Sal, Cape Verde, an island and municipality
* Sal, Iran, a village in East Azerbaijan Province
* Ca ...
leaves sewn together.
It is customary to offer guests food and drink appropriate to the time of their visit. At meals, guests are served first, with the possible exception of very old or very young members of the host family. Within the family, serving starts with the senior males (those of highest social rank or eldest). School-age children are served before wives, daughter-in-laws, and the cook, who are the last to eat.
Contemporary
Prior to colonisation, adherence to meal order was a marker of social status, but with British and Portuguese influence and the growth of the middle class, this has slowly disappeared. Courses are frequently skipped or combined with everyday meals. Meals were usually served course by course to the diners by the youngest housewives, but increasing influence of nuclear families and urbanisation has replaced this. It is common to place everything on platters in the centre of the table, and each diner serves themselves. Ceremonial occasions such as weddings used to have elaborate serving rituals, but professional catering and buffet-style dining is now commonplace. However, large family occasions and more lavish ceremonial feasts may still abide by these rules.
Meals
Daily meals are usually simple, geared to balance nutrition and making extensive use of vegetables. The courses progress broadly from lighter to richer and heavier and go through various tastes and taste cleansers. Rice remains common throughout the meal and is the main constituent of the meal, until the ''chaţni'' (chutney
A chutney is a spread in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion or mint dipping sauce ...
) course.
Main course
Fish
Bengalis eat copious amounts of fish and typically look for freshwater and brackish fish when making meals. They also temper it with phoron. Popular fish curries include '' boal'', '' rohu'', '' ilish'', and '' pabda''.
One tradition includes the left side of the cidal fish being cooked in oil. Bengali Vaishnavas avoid all types of fish, eggs and meat.
Sweets
Bengali sweets have a long history. The Portuguese friar Sebastien Manrique, travelling in the region in the 17th century, noted the multitude of milk-based foods and sweets prepared in traditional ways. Falooda, shahi jilapi and shemai are popular sweet foods and desserts.
Roshogolla
Roshogolla, a Bengali traditional sweet, is one of the most widely consumed sweets in India. It spread to Bengal in 1868. Chhana based sweets were introduced in Eastern India from about the 18th century; as the process and technology involved in synthesizing "Chhana" was introduced to the Indians by the Dutch in the 1790s. The cottage cheese "schmierkase" was also known as Dutch cheese. The earlier versions of Rossogolla lacked binding capacity of the modern avatar that is well known and highly acclaimed today. This was due to the fact that the know-how involved in synthesizing such a sweet was unknown before being experimentally developed by Nobin Chandra Das and then constantly improved and further standardized by his successors. Furthermore, the "chhana" manufactured in those days was a coarse and granular variety and had low binding capacity. It was made by citric and ascorbic acid
Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) ...
from natural fruit extracts. This type of "chhana" cannot be worked on to compact into any regular and firm shape for the purpose of sweet-making, leave alone making Rossogolla. This is because of a documented technological issue – lactic acid
Lactic acid is an organic acid. It has a molecular formula . It is white in the solid state and it is miscible with water. When in the dissolved state, it forms a colorless solution. Production includes both artificial synthesis as well as nat ...
(extracted from whey
Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is a byproduct resulting from the manufacture of rennet types of har ...
) used to curdle milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulat ...
now was introduced to India in the late 18th century by Dutch and Portuguese colonists (along with acetic acid
Acetic acid , systematically named ethanoic acid , is an acidic, colourless liquid and organic compound with the chemical formula (also written as , , or ). Vinegar is at least 4% acetic acid by volume, making acetic acid the main componen ...
). It is this method that creates the fine, smooth modern "chhana" with high binding capacity – which is now the staple raw material for Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
confectioners. At present, Nobin Chandra Das is referred to have invented the spongy variant of rossogolla.
Darbesh
Laddu (or as it is known as "darbesh" in Bengal) is a very common sweet in West Bengal and Bangladesh, as well as the rest of the subcontinent, especially during celebrations and festivities. They are usually made out of flour, ghee
Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from India. It is commonly used in India for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for religious rituals.
Description
Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from ...
/butter/oil and sugar. Alternative recipes can be made of coconut shavings and jaggery
Jaggery is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Africa. It is a concentrated product of cane juice and often date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and ...
, raisins, chopped nuts, oatmeal, khoa
Khoa, khoya, khowa or mawa is a dairy food widely used in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent, encompassing India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It is made of either dried whole milk or milk thickened by heating in an open iron pan. It ...
, nutmeg
Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...
, cardamom, or poppy seeds, among other ingredients. The sweet dates back to the year 4 BCE, where it was used for medicinal purposes and to keep the hormones of 9-11-year-old girls' hormones "in check".
Pantua
''Pantua'' is similar to gulab jamun, and could be called a Bengali variant of that dish.
Other sweets
Several varieties of ''doi'' such as ''mishţi doi'', fruit-floured doi like ''aam doi'', custard
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fr ...
s, and rice pudding (''khir'' or ''firni'') are also popular in West Bengal.
''Shôndesh'', ''chhanar jilapi'', ''kalo jam'', ''raghobshai'', "pantua", "jolbhora shondesh", "roshbhora", "lord chomchom", ''payesh'', ''bundiya'', ''nalengurer shôndesh'', ''malpoa'', ''shor bhaja'', '' langcha'', '' babarsa'', and a variety of others are examples of sweets in Bengali cuisine.
Beverages
Common beverages include shorbot, lachhi, ghol, matha
A ''matha'' (; sa, मठ, ), also written as ''math'', ''muth'', ''mutth'', ''mutt'', or ''mut'', is a Sanskrit word that means 'institute or college', and it also refers to a monastery in Hinduism. , falooda and Rooh Afza. The two main types of Bengali tea are dudh cha (milk tea) and masala cha. Srimangal, the tea capital of Bengal, is famed for the Seven Color Tea whilst Dhaka is famed for the borhani. Traditional fruit juices (''rosh'') are also drunk such as sugarcane juice, mango juice, palm fruit juice, date juice as well as basil seed
Basil (, ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' , also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also kno ...
or tukma-based drinks.
Gallery
File:Bengali New Year Menu.jpg, Bengali New Year Menu
File:Bengali Non-vegetarian thali.jpg, Bengali Non-vegetarian meal
File:Bengali traditional food.jpg, A fancy arrangement of Bengali food
File:Bengali vegetarian thali.jpg, Bengali vegetarian meal
File:Prosad thali.jpg, Prosad thali
File:Bengali Fish Thali.jpg, Bengali Fish Thali
See also
*Bangladeshi cuisine
Bangladeshi cuisine ( bn, বাংলাদেশের রান্না) is the national cuisine of Bangladesh. Bangladeshi cuisine has been shaped by the diverse history and river-line geography of Bangladesh. The country has a tropical m ...
* List of Bangladeshi dishes
* List of Bangladeshi spices
* Chaunk
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bengali Cuisine
Indian cuisine by state or union territory
North Indian cuisine
Bangladeshi cuisine
South Asian cuisine