Star of the east
Bengalis have always been the most intrepid travellers. Their cuisine, however, stayed at home. Finally, Bengali food is stepping out.
By Reshmi R Dasgupta, TNN |
This is the time of year when the direction of the wind changes in the northern hemisphere, and the thoughts of Bengalis turn to the arrival of Goddess Durga for her annual sojourn.
This is also the time of year that Bengalis themselves plan holidays to discover their country — or the rest of the world, if finances and grannies permit. Little wonder then that Bengali food is the flavour of the autumn season.
One of the grouses that many a traveller to Bengal has — at any time of the year — is the absence of restaurants serving ‘local’ food. That, of course, underlines a basic facet of the Bengali ethos that any visitor to that state should know: Bengalis rarely want to eat their own type of food outside the confines of their own homes, not to mention their moms’ kitchens.
Chinese, Punjabi, heck, even kosher is kosher when the intrepid Bengali ventures forth. This is why Calcutta itself has always lacked restaurants serving Bengali food, not to speak of other Indian cities....
That Calcutta’s changeover to Kolkata has also seen the appearance of Bengali restaurants may not be a coincidence. Bengalis are still India’s most peripatetic people (along with the Gujaratis) but they no longer have the luxury of mom’s home cooking. So they seek that food outside the home too.
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That comes as a boon for all those who long for a taste of Bengal — in Bengal and elsewhere. Better still, travellers can also now reap the benefit too. Whereas once Bengali food was only available outside homes in grotty dhaba or tiffin room avatars, now spiffy restaurants serving haute Bengali cuisine have sprung up including Kewpie’s (a personal favourite) and 6 Ballygunge Place. And they have ventured outside Kolkata too, with even saadi Dilli boasting of Babumoshai, Shonar Bangla , Chowringhee and now, Oh Calcutta. This, of course, adds a welcome dimension to “Indian” food lexicon that once stretched merely from goshtaba to murgh makhni, meen moily to bisi bele bhaath, with detours to dhansak, and Chettinad chicken.
Now, new viands tempt the palate from the east from daab chingri (prawns steamed in coconut shells) to Kosha mangsho (rich lamb curry), luchi (all-maida puffs that are infinitely better than coarse pooris) to mochar chop (banana flower cutlets), beguni (brinjol fritters) to chitol macher muitha (a curry made with chitol fish patties), to name but a few.
Bengali cuisine’s best known ambassador is, perhaps, Anjan Chatterjee, whose Oh Calcutta chain brought Bengali cuisine to the doorsteps of Mumbai and Delhi and now plans to go international. And responding to interest by guests for “new” cuisines, hotels are also experimenting with Bengali food — like Jaypee Continental’s Paatra outlet’s festival in collaboration with Pallavi Thakur Bose of Chowringhee restaurant.
In the past, many of Delhi’s hotels, from the ITC Maurya Sheraton to Marriott and The Oberoi and the Taj have tried their hand at Bengali cuisine, with mixed results. My own two forays with Bengali food in the last fortnight — at Oh Calcutta and Paatra — were, however, largely pleasurable! Even being not much of a fish fan I must say two items were outstanding: the Pallavi’s prawn-stuffed bekti rolls and Chatterji’s bekti steamed in a lemony sauce. More importantly, no dishes were disasterS — ask my mother!
Cuisines have their “time” and place in the consciousness of a nation. Now’s the time for Bengali cuisine, not only for well travelled Indians with sophisticated palates, but internationally.
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