Thursday, May 15, 2008

Flavors of Bengali


My next fun research project is becoming more familiar with Bengali food prior to arrival. We have heard that Bengali food is amazing and I can't wait to try the real stuff.

There is a site called Bengali Food on the Web that has some great information. I will start with uniquely Bengali foods listed there:

Pora: a vegetable cooked mostly with eggplant, it is roasted and mixed with salt, green chillies, coriander leaves, onions and mustard oil.
Jhaal: especially for fish, this gravy is of freshly ground mustard sauce.
Doi maach / doi patal: fish cooked in gravy of curd.
Pithey: a pancake-like sweet dough base of semolina or flour which is rolled and filled with a variety of fillings like coconut and kheer, and fried in ghee.

Our friend Shivani told us that the mustard oil really makes food distinctly Bengali. Sounds delicious!

Image from http://bongcookbook.blogspot.com/

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