Pujo 2020 is downright weird. It is my first pujo away from home and family, and from what I hear from people back home, the vibe isn’t the same. The situation is dire, and under current circumstances, the best thing to do is stay at home and keep our fingers crossed that the next year…
Category: Calcutta Chronicles
Mishti : The Tale of Oil
So far in our series, we have talked about sweets that involve reducing milk or cooking chhana in a sugar syrup. We have talked about the basic milk-based desserts like rabri and payesh, and the two heavyweights of chhana-based sweets, the sandesh and the rosogolla. It’s time to step up the game. There is another…
The Fried Rice Duality
Around three months ago, a Malaysian stand-up comedian took the Internet by storm thanks to a video where he trashes a BBC food video on egg fried rice. Nigel Ng as Uncle Roger, a conservative middle-aged Chinese man dressed in a bright orange polo shirt with a hilariously thick Chinese accent, severely critiqued chef Harsha…
Mishti : The Tale of Chhana
Last time, we started our exploration of Bengali sweets with a look at the milk-based desserts, rabdi and payesh. This time, we move on to chhana, derived from milk and the starting point for two of the most popular Bengali sweets. “The name Sandesh is mentioned in medieval Bengali literature, including Krittibas’ Ramayana and lyrics…
Mishti : The Tale of Milk
Pujo is almost here, and in celebration the Gourmet Glutton is going full-on Bengali, with an array of articles based on Bengali cuisine. We have already explored the bitter and sour sides of our cuisine back in April, and this time we will tackle the sweets. The articles in this series are in direct contrast…
Breakfast, Memories and Simplicity
With the voice of Birendra Krishna Bhadra stirring the stillness of the night just a few days ago, Pujo is officially in the air. This year however, I have no plans of returning to Kolkata and all I have to keep me company are warm memories of the Pujos gone by. And what better way…
A Taste of Bengal : Sour
We started our exploration of Bengali home cooking with the bitter side of Bengali cuisine (check it out here), dishes that are primarily eaten in spring and early summer at the start of the meal. This week, let’s bring it home with a look at its sour side. Bengali cuisine has its own separate category…
Bengali Cooking Techniques (Part 3)
Combination Cooking So far in this series, we have talked about cooking techniques involving water and fat. This time, we will conclude the series and explore the realm of combination cooking, a loose term that encompasses all dishes that involve both water and fat as cooking media, which actually includes most Bengali dishes. A small…
Bengali Cooking Techniques (Part 2)
Cooking With Fat In Part 1 of our Bengali cooking trilogy, we discussed the moist-heat cooking techniques in the Bengali kitchen. This time, we will take a look at the techniques of cooking with fat. Before we start, it is necessary to clear out some terminology. Dry-heat cooking with fat basically refers to cooking with…
Bengali Cooking Techniques (Part 1)
The Wet and the Dry Chef Bill Briwa of the Culinary Institute of America claims that there are four primary cooking techniques: dry heat cooking with fat, dry heat cooking without fat, moist heat cooking and combination cooking. He claims that everything we do in the kitchen to transform foods falls into one of these…
