Poached Pears with Fig “Custard” and Cinnamon “Crumble”: A “Recipe” Christmastime calls for something special. So far, during Christmas, I’ve looked back at my first ever food article called Food and the Senses in 2019, dissected the Calcutta Christmas Cake in 2020, and collaborated with Nodee di on the Christmas dinner in 2021. This time,…
Breads of Bengal : Kochuri, Loochi, and Beyond
Last time, we tackled the porota, comparing and contrasting our Bengali version with variants around the country, particularly the stuffed North Indian variety. It would be wrong to say that stuffed flatbreads do not exist in Bengali cuisine, for they definitely do. The big difference is that these are deep-fried in oil, creating something that…
Breads of Bengal : Porota
Last week, we began our exploration of the breads of Bengal with the humble, ubiquitous ruti. It’s time to throw some indulgence and calories into the mix, and talk about one of the more sinful versions of flatbread: the porota. Or is it paratha? Or parotta? Why so many names? North India is famous for…
Breads of Bengal : Ruti
Bengal is the land of fish and rice. The fertile alluvial soil of the Gangetic delta means that rice is available in plenty, and is the basic food crop here. That being said, cultures intermingle, and the flatbread tradition of North Indian cuisine seeped into Bengal over the years, giving us a varied albeit limited…
Ghee Roast and Pepper Fry
The vegetarian fare of South Indian cuisine is famous throughout India. In recent times, when the long-standing monopoly of the tikkas and kormas of North India is slowly being infiltrated by glimpses from the South, it is still mostly via these vegetarian dishes: the dosa, the idli, the vada, the sambhar. It is light, filling,…
A Celebration of Milk
Every now and then, you stumble across a dessert that leaves an impression, not only owing to its taste, but also its conception, plating, and those other small touches that elevate it from mere greatness to sheer genius. I happened to encounter one such masterpiece during my meal at Farmlore, Bangalore. It was the penultimate…
Eggs and Bread: A Slice of Nostalgia
Food has a way of etching itself into our memories, and it’s usually the simple dishes that stand out. My first ever article took a cursory glance at this idea, and time to re-explore it, with a more specialised approach. Few dishes are as simple are the humble bread and eggs. Let’s start with a…
Amar Khamar: Blending Tradition with Innovation
The set menu concept is unfamiliar in Kolkata. Granted, it’s one of the least popular formats of eating out, but other cities like Delhi and Bangalore provide a few options for choice-free degustation. The idea of walking into a restaurant and letting the chef make the choices about what you eat appeals to a niche…
Peanut & Butter Sandwich
Every city has its share of heritage eateries, places that serve dirt-cheap food and have been doing so for ages. Kolkata has its cabins and sweetshops (although the prices are often a bit higher than “dirt-cheap”). Bangalore on the other hand, has the breakfast spots and bakeries. The Iyengar Bakeries are a Bengaluru signature, the…
পুজোর রেশ, খাওয়াদাওয়া জম্পেশ!
“রাম খটাখট ঘ্যাচাং ঘ্যাঁচ, কথায় কাটে কথার প্যাঁচ।” কথার প্যাঁচ থেকে মাঠের পাঁচ-শূণ্য, গলার জোরে গোল নিশ্চিত। দুই পাড়ের ইলিশ চিংড়ি, দুই পাড়ের সাহিত্য, রান্না বা ভাষার মাধুর্যে আধিপত্য বিস্তারের নিরন্তর প্রচেষ্টা অব্যাহত, আর এই আদিম লড়াইয়ের আঁচে ফুঁ দিয়ে দুধে-ভাতে আছে বাঙালি। আমার এপাড় চেনা আমার বাবার থেকে, আর ওপাড় মা’র। কখনো এমার্জেন্সি আমলে…
The Gourmet Glutton 