Bengali food is a culinary style originating in Bengal, a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, which is now divided between Bangladesh and West Bengal. Other regions, such as Tripura, and the Barak Valley region of Assam (in India) also have large native Bengali populations and share this cuisine. With an emphasis on fish, vegetables and lentils are served with rice as a staple diet. Bengali cuisine is known for its subtle (yet sometimes fiery) flavours, and its spread of confectioneries and desserts.
The traditional society of Bengal has always been heavily agrarian; hunting, except by some local clansmen, was uncommon. Rice is the staple, with many regions growing speciality rice varieties. Domestic cattle (especially the water buffalo) are common, more for agriculture than large scale dairy farming. Milk is an important source of nutrition, and also a key ingredient in Bengal’s desserts. Ordinary food served at home is different from that served during social functions and festivals, and again very different from what might be served at a larger gathering (e.g., a marriage feast).
Nearly every Bengali community eat meat or fish. In most parts of the Indian subcontinent, individual castes and communities have their own food habits; this is not true of Bengal. There is similarity in eating styles across social strata, with the Hindu upper caste Brahmins sharing a diet very similar to the trading or princely castes. Fish, goat, mutton and chicken are commonly eaten across social strata; the only exception is beef, which if ever eaten, is restricted to Muslim communities.
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| An authentic Bengali meal. |
The nature and variety of dishes found in Bengali cooking are unique even in India. Fresh sweet water fish is one of its most distinctive features; Bengal’s rivers, ponds and lakes contain varieties of fish such as roui, ilish, koi or pabda. Prawns, shrimp and crabs also abound. Almost every village in Bengal has ponds used for pisciculture, and at least one meal a day is certain to have a fish course.
Bengalis also excel in the cooking of regional vegetables. They prepare a variety of the dishes using the many types of vegetables that grow there year round. They can make ambrosial dishes out of the oftentimes rejected peels, stalks and leaves of vegetables. This style of cooking food using rejected parts of the vegetables, is predominant in Bengalis in Bangladesh and those who have migrated to West Bengal, India from Bangladesh. They are also known as Bangal. They use fuel-efficient methods, such as steaming fish or vegetables in a small covered bowl nestled at the top of the rice pot.
Fish is the dominant kind of protein in Bengali cuisine and is cultivated in ponds and fished with nets in the freshwater rivers of the Ganges Delta. Almost every part of the fish (except scales, fins, and innards) is eaten; unlike other regions, the head is particularly preferred. Other spare bits of the fish are usually used to flavour curries and dals.
More than forty types of mostly freshwater fish are common, including carp varieties like rui , koi, tilapia , bhetki ,Catla, the wriggling catfish family—tangra, magur,sole , shingi, pabda, katla, ilish (ilish),pomflet, as well as shuţki (small or large dried sea fish). Chingri (prawn) is particularly popular and comes in varieties—kucho (tiny shrimp), bagda (tiger prawns) or galda (Scampi).
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| Fried rui |
The salt water fish Ilish is very popular among Bengalis. Ilish machh (ilish fish), which migrates upstream to breed is a delicacy; the varied salt content at different stages of the journey is of particular interest to the connoisseur, as is the river from which the fish comes—fish from the river Pôdda (Padma or Lower Ganges) in Bangladesh, for example, is traditionally considered the best.
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| Shorshe Ilish |
There are numerous ways of cooking fish, depending on the texture, size, fat content and the bones. It could be fried, cooked in roasted, a simple spicy tomato or ginger based gravy (jhol/jhul), or mustard based with green chillies (shorshe batar jhal), with posto, with seasonal vegetables, steamed, steamed inside of plantain or butternut squash leaves, cooked with doi (curd/yogurt), with sour sauce, with sweet sauce or the fish can be made to taste sweet on one side, and savoury on the other. Ilish is said be cooked in 108 distinct ways.
