I just got back from my best friend's wedding, and what memories I have. As Angela Gomes, my best friend, advisor, and soul mate :P would say - most prevalent are the memories that revolve around food. At a time when I am on this semi-bland diet and I have just returned from Kolkata - the only thing I thought was worth writing about was food, because I curse the day I decided to lose weight... :) I want to give this post the title - 'The Bong Food Fetish'. The idea was actually born a few months back in Bombay and it evolved from Madhu, a colleague of mine and a good friend and a Bengali, and all the time we would discuss either food or men ( the latter was actually less frequent)

Then I had decided to blog about this bong food fetish.

It is a rare Bengali whose mouth doesn't water at the thought of Malai Chingri, Doi Maach, Eelish mach, Chitol maacher muitha, Kasa Maangsho, Mutton Chaap, Biriyani.......oh my gawd .. I cant even complete this sentence without drooling. I mean twisting the adage 'eat to live' and saying that we (most bongs) 'live to eat' would be like a boring cliche, an understatement, an undeserved and un-needed testimony to the sheer passion we feel about eating good food.

Every day Dad and Mom would sit down at the breakfast table and decide the menu for the day taking inputs from me and dadabhai, and this was a scene from not just my home, but literally every Bengali household, whether you lived in Hyderabad, Kolkata, Sydney, Toronto, or Washington DC. the planning of the day's menu forms an integral part of the plan for the day. and the discussions are not restricted to just ' make this curry and this rice ' its more like ohh ok make this kind of curry and to compliment that u can make this kind of rice and then a chutney to satiate the taste buds, and of course one vegetable curry preferably with some shrimp in it though.... It has to be an elaborate and well planned spread, every day, every meal!

I mean... Hello.. which other culture has so ingeniously woven into each recipe the possibility of adding some non-veg item, a theoretical recipe where you can add fish to dal, bottlegourd, brinjal, potol, etc would probably make others balk while we Bengalis would drool at even the thought of the aromas that nostalgia would bring.

I also sincerely hope that all these legendary recipes that were best in our grandmummy's kitchen and passed down to our mummy's kitchens do not die out with the generations to come, because nobody seems to show too much of a keen interest in the elaborate steps and intricate details that combine to give birth to the most perfect tastes and aromas. There still are a few that keep the fires burning ( not a reference to clay ovens, cause nobody uses those anymore :P) Tina Di, Payel, my boudi :) ... they seem to actually enjoy cooking and don't tread too much on the quick fix path of microwave dinners.

I have to stop writing now and get back to my oats - the pork chops will have to wait - till I stop resembling the species that they are made of.... :P Bye... abrupt end... but very hungry all this thinking about food has made me!

Dedicated to all the bongs all over the world... and other foodies!!