Bengali cuisine: Difference between revisions

During the colonial period, many Western food shops were established in Kolkata, making puff pastries, channa, chocolate, and chips especially popular. Dishes such as chop, gravy cutlet, sponge [[Rasgulla|rasogolla]], and [[ledikeni]]. As a result of a multi-cultural community, Kolkata city's cuisine continuously changes, and takes heavy influence from Chinese and European palates.

''Mezban'' (locally known as ''Mejjan'') is the Bengali word for special occasion feasts in the [[Chittagong]] region of Bangladesh. Historically Mezbani is a traditional regional feast where people are invited to enjoy a meal with [[white rice]] and [[beef]], besides other dishes rich in animal fat and dairy. It is held on the occasions such as death anniversary, birth anniversary, celebrating successes, launching of a new business, entry into a new house, the birth of a child, marriage, [[aqiqah]] and [[circumcision]], [[ear piercing]] of girls and naming of the newborn. The invitation of the Mezban ceremony generally remains open for all and various people to different places and neighbourhoods convey the invitation for the feast. In urban areas, attending a mezban is by invitation only. Usually, the consumption of food at Mezbani takes place from morning to afternoon.

Beef-based dishes are preferred by Bengali Muslims and are a symbol of social prestige for a Mezban feast. The rich and the poor arrange feasts on various occasions as much as circumstances allow them. It has a distinct style of cooking and proper Mezban meat demands a certain skill; for example: The unique beef curry served in this feast is known as ''Mezbani gosht'', that carries a distinctive recipe, knowledge of which is essentially confined within the Chittagonian cooks.

Old Dhaka boasts a variation of the famous [[pilaf]] - the Morog Polao - in which the rice is cooked after and the chicken pieces are cut. Other {{Transliteration|bn|italic=no|[[polao]]s}} include {{Transliteration|bn|italic=no|[[ilish|ilish polao]]}} and {{Transliteration|bn|italic=no|[[Rohu|rui polao]]}}. Dhakaiyas are noted for introducing [[paneer]] and boiled eggs to [[khichuri]]. [[Bakarkhani|Dhakai bakarkhani]] is a thick, biscuit-like [[flat-bread]] which is a traditional street-food snack, famed for its quality and taste. It is mainly dished up with tea. Dhakaiyas proudly hold a heritage of creating the best ''[[Paan|khili paan]]'' using various herbs and spices. They also offer a khili paan for diabetic patients called the "paan afsana". [[Haji biryani]] is a dish, invented by a restaurateur in 1939, made with highly seasoned rice, [[chevon|goat's meat]] and number of spices and nuts. The restaurant has become an integral part of Dhakaiya culture.

[[Rasagulla|Rosogolla]], a Bengali traditional sweet, is one of the most widely consumed sweets in India. It spread to Bengal in 1868. Chhana based sweets were introduced in Eastern India from about the 18th century; as the process and technology involved in synthesizing "Chhana" was introduced to the Indians by the Dutch in the 1790s. The cottage cheese "schmierkase" was also known as Dutch cheese. The earlier versions of Rossogolla lacked binding capacity of the modern avatar that is well known and highly acclaimed today. This was due to the fact that the know-how involved in synthesizing such a sweet was unknown before being experimentally developed by [[Nobin Chandra Das]] and then constantly improved and further standardized by his successors. Furthermore, the "chhana" manufactured in those days was a coarse and granular variety and had low binding capacity. It was made by [[Citric acid|citric]] and [[ascorbic acid]] from natural fruit extracts. This type of "chhana" cannot be worked on to compact into any regular and firm shape for the purpose of sweet-making, leave alone making Rossogolla. This is because of a documented technological issue – [[lactic acid]] (extracted from [[whey]]) used to curdle [[milk]] now was introduced to India in the late 18th century by Dutch and Portuguese colonists (along with [[acetic acid]]). It is this method that creates the fine, smooth modern "chhana" with high binding capacity – which is now the staple raw material for [[Bengali people|Bengali]] [[Confectionery|confectioners]]. At present, [[Nobin Chandra Das]] is referred to have invented the spongy variant of rossogolla.