Bengali Cuisine



Bengali cuisine 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.

Bengali cuisine is known for its subtle spices and flavours. The staple food of people in Bengal is rice and fish, acquiring the name “Machh-e Bhat-e Bangali” which means, “Bengali by fish and rice”. Traditional Bengali food always ends up with chutney, mishti and doi.

Fish is the dominant kind of protein in Bengali cuisine. More than forty types of  fish are common, including rui(rohu), koi (climbing perch), tangra, magur, pabda, katla, ilish (Hilsha) chingŗi (prawn or shrimp), as well as shuţki (small dried sea fish). Chingri could be of varieties – kucho (tiny shrimp), medium (prawns), bagda (tiger prawns), and galda (Scampi). It could be fried, cooked in a spicy gravy (jhol), or mustard based with green chillies (shorshe batar jhaal),  steamed inside of banana leaves, with doi (curd/yogurt)and many more.

The most preferred form of meat in Bengal is chicken and mutton/goat meat.

Eggs of both chicken and duck are quite popular.

Shorsher tel (mustard oil) is the primary cooking medium in Bengali cuisine, although Vegetableoil is also used.

Another very important item of Bengali cuisine is the variety of sweets or mishti as they call them. Most of them are milk based and are prepared from chaana. The most popular among the Bengali sweets are the Rosogolla, Sandesh, Pantua and Mishti Doi.

2 thoughts on “Bengali Cuisine”

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