Culture Kitchen SF

In the year 2000, I gave up my bachelor life and got married. The only cooking I knew until that time was boiling milk and a few snacks. My husband used to live in Bangalore (often times known as the silicon valley of India) and we were supposed to travel there from our hometown in 2 weeks we were to marry. He casually told me that I should learn 2-3 dishes from his mom before we leave. I panicked and interviewed my mom and my mother-in-law for recipes and wrote everything down – with the hope to try and figure it out when we reach Bangalore. The day came and we left for Bangalore, during the journey, I told my husband about my cooking skills. Of course, he was not thrilled and bought me a recipe book from the train station.

We reached Bangalore and I could not even figure out how to make rice. I remember we went to the market and bought an electric rice maker and read the manual to understand the ratio of rice to water. Well, that was the start of an amazing journey of my life. I had a brand new life in a brand new city, plenty of time in my hand, a few hand written recipes, recipe book and a desire to succeed and rise to my husband’s expectations.

One quality which helped me was the fact that I liked to eat. Till date, I cannot decide what I like more – to cook or to eat. So, a connoisseur of food with zero cooking skills started experimenting with ingredients and spices. I got rid of my phobia of not touching raw meat and fish and started cooking, testing and making panicked calls back home when things don’t work. Slowly but surely, I started liking what I make. And when I like a dish, I would surely know others will like it too. I learnt some more when my mother and mother in law visited Bangalore. Bangalore has a very cosmopolitan nature and that allowed me to not limit myself to any particular style. I grew in confidence within a couple of years, started to throw parties at home where I would do all the cooking – something I enjoy even today. In 2006, we came to bay area and I think my best came out after I came here. I cooked for a friend once and all the invitees in their home called me back to see if I could cater. That started my catering business which I ran for a couple of years. Though I cook many different styles today, what I most enjoy is Bengali cuisine as it brings back all the memories from my home. In Bengali cuisine, we put lot of emphasis on fish, lentils, rice and sweets. The taste can be fiery or subtle. Bengalis are generally obsessed with food - I had seen my father going to the market daily to buy a fresh supply of fish and vegetables. And that is the norm. Bengalis are also very particular about the way and the order food has to be eaten. Each item is served separately so the taste of each one can be enjoyed. At big occasions like marriage (including mine), food is served in banana leaves. At any big occasion, normally a meal will consist of rice, dal, bhaja, at least 2 types of vegetables, fish, chicken, mishit doi (sweet curd) and sweets. And after all these, a paan (beetle leaf) is usually served. Normally all guests will be seated to have the meal and it’s a very traditional practice for the host to go to each table, greet the guests and request them to eat well. Hosts will also request them to eat more of a particular thing like fish, chicken or sweet. It is also a normal practice for the guests to oblige. So in the end, everyone ends up over eating .

I hope you will like my class and the food. What I am preparing today is exactly what was served during my wedding 11 years back. Of course there were more items but these are some of the must have items Bengalis will cook in a big occasion like a wedding.

PS: I still have those hand written recipes and the recipe book we bought from the train station.