That very special Bengali pie

This half-mutton, half boiled egg preparation retains the taste of both.

September 01, 2015 12:46 am | Updated March 28, 2016 02:35 pm IST

At a Bengali restaurant in Pune, a hardcore Bengali friend was gorging on mutton kabiraji. It’s a mutton pie with a boiled egg inside it. He said it didn’t taste that well. Honestly speaking, all the so-called Bengali restaurants in Pune and Mumbai are mere apologies for Bengali restaurants.

This half-mutton, half-boiled egg preparation has its own taste because one gets to eat both and the distinct tastes linger on. This is something that can be called exclusively Bengali because I’ve never found this culinary concoction in any country or continent during my travels across the world.

There’s an interesting story behind it that faintly suggests the Brits may have given the idea of this preparation because during the time of Nabob Sirajudaullah and even before him, the English began to make their presence felt in Bengal. It’s a known fact that the Brits are regular consumers of eggs (especially boiled eggs) and a typical Brit’s day doesn’t start without egg in some form. They like boiled eggs the most.

In England, there’s a preparation in which boiled egg and ham are mixed in such a way that both don’t lose their tastes. It’s served during high tea.

In Bengal, till the end of the 19th century, egg wasn’t considered to be that important a part of an ordinary Bengali’s diet. The orthodox Bengalis used to associate it with Muslim invaders (mlacchher khadya or Muslims’ food) and the English community. It was somewhat inauspicious to them. Because of its shape, that reminds one of ‘cipher’ (zero), Bengalis hated it.

But there were modern Bengalis, who began to go to England even in the late 18th century. They liked eggs. But they needed to cover it, so that orthodox Bengalis couldn't see them eat. So they began to conceal it with the paste of onion. This too created a problem because, egg smells a lot and the smell of a boiled egg remains in the mouth for a longer period. When this offensive smell is mixed with the smell of fried onion, the result could be a culinary disaster.

Ham wasn’t allowed in Bengal, though educated Bengalis used to eat it on the sly. Then boiled egg was mixed with fish. It didn’t work that well because unless fish is baked, it doesn’t taste good with boiled eggs. Chicken was again a bete-noire to the Bengalis nearly 150 years ago. So paatharmangso (lamb meat in Bengali) began to be used.

World-class chefs are unanimous on one count, that the smell of the boiled egg gets positively enhanced only when it’s mixed with mutton. At the same time, mutton has its own intense smell that’s not liked by many. But mutton with a boiled egg can be a preparation that’s so mouth-watering even to those who’ve very fastidious tastes in food. Try it when you're in Bengal and let me know so that I can draw vicarious pleasure, being a staunch vegetarian myself.

Lastly, the Bengali language doesn’t have a labio-dental ‘v’ in its alphabet. So, ‘v’ invariably becomes ‘b’. No wonder, the original English name of ‘coverage’ became ‘kabiraji’ with the passage of time.

(Email: sumitmaclean@hotmail.com)

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