Isssh! It’s not just fish

This festive season, everything Bengali is celebrated.Why not the food fest!

Puja special Bengali food fest will have your licking your fingers Prabalika M Borah

The thing about Bengali food is that the signature dishes are common everywhere. There has to be a kosha mangsho , there has to be a cholar dal and the meal is incomplete without the beguni bhaja (brinjal fritters).

The malai chingri is at the tip of everyone’s tongue when Bengali cuisine is mentioned and mention puri only to face the wrath of the Bengali food lovers and chef. Puri doesn’t find place in Bengali cuisine — luchi does. Luchi being the flour-based puffed Indian bread which is fried in oil.

Shiben Ghosh, who is fondly called ‘Dada’ by everyone from the Sous chef to the executive chef, loves to see everyone enjoying his finger licking food. At the Bengali food fest at ITC Kakatiya, every other chef has a preference and they wait for Dada to patiently prepare it. With almost everything on the table from fish to

beguni bhaja to vegetable chop, there was one chef eagerly waiting for the

paturi to be presented. Not because he loves relishing the dish, because he wants to see the happiness on the faces of those enjoying the food prepared by their favourite Dada.

When the

paturi lands on the table, wrapped in banana leaves along with a fine mustard paste, the aroma is irresistible. Paturi is the marinated steam fish. Soft, succulent and bursting with flavours. The vegetable chop presented with a dash of kasundi will be something new for those who would like to try this cuisine for the first time. Unless one is a die-hard brinjal fan the fritters can be skipped.

There is a lot to relish at the ongoing fest and each dish is better than the other. So, wait with patience till the luchi comes to enjoy with the kosha mangsho or the cholar dal .

Cooked to perfection, the chunky mutton pieces along with the aromatic gravy makes it difficult to not go over board with eating. The pulao made of

Govind bhog (a rice variety) is good to be eaten by itself. But when there is

murgir jhol why not combine it with the pulao. Also this pulao isn’t sweet. So, don’t keep away from it imagining yourself eating sweet rice.

‘Dada’ is also ITC Kakatiya’s Indian sweet speciality chef. So, he is going all out to make his dessert platter attractive. The payesh (kheer), baked sandesh, mishti doi and rosogolla can hardly be resisted.

The fest ends on September 26.