Thread by @KanchanGupta

There’s a lot of ill-informed opinion floating around on what Bengalis eat just because they eat “non-veg” food during Durga Puja. What people do not realise is that there is more to food than what they eat. Some thoughts here on what Bengalis eat…
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(Pics in thread not mine.)

In Bengal the autumnal Durga Puja has two narratives. One, Uma the universal daughter coming home to join the harvest festivities. In Bengal, fish is associated with all celebrations. Second, Durga as Shakti being invoked by Sri Ram to to fell Ravan. ShAkts are non-veg.
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But contrary to pop opinion, Bengalis are fond of leafy veggies and greens. Bengalis consumer 25 different varieties of saag. This is apart from other Bengali veg favourites like drumsticks, katowar daanta, saapla (water lily stems), kochur loti, banana stem and flower, etc.
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No Bengali meal is complete without dal. Again, Bengalis possibly consume the widest variety of pulses and have a separate recipe for each. As @Finelychopped points out, 80% (I’d say more) of a Bengali meal is vegetarian. Food on the plate changes with the season.
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No part of any veggie is wasted in a traditional Bengali kitchen. The radish goes into making mulor ghonto or ambal; the leaves are used for making saag. The potato is peeled, but the skin is not thrown into the garbage bin. It is made into fritters. We cook parwal in 36 ways.
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A regular feature of traditional Bengali meals is karela. I’m aware of 19 ways a Bengali cooks karela. There are possibly more. Brinjal too features heavily in different forms and taste. I doubt if there is a parallel to Radhaballavi which we eat with chana daal or aloo sabzi.
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More. Bengalis are fond of pumpkin and lauki. They’re equally fond of the flowers, leaves and stems of their vines. We do not junk the stems of a cauliflower; we make a mishmash of them. A true Bengali meal in spring-early summer would include neem leaves cooked with brinjal.
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Here is a long essay on Bengali food written by the celebrated poet and novelist Buddhadeva Bose. If you truly want to know what Bengalis eat and why, try and read this, instead of making sweeping, bogus and judgemental comments.
parabaas.com/BB/articles/ga…