First up, heartiest compliments of the season to all readers in general and those who have been following the Food page of t2 in particular.

And what a season it has been. An unbroken, month-long stretch of a genuine Calcutta winter after years of feeling short changed. With the Gangasagar Mela on, it might even extend. Winter greens — cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, radish, beans, peas, spring onions, celery, brussel sprouts, aubergine (not really a winter plant but best in winter), tomatoes, new potatoes and baby potatoes — are in their prime, bursting with goodness and flavour.
True, many will mumble about chemical fertilisers and insecticides, but I bought a cabbage the other day — a young green one just to boil it with carrots, potatoes and peas to have with a meat casserole — and the aroma filled the house. I was not complaining.

However, this is not a story about vegetables. It is about some winter specials not even Indian but seriously Calcuttan which have been around for decades and are as authentic as you will get in London or Berlin and form an important part of our cosmopolitan character.

Pork dishes of a Calcutta winter. A wise old Anglo-Indian lady who was like a mum to us once told me: “Son, in the heat and swelter of this city, it’s best not to eat pork in a restaurant or buy it in markets during those months whose names have no ‘R’ in them.” I have always stuck to this advice and there is no doubt that this is the season for the dishes whose delights are undeniable.

Item One: A whole leg of ham, cured and cooked and made ready for the table. Just carve into slices and indulge. This can be ordered at some of the old piggeries in the New Market/ Free School Street area. It may appear at a brunch or lunch buffet at one of the star hotels, and I’m reasonably sure that some of these hotels will accept orders as well. It is also a speciality at some of Calcutta’s old clubs and I think this is where they really did it best, with the ham from Bengal Club being a personal favourite.

I had some — much more than some — about a week ago at an aunt’s house where we enjoyed many of the most memorable meals. There it lay — plump with a short shank, the lean a perfect rosy pink and firm. The fat, a clear white, not soft or oily. Just the right degree of saltiness and served with a sweet plum sauce; a potato salad and bread rolls or toast. Some slices smeared with mustard, some with a few drops of Tabasco — it was poetic.

Item Two: Chinese sausages. Available only in winter, dependant on the late morning and afternoon sun and two-three days in the making. The pork is diced, lean and fat are both there, and marinated in rice wine, five-spice powder, sugar and salt. The marinated meat is kept the whole morning and then filled into the intestinal skin and made into sausages in time to catch the mid-day sun. Three days of sun-curing and then they are steamed for half-an-hour before they are ready to be sauteed with vegetables and mushrooms for a main-course dish or just by themselves, to be had with dips and sauces.

Item Three: Roast Pork, Chinese style. A hearty chunk of meat from the rump is selected and thoroughly washed before being marinated for a couple of hours in soya sauce, sugar and a mixture of spices. The meat is first pot-roasted and when it is tender, it is roasted again over a direct flame till it is dried to the right degree, then sliced and cut into squares. This can form the basis of various dishes — with vegetables or green peppers or chillies, or again as an hors d’œuvre with sauces and dips. I get my quota of these items from Jospehine Huang, who with husband Joseph runs the Eau Chew restaurant on Free School Street, one of my favourite haunts. The making process was also described by her and they accept orders for these items. You can ask for roast duck or chicken as well.

Sausages should be available during the Chinese breakfast hours at Bowbazar and maybe even the roast. And there are spare ribs, stuffed dim sums, suckling pig and…

What’s your favourite pork dish in town? Tell t2@abpmail.com