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On April 18 and 19, Gormei curated a special table, ‘Crossing Borders’, where the seven-course menu was a culinary map created by food anthropologists Amrita Bhattacharya and Amit Sen at the Glenburn Penthouse. Borders were diluted as chef Amrita served up the cuisine of diasporic Bengalis, and her husband narrated the culinary history behind each dish.
The couple have spent years documenting food patterns of migrant Bengalis in different parts of the world from Burma and the Andamans to southeast Asia, Central Asia and Europe. They turned their travel adventures into recipes and dishes giving a glimpse into Bengal’s migratory cuisine.
The culinary expedition began with Molida, a fragrant rice powder drink served with tender coconut flesh. Emerging from Bangladesh’s Barisal, this drink is made with powdered ‘atap’ (unpolished) rice and tender coconut water flavoured with rock sugar and ginger. Introducing the refreshing, subtly sweet drink, chef Amrita said, ‘This was served in rural Bengali households when guests turned up unannounced. People served things plucked from their garden. This drink is one of them. Some also put a handful of khoi or puffed rice with this to make it a wholesome meal.’
Up next, was a Buddha Bowl which was ‘a tribute to Gautam Buddha who attained enlightenment in the month of Baisakh,’ said Amit Sen. The bowl was an assortment of five salads and ‘bhortas’ from Burma, East and West Bengal, Europe and Latin America. There was a Lahpet Thoke — a flavourful fermented Mandalay tea leaf salad and Til Shukto — which had sesame seed paste with ghee drizzled Mallifulo rice and crispy ground jute leaves. The flavours of ghee and sesame seeds were the winner. An Adar Chutney (ginger peel paste with lime and raisin paste) and Paka Potol Bhorta (mashed golden ripe pointed gourd with garlic, chilli and kalonji) were there too. There was also an Avocado Bhorta from Chattogram, where the imported fruit is prepared in a Bangali-style ‘bhorta’.
Next, came a mystery in a bowl that looked like a dal, but wasn’t quite a dal. Sweet, sour and runny like an ‘ombol’, flavoured with coriander — this ‘not-a-dal’ was made with sweet potato and raw mango. It was served with a side of Mulor Koura, sundried sweet radish with coconut and mustard.
The next dish was a familiar name, but tasted new. The chef served a Prawn Baluchao. Unlike the Burmese Balachang and Goan Balchao, this dish had tender pieces of prawn with tamarind and red pepper, served with a light coconut milk. The word ‘baluchao’ originates from Chattogram.
It was time for the main course. With aromatic Tulaipanji rice, a Karen-style pork pot roast and Joy Bangla Amish Ghonto was served. The oil-free pork pot roast is a signature dish of the Burmese Karen community, while the ‘ghonto’ was mutton keema cooked with ‘felon dal’. The ‘felon dal’ is a popular lentil smuggled by East Bengali refugees into the Andamans and named after the spirit of Bangladesh Liberation War.
The vegetarian mains included a Chhatur Jhal (local mushrooms grown in the Santiniketan farm of the couple) and a Shoshar Dolma.
The dessert came as Doi er Cheese and Strawberry Jelly, and a Mofeto and Matcom Tikki. A central Asian dessert, the Doi er Cheese was a cheese-like curd with thyme and mint, topped with strawberry jelly. The Mofeto and Matcom Tikki travelled to the table right from Burma and the Santhal areas of Bengal and Jharkhand. It was a steamed black rice cake stuffed with jaggery and coconut served with dried mahua flower (grown by the chef at home) and a tamarind treacle.
With her warm smile — the chef moved from one table to another, interacting with the diners and explaining the dishes in detail. About the table, the curator of the dinner and founder of Gormei, Argha Sen, said, ‘Our Crossing Borders dinner with Amrita Bhattacharya was about how 1+1 is often greater than 2, how migration and travel and people interactions create culinary adaptations, which extends a cuisine in delicious new directions.’ Joining the dinner on the final day was a couple from London, Laura and Louis. The duo travelled to Santiniketan to experience Handpicked by Amrita. But when they learnt the couple were in Kolkata, they took the train to join the dinner at Glenburn.
