Bitter is not a pleasant word. Disagreeable facts, experiences and relationships are all called bitter in different languages across different cultures. And yet the main meal in Bengali cuisine &mdash...

Paniphal ki Tarkari: This interesting Sheherwali item is made with water chestnut, cooked in a tangy spicy gravy that has sikri piyaz hing, cumin and amchoor powder. It is garnished with strips of fri...

Satnam Singh Ahluwalia is the food curator of Options Unlimited, Calcutta. He can be reached at satnam.kolkata@gmail.com ...

Finally, I decided to take a stand and this time a very definite one. It was around two in the afternoon one Sunday. My craving for this lemon was increasing in leaps and bounds and even knowing quite...

...

I was travelling to Dubai to attend a wedding of a very dear friend’s son. For obvious reasons I was carrying a few boxes of assorted Bengali sweets from our confectionery, Sweet Bengal. But, to my ...

A French friend of mine has just sold her apartment in one of the most central and ‘happening’ areas of Paris and moved to the smaller city of Lyon in the centre of France. Within an hour’s driv...

It is “a truth universally acknowledged” that the most invigorating and splendid conversations take place while we have a plateful of food in front of us. Food and conversations have always gone h...

A famous Bengali restaurant in the city serves excellent food. The staff greet you warmly. The portions are generous. The menu is diverse. Only one problem persists: the music is Tagore on guitar. Alw...

Rekha Rai and Hemlata Minch are two middle-aged women. They have come to Calcutta all the way from Madhovita in north Bengal’s Darjeeling district to share a taste of Rajbanshi life through Rajbansh...