"What you've got to remember about us Bengalis," a good friend once told
Simon Parkes, "is that we're only really interested in three things:
educating our children, reading books, and food." Bengalis have a
passion for good food--its authenticity, its freshness, its part in
social occasions, and the pleasure of serving it at the table. The
Calcutta Kitchen captures the essence of those pleasures through the
evocative narrative of the BBC Food Programme's Simon Parkes, the
recipes of renowned chef Udit Sarkhel, and the pictures of award-winning
photographer Jason Lowe. Calcuttans know and adore fish, vegetables, and
desserts in particular. They have a curiosity about food that never
fades, and so they have embraced influences from around the world--most
notably the English, Armenians, Jews, Tibetans, Chinese, Burmese, and
Portuguese. Calcutta, and this book, has a taste of each of these
cuisines. Until recently it was nigh-on impossible to taste Bengali
cooking unless you were invited to a private home, yet this is some of
the most sophisticated food in India. With its inexhaustible roll-call
of fish and vegetables, its pungency derived from the widespread use of
mustard (both seeds and oil) and its tempering with a blend of five
spices known as panch phoron, it is an evolved yet accessible cuisine.
The Calcutta Kitchen brings you recipes from one of the best-known
Bengali chefs, Udit Sarkhel, and snapshots of the fish ponds, markets,
artisan food producers, restaurants, clubs, cooks, gourmet, and street
foods that play a part in the city's rich culinary culture.
