Bengali Cooking (some selections from here and there)

(these notes are lifted from a discussion group)

The Bengal Cookbook: Bangla Ranna, by Minakshie Das Gupta
The Calcutta Cookbook, by Jaya Chaliha, Bunny Gupta, Meenakshi Das Gupta
Bengali Cooking: Seasons and Festivals by Chitrita Banerji, Deborah Madison

Supposedly the "Bengal Cookbook" is the best for newbies in Bengali cooking. Also provides social/religious/cultural background behind the recipes.

"Bhojon Shilpi Bangali" by Buddhadeva Bose--who himself never went into the kitchen. The cover and illustrations are by a well-known contemporary artist, Ramananda Bandyopadhyay. The book contains some "belles-letteres" (ramya-rachana); plus some excerpts dealing with food (and feasts) from BB's novels--and at the end, includes some family recipe put together by BB's daughter.

Another interesting books is "ThakurbaRir Ranna"-- (Cooking from the Tgaore Family) by Purnima Tagore. This has lots of recipe collected by Indira Devi Chaudhurani (Rabindranath's niece) who herself never cooked ("and doubtful if she ever stepped inside a kitchen"). But she collected recipes from all over India and abroad.

The Bengali Gourmet by Sutapa Ray seems like a good site.

Some new food blogs

I have exploring some new ideas in cooking and it seems that there are a multitude of personal food blogs which in some cases are better than cookbooks. Have been thinking about making some Turkish food, and some Indian snacks. Will write more about them when I actually get a chance to try these things.