Shoro Ritur Desh (‘the land of six seasons’) was first introduced to me as a child during my Bengali classes after school. Having left Bangladesh at the age of four for London, I remembered very little of the country of my birth and was fascinated by the food-centric seasons illustrated in my textbooks. Scenes of men and women carrying baskets of fruits and vegetables against the backdrop of village life; farmers knee-deep in rice paddy fields; fishermen with their nets cast wide, captured mid-air over lakes, and children picking fruit from trees. These were the scenes which best reflected to me the food of Bangladesh. Formerly part of India and then known as East Pakistan after the partition of India in 1947, Bangladesh is a fairly new country that gained independence in 1971. Steeped in a rich food history and influenced by Persian, Mughal and Southeast Asian cooking, Bangladeshi cuisine is markedly distinct from both Indian and Pakistani food.
Although there are many shared recipes with neighbouring West Bengal (people are called Bengalis in both areas), there are distinct flavour differences which makes Bangladeshi Bengali food unique from Indian Bengali food across the border. The staple grain of this largely agricultural country is rice, both in cultivation and consumption, and due to its many waterways there’s an abundance of fish and seafood. ‘Maach e Bhaat e Bangali’ is a popular saying which loosely translates as ‘fish and rice make a Bengali’, a phrase which reflects the vast range of rice- and fish-based dishes eaten across the country.
Rice is simply boiled or steamed and forms the basis of everyday eating. Bread is less common; fried, puffed luchi, similar to whole wheat Indian puri, is made of refined wheat flour, reserved for breakfasts and special occasions. There is an emphasis on fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables which are incorporated into meals, with the majority of fish and meat dishes cooked with them, as opposed to being served alongside each other.
