When ever I write about Bengal, a state on the eastern shores of India, I am not sure where to begin. Why? Because this land offers so much and is so diverse, I always seem to fall short of words. It certainly is a state blessed – huge palms, flowing yellow mustard fields - giving the land a yellow hue and earning it the name – Sonar Bangal – Golden Bengal. I have a few close friends from the area and the best way to describe them would be refined and passionate – about their heritage, their language, their desserts and by God their fish. Even the Brahmins of Bengal (Brahmins are traditionally vegetarian) east fish, calling it Jal Toria or fruit of the ocean. No part of the fish is wasted – and each is prepared with such grace and perfect balance between the spices and the fish.

Bengal's many rulers over the years – the Mughals, the British, the Chinese, have brought great variation to the cuisine. The Mughals brought in the Qormas (cream based meat dishes), and Kebabs , the Hakka Chinese brought in the Calcutta style Chinese dishes like Manchurain (deep fried morsels of meat or vegetables served in a sauce of chilies and soya sauce). Trust me, once you try this style of Chinese it will have you hooked.

Bengali cuisine is known for its substantial use of mustard seeds. Mustard oil is the widely used cooking medium giving Bengali recipes a very distinct taste.

The crowning glory of Bengali cooking has to be the desserts. When I was in college in India, there was a Bengal sweet shop called KC Das close to where I lived. Shamelessly, each evening friends and I would stand in line to buy the Misti Doi a sweet yogurt prepared in an earthen pot. The kind shop keeper saved a few for us each night. For some reason he would chide us away from it during the winter months, saying it would cause us to catch a cold – old wives tales I think. On those nights we would get luckier for he would provide us with mouth watering Rasgollas (cheese balls sweetened with sugar syrup)

There are two ingredients that are unique to the cooking here. Mustard oil as the cooking medium and the very aromatic Panch Phoron five spice mix – fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, fennel seeds and onion seeds – mixed in just the right proportions. I call this spice mix the way to instant “gourmet-dom”. Use it and you will see what I mean – it creates such perfect dishes people think you are an amazing chef when the spices are really doing all the work.