LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE, By Laura Esquivel

I have to thank my baby cousin Sofie for recommending this one to me! It was an absolutely great read. It is, to quote the author, "a novel in monthly instalments with recipes, romances and home remedies". There are two things I am taking away from this book:

1) The really exquisite parallel between the moods and feelings of Tita, and the food she creates. So, if she is sad, the food turns bitter; if she is crying while cooking, the dessert refuses to set. She is so resentful while cooking for the wedding of her sister and the love of her life, that all guests fall violently sick after consuming the main course. This reminds me of what my mother used to say: "Never eat food while angry, it will turn into poison inside you!"

2) When Tita's sister returns home after several years, she wants to taste her favourite childhood dessert, cream fritters. Living away from home, the following words really touched me: "Gertrudis got onto her horse and rode away. She wasn't riding alone - she carried her childhood beside her, in the cream fritters she had enclosed in a jar in her saddle-bag." Indeed, every time I taste something my mom has made, or something Bulgarian, I feel closer to my family and to the place of my roots.

RECIPE FOR CREAM FRITTERS

1 cup of heavy cream

6 eggs

cinnamon

syrup

"While she greased the pot where Tita would pour the beaten cream, she [Gertrudis] never stopped talking... "

From the vague description that follws, I assume she makes custard with the egg yolks and cream and lets it thicken in a pan over the flame.

"Once the custard is cool, it is cut into small squares, a size that won't crumble so easily. Next the egg whites are beaten, so the squares of custard can be rolled in them and fried in oil. Finally, the fritters are served in syrup and sprinkled with ground cinnamon."

THE HOUR OF THE GODDESS: MEMORIES OF WOMEN, FOOD AND RITUAL IN BENGAL, By Chitrita Banerji

I devoured this book like an engrossing work of fiction, although it is a biographical, semi-anthropological and historical account of the autror of her childhood in Calcutta, through food rituals. Having gone to study and live in the USA (with a passage through Bangladesh where she finds love!), Chitrita Banerji (now a widely recognised food historian) writes this book, fearing that she may forget the food and customs of her childhood. So she goes on to describe the worship-like relation to food in her family, especially during religious rituals. From the way spices were grinded freshly every morning (the description of the dainty Patoler Ma, the maid, who crushes the spices every morning, but never tastes them, is riveting!), she recalls the taste, smell and texture of food, and throws in extremely interesting commentary.

Some of the mysterious (to me) and mouthwatering Bengoli dishes she mentions:

BATASHAS - "airy, brittle puffs of spun sugar"

NEEMBEGUN - an "addictive starter" of fried crisp neem leaves and eggplant cubes (neem in India is supposed to be an almost miraculous plant, with many medicinal and health properties. Very bitter, its not easy to make it enticing!)

SHUKTO - a dish made of karela, or bittergourd, which they polish off with rice to kill the bitterness

MAACH-HER JHOL - or fish stew that they used to give to kids for breakfast!!

MUITTHA - fried fish and potato balls

SHORSEILISH - fish with mustard

GALDA CHINGRIR MALAIKARI - prawns in coconut gravy

LAU-CHINGRI - Shrimps with squash

DOI-MAACHH - yogurt fish

MAACHHER KALIA - fish in a rich sauce

PUISHAK - leafy greens with small shrimps

I don't have a sweet tooth, but names like sandesh, rosogolla, chhana, paramanno (meaning "ultimate rice"), khoa kheer, made me fantasise of a table full of them, just for me to sample! Just imagine a bowl of fluffy kheer with freshly sliced mangoes - SINFUL!!!

Also, did you know that the typical Bengoli "bandel cheese" was brought in by the Portuguese???

This book not only makes you see food and feel about food in a different, almost reverent way, but makes you want to take the next plane to Calcutta (today so-blandly called Kolkatta) and explore!