1.5-Cuisine & Cookware-the Bengal connection and cultural legacy that we can’t ignore

Research & compilation: Dr Pawan Vaidya-5/2025

Ever wondered why your homemade sabzi by dadi’s, nani’s, mummy’s, chachi’s, bua’s and masi’s taste the same? The answer often lies in, ‘Ghar Ka Khana’, the cultural identity of homeland cuisine & cookware. 

There are iconic dishes in Mandi cuisine that lends the community a unique identity and reflection of their homeland. The cuisine & cookware may have acquired Persian or Punjabi touch but the essential taste/flavour continues.  

Bari or Barian is an integral part of Mandi cuisine with its umpteen variations such as Sepu Bari, Ali Bari, Mukund Bari, Muchh Bari, Fullbori, Khadi Bari etc, like several Bori forms in Bengali cuisine. Importance of Barian can be judged from village names such as Phul Bariyan and Muchh Bariyan in north Bengal giving credence to origin of this ancient spatiality. 

Among all this, Sepu Bari is the most famous, without which popular Mandi Dham does not qualify to be Dham (Community food). Sepu Bari are the lentil dumplings made from a paste of soaked urad dal, steamed and fried to prepare a spiced Currie relished with steamed rice (Bhaat-the term derived from the cooked rice that releases steam-the bhaapa rice - to be Bhaat in mandiali and Bengali). Though origin of Sepu Bari has been listed as ‘sepian Bari’ in Sindhi cuisine but migrant Vaishnav community popularised it in ancient Sena kingdom of Bengal. 

Patrodu is another tasty seasonal dish famous with Mandi cuisine. Its origin too is in Sindhi cuisine and its variations of Odia patrapoda or Bengali paturi (Channer Paturi). The fresh big size Arbi (Colocasia esculenta) leaves are smeared with spiced besan (channa flour) paste, steamed, sliced into pieces, fried in mustard oil to eat as snack or prepared as spicy Currie. 

Malpua is a classic recipe on all important festivities and its origin too is from Bengal. Malpua is fluffy, light, deep-fried pancakes. The perfect fried Malpua is soft and a little thick in the middle with thin, crispy edges, While Babru is a fried flat wheat flour puri with fillings either sweet or savory. 

Kachori (Kachuri or Kalai roti in Bengali), the most popular food made of rice/wheat flour bread filled with spiced urd dal (Mashkalai dal in Bengali) paste, eaten either oil fried / tawa roasted, has its origin in north Bengal. Of late, Shops selling Kachori Roti can be seen almost everywhere and is most consumed food in Mandi town.

Dal-Bhaat is the popular daily meal of Mandials-the largely vegetarian Vaishnav community as against meat and maize bread meal by hill folks. Historically, Dal & rice became major calorie source for vegetarian population in Bengal as a substitute for fish and meat due to emergence of followers of Vaishnavism especially during reign of Sen kings of Bengal. 

Mandi cuisine is not much different from Bengali cooking such that majority of recipes begin with good pungent mustard oil chhonk of dhone (coriander seeds), Peepli (whole chillies), jeera (cumin seeds), methi (fenugreek seeds) and hing (asafoetida) without onion&garlic. To enhance flavour and taste, a wide variety of whole spices such as laung( cloves), cinnamon (kababchini/Dalchini), cardamom (boro elach), nutmeg (jayphol) and mace (joyitree) powder mix-the gorom moshala is used. Many vegetable dishes (torkaris) are finished with a dollop of ghee and some gorom moshala at the very end like in Bengali cooking. 

Some other popular dishes similar to Bengali cuisine are Luchi, Bundiya and posto baingan, Falooda, shahi jilapi and shemain (hand made wheat flour semolina). 

Even the sequence of eating meal has been to start with sweet dish(Bundiya) followed by salty dishes(Sepu Bari/other Currie) and end with spicy sour (kaddu Khatta), mash dal and bitter spiced chhachh (Jhol) dishes, a practice still followed in Mandi dham. 

Pattal (Leaf), an important food ware has been widely used to plate food in many parts of country including Bengal. Historically Bengalis usually ate in plates made from dried sal leaves sewn together. Pattal made of Bauhinia variegata (Taura re Patte) leaves sewn together are still popular to serve food by Mandi community. 

Other than the Pattal being an important food ware there are many kitchen vessels/tools similar to a Bengali kitchen. Utensils for cooking, storing and serving food were generally made of clay(earthen), kansa (bellmetal), pital (brass), tamba (copper) and loha (iron) in contrast to modern steel, aluminium, glass and ceramic. For regular daily use, Earthenware was considered the safest and a tin (Kalai)coating was highly recommended while using copper utensils. It was feared the metal utensils spread diseases or react with cooked food and render them poisonous. 

Associated to cuisine is the look-alike cookware that is similar in shape or sound to a typical Bengali household. A few characteristic examples of cookware in Mandiali kitchen are

A Kadhai (korai in Bengali) is a cooking vessel for most Bengali sauces and stir-fry. The Dekchi (a flat-bottomed pan) is used generally for larger amounts of cooking or for making rice. It comes with a thin flat lid - the Taski which is used also to strain out the starch while finishing up cooking rice. The tawa is used to make roti (Phulko in Bengali). The other prominent cooking utensil is wharu (Hari in Bengali) which is a round-bottomed pot-like vessel used for slow cooking especially mash dal. A flat metal spatula, khunti, is used often, along with Hata (scoop with a long handle-the ladle), Tentu (Khunti in Bengali)-a flat metal spatula used along with Hata, Jharna(jhanjri in Bengali) a round-shaped sieve-like spatula to deep-fry food, Shaneshi (shanrashi in Bengali)-pincers to remove vessels from the fire, the Ghotnu(ghuntni in Bengali)-wooden hand blender for puréeing, Darati (dao or da in Bengali)-a long curved blade on a platform held down by one or both feet, the wooden patrah belun (chaklah belun in Bengali) round pastry board and rolling pin to make phulka, the Shil Batta (shil nora in Bengali) which is a rough stone slab and grinding stone and khurdnu (kuruni in Bengali) used for grating.

How is it that several of the above recipes/cookware either are same or sound similar to Bengali cuisine, can’t be a mere coincidence but a historical link to Bengal.