A friend from graduate school was back in the city from New York. He brought with him Ilish Maach or Hilsa, a favorite fish of Bengalis if not the most revered, fried in mustard oil and he brought along the oil too- all packed in his check in. Ilish maach for Bengalis is a delicacy. You can have it fried (maach bhaja), you can have it in a mustard sauce (shorshe ilish) or you can have it as a simple curry made with squash and eggplant (kumro begun diye ilish) with a dash of lime juice thrown in. So while yesterday night I had the fried fish, today it was in the form of the simple curry.
The first bite into the crisp maach bhaja and all the dormant memories seemed to rush back in from nowhere...the last time I had Ilish maach was a couple of years back at my cousin's place in Washington DC. When I was in India we would have it very often at home. There were certain rules; Ilish maach during the monsoons is ok but you couldn't bring Ilish back home between the two festivals, Lakshmi and Saraswati Puja, which would roughly translate between October and February. Most probably this self-imposed ban on eating Ilish during this time was due to the fact that this coincided with the breeding season. And on Saraswati Puja every family in Bengal would have to bring back "Jora Ilish"- directly translated it meant a couple of them.
In addition, discussion about the quality of the Ilish maach holds a prime place in the hearts of Bengalis. So there can be endless debates about whether an Ilish from Gariahat would be better than that found in Bansdroni or that in Dumdum. However, I have always heard that an Ilish maach from the Padma, Bangladesh is always superior than the others.
And if you happen to be visiting Kolkata after a long time, especially during the monsoon season, you are bound to come across the great Hilsa anywhere and everywhere. You can eavesdrop on conversations while walking to the nearest bus stop about the skyrocketing price of the hilsa. You can have neighbors drop in uninvited to tell your Dad about how good the Hilsa catch was in the market today and how he should immediately make a foray before all is gone. Relatives waiting to invite you over to their place for a sumptuous meal will make sure that a preparation of Hilsa is on the table along with the lau-chingri, dal, rui macher kalia, topshe fry, potoler dorma, chanar dalna and the rest along with the quintessential mishti doi and rosogolla. Behind the scenes, this would involve going to the fish market very early in the morning, to their favourite Maachwala (fishseller) to get the best fish out of the lot. The Maachwala might have already been primed about the impending guest with a request to get "the best" of the ones caught. This will now be cooked and you will be asked to judge the quality of the fish and also the cooking!
I was recently talking to a friend who happened to be visiting home after nearly five years. While trying to tell his relatives that he hadn't been deprived of the favorite Ilish in the US, he managed to set himself up for the inevitable discussion about the quality of Ilish that he got- was it frozen? was it fresh? were the fish big? did they have roe in them? and obviously the toughest to answer- toder okhaner ilish ki kolkatar ilish-er theke bhalo??( Do you think the Ilish that you get is better than those that we get here?)... and if you gather the courage to say "Yes"...heresy I say....the entire room will drown you out by blaming everything on "export". I don't remember exactly how this friend of mine tackled answering this question but he survived the relatives and ate the best Hilsa.
And now I am going to go have my last piece of Ilish maach fry with khichdi, plum chutney and cabbage!
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| My lunch: Ilish maach fried with khichdi | and chutney |
In addition, discussion about the quality of the Ilish maach holds a prime place in the hearts of Bengalis. So there can be endless debates about whether an Ilish from Gariahat would be better than that found in Bansdroni or that in Dumdum. However, I have always heard that an Ilish maach from the Padma, Bangladesh is always superior than the others.
And if you happen to be visiting Kolkata after a long time, especially during the monsoon season, you are bound to come across the great Hilsa anywhere and everywhere. You can eavesdrop on conversations while walking to the nearest bus stop about the skyrocketing price of the hilsa. You can have neighbors drop in uninvited to tell your Dad about how good the Hilsa catch was in the market today and how he should immediately make a foray before all is gone. Relatives waiting to invite you over to their place for a sumptuous meal will make sure that a preparation of Hilsa is on the table along with the lau-chingri, dal, rui macher kalia, topshe fry, potoler dorma, chanar dalna and the rest along with the quintessential mishti doi and rosogolla. Behind the scenes, this would involve going to the fish market very early in the morning, to their favourite Maachwala (fishseller) to get the best fish out of the lot. The Maachwala might have already been primed about the impending guest with a request to get "the best" of the ones caught. This will now be cooked and you will be asked to judge the quality of the fish and also the cooking!
I was recently talking to a friend who happened to be visiting home after nearly five years. While trying to tell his relatives that he hadn't been deprived of the favorite Ilish in the US, he managed to set himself up for the inevitable discussion about the quality of Ilish that he got- was it frozen? was it fresh? were the fish big? did they have roe in them? and obviously the toughest to answer- toder okhaner ilish ki kolkatar ilish-er theke bhalo??( Do you think the Ilish that you get is better than those that we get here?)... and if you gather the courage to say "Yes"...heresy I say....the entire room will drown you out by blaming everything on "export". I don't remember exactly how this friend of mine tackled answering this question but he survived the relatives and ate the best Hilsa.
And now I am going to go have my last piece of Ilish maach fry with khichdi, plum chutney and cabbage!
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