I don’t like sweet food much. I like spicy food. My preferences are a bit old-fashioned. Wherever I go, my eyes find traditional food. Those who know my eating habits invite me to try something different. I can’t experiment much with food. Every time I have ordered food in a restaurant in my life, it has been inedible. Even when I go to a fast food restaurant, I can’t order food properly. Maybe I’m standing in line, I don’t have time to think much, the salesperson is staring at me with a smile.
I’m confused about what to order. I’m a little nervous! Instead of what I thought in my mind, I order something that I can’t eat myself. This happens to me at the Tim Hortons drive-thru too. Maybe I’m hungry but don’t have time to get out of the car. I want to have something with my tea or coffee that will be convenient to eat while driving. What should I have! Bagels or muffins! Should I have a whole wheat bagel, a sesame bagel, an everything bagel or just a plain bagel? Double toasted and with a little butter or cream cheese? Muffins also come in different varieties. Less sweet, more sweet. I have diabetes. I have to make a choice. Tea will be small size. I rarely drink coffee. Even tea is steep tea, with half sweetener.
I have a hard time with food. I am also quite boring. It is not so easy to prepare new items or fresh food every day abroad! That is why people in this country eat a lot of restaurants. On Fridays and Saturdays, all kinds of food shops are bustling. Deliverymen get good tips. But I am in that period of slowness. Aloo bharta, ghan dal, dim ghaja, karalla bhaji, dhers, patol, jhinga, data, shim or puishak are my favorites. Gulsha, kajri, hilsa, baila, meni, shoal or pabda fish are always on the list of favorites. Koi and horn fish are also liked. However, I don’t eat koi fish because of the thorns. I can’t eat big fish at all. The blocks of fish that come from the country smell like fish. Canadian fish is very delicious because the water in Canada is very clean. It is recommended to drink tap water here rather than bottled water. But what if I don’t like local fish? I want to eat local fish. Jasmine is extremely annoyed with my food.
Who is telling you to come to Canada!
Why am I doing this!
Get used to eating the food of the country you live in. Who will cook you local food every day!
Every day. You have to do it sometimes.
Cook and eat your own food. Many boys do it. We don’t eat fish. We don’t have a problem.
Try doing it yourself.
I’ve been hearing this for twenty-two years, I haven’t seen it even once. And you can only find fault. Some people are masters of fault…
How many things do you hear about eating!
The subject of writing is actually pitha. Pitha made by my mother. Since my mother was not educated, she didn’t know what recipes were in Siddika Kabir’s book ‘Ranna Khadya Pushti’. There is no question of learning to cook even by watching YouTube. Google wasn’t even born then. Everything my mother did was manual. Her own creation. There were no ovens then, no toasters, no rice cookers, no gas or electric stoves with four/five burners at once. My mother used to cook on an earthen stove with lakri, with lots of smoke and tears in her eyes and nose. Back then, there was no fan! Still, those dishes are the best for me. I have eaten in many expensive restaurants in my life. In the country and abroad, in London, New York, Tokyo, Paris, Toronto, Los Angeles, but the taste of my mother’s cooking was different from anything else. My mother was the best chef in the world.
The name of the pitha was Pakwan pitha. We used to call it Pakkan pitha. My mother used to make this pitha. It was very tasty. After my mother passed away, I ate this pitha made by my friend Ivy. Ivy’s cooking is unique. Now we know about many new foods. Science has changed many things. Ingredients have changed. Everything is available in packets. Shan, Radhuni or Pranar Masala made life easier. But mother never got that benefit. She used to mix spices in a jar. Turmeric, chilli, coriander, ginger, garlic, all of them. Mother did not know about ginger or garlic paste. She did not know the uses of so many spices. She did not even feel the need. Just a little salt, oil, chilli, turmeric and onion would make the food very tasty. Mother did not know about extra virgin olive oil, corn oil, vegetable oil. Mustard or soybean oil was enough. How many types of hot spices are there now? Maybe they were even then. Mother did not know. Cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, pistachios, cumin, bay leaves, and nutmeg were rarely used. Mother did not know what deep freezing was. We used to finish eating the same day. In winter, it could be kept for a day or two longer by heating it.
I didn’t have any headaches with breakfast either. I used to eat muri or hot rice with tea. If there was a little ghee on hot steaming rice, it would be like a five-star hotel. I also ate panta rice. On a bitterly cold day, I would eat jeol fish curry with panta or raw chili with onion and dole. Just like we eat a variety of foods now. How many choices do we judge people for having diabetes? People still had diabetes then. Whole wheat bread, twelve grain, multi grain, plain bread, many brands. Different types of cereals, oatmeal, omega three eggs, one, two or three percent or skim milk, organic bananas, mother didn’t know any of these. We used to eat guru’s milk. We used to eat milk curd. What a beautiful smell that yellow curd had. It still sticks in my nose. Mother often fried chhita pitha or chitai pitha in a clay dish. It seems that these were poor people’s food, easy to make. Mother used to make rice for the children. Sometimes, it was a stew. If you add a little turmeric, onion and raw chilli, the colour would come out. Mother did not know how to serve appetizers, main courses or desserts. Tea, coffee, red wine, white wine were also unknown.
She would fry muri herself. She would fry eight or ten tins of muri or khai. She did not have to add any fertiliser. She did not even know. We would eat that muri all year round. All the vegetables were grown by mother. She would grow gourds, shrimps, dhundhal, beans, and beans in the kitchen. The bean stew with potatoes was incomparable. I would dig up the bean sprouts. She would make a filling of kathal sprouts with burnt chilli. The fence of the thorn bushes was covered with yellow smut. I would eat kale leaves. How many more delicious foods did I eat? Is the Dhenki vegetable available in the country now? I have to find out. That vegetable was as soft as a clove vine. It was grown in the forest.
I still have a rustic feeling about food and drink. Am I a little unsmart? Just like we look for organic now, everything was organic then. Healthy food. No one knew what formalin was. There was no adulteration in the food. My mother made everything without a recipe, but everything had the touch of her hand and the sweat of her labor…
Toronto November 21, 2024
