I was unable to post for a long time.

My father-in-law was expired last month. The funeral process of us (Hindus) is very elaborate and ritualistic. We had to take meal one in a day for ten days and the meal was consists of only boiled vegetables and rice without pepper or lemon. My husband and his brothers could not apply oil on any of their body parts and could not comb their hair or had a shave. On tenth day the had to shave their head.

On eleventh day the ultimate process of funeral (shraddha) took place. After that we took fish in our meal (this ritual is called matsamukh ) and the funeral process was over.

Biriyani is my all time favorite dish.

In my student life I asked many of my muslim friends’ moms about the recipe of biriyani. They told me and I had tried preparing biriyani by trial and error method but every time that was a failure.

In this way my student life ended and I myself became a teacher. Then I got a student named Zaheer. His mom became very close to our family and we call her buludidi (bulu is her name and didi means elder sister in Bengali).

One day she invited us in her house in Eid. She prepared excellent biriyani for us on that occassion.

As usual I asked her about the recipe. Not only she told me the recipe but also she showed me the process by herself.

After some practice I became expert in biriyani. Now my DH tell me that, my Biriyani is better than Shiraz (The best restaurant  for biriyani in Calcutta)

In Sankrit it is considered that depending upon the eating process there are four types of dishes namely ‘Charba’, ‘Choshya’, ‘Lehya’ and ‘Peyo’.

Charba is a kind of dish that have to chew, like vegetables. meat fish etc.

Chosya is a dish that have to suck, like some sweet dishes, juicy fruits.

Lehya is for licking, eg chutneys, pickles.

Peyo are the beverages, like serbat, juices.

I can not start my day without a cup of hot tea.

Not only tea is my favorite hot drink but also tea is a very popular drink all over World.

The story of tea start in ancient China over 5,000 years ago.

It is considered that, Gautama Budhha is the first person, who discovered importance of tea leaf in India. One day when he was ending his meditation, he felt very tired and hungry, then he saw a shrub near by. Chewing the leaf of that shrub he became refreshed. That shrub was a tea plant.

Then it was used only as a herbal drink(tea leaf boiled with water). But modern form of tea, which we are drinking with sugar, milk etc are brought by the British.

Assam & Darjeeling tea are famous all over the world. Darjeeling tea is popular for its flavour, whereas Assam tea is for liquor.

There are many varities of tea, Milk tea, Lemon tea, Masala tea, Green tea, Liquer tea etc. Green tea is a good source of anti-oxidant. It is a famous Wel Come drink of every Bengali houses. In Kolkata, to drink the tea in a earthen pot (vaanr) is very common and nostalgic.

But always remember never drink hot lemon tea in polythene or alkathene cup, because acidic lemon tea will chemically combine with alkathene or polythene to produce toxic chemicals.

When I had planned to start my own recipe and cooking website I was wondering for a suitable name.

In my student life I had learned in literature that naming are mainly of three types; according to the name of the topic, after the name of a character or characters and the last one is aligorical.

I always prefer aligorical naming so I kept the name of my site five tastes, that are considered the major tastes and can be recognised by the taste buds present in the tongue.

Today is Valentine Day. In the morning I asked my husband that what he would like to take in dinner. He told me to prepare his favorite dish chicken biriyani.

I have prepared chicken biriyani for him, hope he will enjoy his dinner.

Chicken tikka masala is one of the Britain’s favourite curries, although none in India knows about it. It is said that it was invented by a Bangladeshi chef.

It is prepared with chicken cooked in tomato sauce, cream, yoghurt and lots of turmeric and cumin. 

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The poultry sector of Assam is facing a huge problem not due to the dangerous bird flu but due to the shortage of poultry food, that are imported from West Bengal and Bihar. The Government of Assam imposed ban on the import of poultry feed to the State because the avian flu virus had hitted many districts of West Bengal.

“The menace of bird flu may not have yet hit the State till date but if the ban on the import of poultry feed remains, the existing poultry will die due to starvation,” said Rajib Sarmah, general secretary, All Assam Poultry Farmers’ Association while talking to The Assam Tribune.

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Six years ago I got a full set of non-stick cookwares as a wedding present from my mom’s colegues.

I never used it till today. I was cooking with traditional Indian cooking utensils. But today, for the first time I used a ‘kadai’ from the set  and I have fallen love with it.

It absorbs so little oil yet fries are great. I can use it to heat any dish without oil which is impossible with traditional ‘kadai’.

So I have decided that I will always cook with non-stick cookwares.

It is raining heavily in Kolkata(Calcutta).

So I am preparing ‘kichuri‘, ‘papad’ and omelette for dinner.

It is a bengali tradition to prepare kichuri in rainy days.

Kichuri with omelette, dum alu, fried hilsa fish, papad or tomato chutney.