The Bengali meal is not organized as starter-main-dessert but as a succession of small services arranged around a large mound of rice on a bronze plate (kansa) or a banana leaf. One always begins with the bitter (shukto) to awaken the palate, then come the dal, sautéed vegetables and fritters, river fish in sauce, and one finishes with the sourness of chutney followed by sweets (mishti, payesh). Tea accompanies the morning and the end of the day. This bitter-sweet-sour-sweet grammar structured the daily table of an affluent Bengali family like the one where Bibha Chowdhuri grew up.

Two inseparable signatures of Bengali cuisine: pungent mustard oil, heated until it loses its harshness, and panch phoron — a blend of five whole seeds (cumin, nigella, fennel, fenugreek, black mustard) thrown into hot oil to release a warm, slightly bitter aroma that perfumes vegetables and fish.