Wow! A real festive spread to celebrate a special birthday. I remember my mum would put on similar spreads when entertaining at home in Kansas City in the 1970-80s. She would spend days cooking and made several varieties of Bengali sweets like roshogolla/rasgulla and sandesh by hand. One of her big spreads like the one you’ve documented above was for my younger sister’s ‘weaning party’. In Bengali Hindu culture a baby’s first meal of solids (almost always rice pudding) is celebrated almost like a wedding, with the baby dressed in wedding-like finery to mark an important milestone in their life. I remember my little sister as a chubby wide-eyed baby in 1982, dressed in her silk ghagra-choli with a tinselly veil, looking down cross-eyed at a sweet held in front of her.
I’m glad families still put on fancy homemade feasts for their loved ones’ special occasions - it’s a special kind of love.
9 Likes
ChristinaM
(Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))
604
I like snow peas, snap peas, and/or asparagus in my ramen. I toss snap peas into the water before it boils, asparagus and snow peas with the noodles. I use fresh ramen noodles, so I don’t know how it would work with the dried kind.
Thanks for the veggie suggestions. I used this recipe which is more or less how I’ve made it in the past. I boil the noodles, drain them, then put them in the bowl I will be eating out of. I sautée the ginger and garlic briefly then add the stock then put the veggies into the broth at the very end then serve. The recipe I used last night calls for sautéeing mushrooms however the ones I use reduce in volume so it looks like there were only a tbsp of mushrooms in the end. If I use mushrooms, I don’t really mind if they are cooked or raw, I just want something that looks more appealing as well as some other veg that I can put in whole. You’ve given me some ideas to work with. And as much as I love carrots, I’m not fond of grated carrots since they don’t look appetizing IMHO. I grated them last night because I wanted to see and taste the ramen as written then make adjustments accordingly.
Rather than grate the carrots (which I think looks fine, btw), you could shave them into ribbons with a vegetable peeler and toss with julienned scallions. The heat from the broth should wilt them just fine once it is time to eat. Corn shows up in some ramens, as well, if you happen to like corn (Hokkaido style would also have you add butter - good for a seafood ramen). Ivan Orkin does an oven dried tomato as one of his ramen toppings (outlined in a recipe here).
A salmon fillet from the Waitrose fish counter, pan fried. On top of straight macaroni with butter and rocket (most of the rocket is under the macaroni to wilt it). After tasting it I added more salt, some freshly ground black pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon.
A lot of the food was from small home caterers (ladies who cook very well and take small orders) – there has been a jump in the Bangladeshi population in the nyc/nj area, so there are apparently a lot of these.
The Pithas are really a specialty item, so my guess is those came from a separate person or people who are experts. They were picture perfect (look at the pleats on the half moons)!
Cousins of the parents made the very homey, typical festive things I didn’t get a picture of (because they came quite late, after the rest of us were pretty much done eating) – the puris/luchis, chholar dal, and mixed vegetable. I think I was the only person who didn’t eat again when those arrived – all the Bengalis took a fresh plate and loaded up on luchis and dal, and no less than 3 aunties tried to stick me with a fresh plate because how could I NOT? !
Absolutely. And it was heart-warming to see the 30yo (who lives in the UK and was just here for her birthday) really enjoy it – she mingled and spent time with everyone, sat and had a good chat even with me, whom she didn’t know from Adam lol.
It’s so interesting that you remember your sister’s Mukhe Bhaat / Annaprashan – you would have been pretty young too! That ceremony exists in other parts of the country too, my nephew whose mom is Malyali had it, but on a smaller scale.
Btw – oof on the homemade rasgulla and sandesh. Wish that I could take lessons from your mom!
Nacho nacho man!
Loaded beef chilli nachos, salsa, pickled jalapeños and jack cheese.
I’ll have salad tomorrow
21 Likes
ChristinaM
(Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))
616
I made (and DH pan grilled) Garam Masala and adobo-spiced b/s chicken thighs, which were first marinated in buttermilk and ultimately topped with a chutney of flaked coconut, cilantro, mint, garlic, ginger, jalapeño, scallions, and neutral oil (my take on this recipe). Sides of grilled zucchini spears, grape tomatoes, and asparagus with Tony Cachere’s Creole seasoning and sauteed TJ’s Cruciferous Crunch with lemon olive oil.
I kind of forgot to eat lunch and ended up having a late slice of pizza, so only could eat about half of this. But somehow I suspect I have room for the chocolate ganache I found in the fridge…
Pasta Grannies comes through again! Tonight we couldn’t get enough of Rina’s Capriccio (ham and cheese pasta rolls from Romagna). The only word to describe this dish is PERFECT. This will absolutely be made again, and again, and again…
Dessert was a tiny (oh, so full from the pasta) scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream from Making Artisan Gelato, with a few cookie dough mix ins courtesy of Leite’s Culinaria.
We seem to be in an Asian mood these days The leftover fried rice from yesterday with the delectable Lao sausage was my lunch, and dinner tonight was sake-miso marinated Chilean sea bass (following @amandarama’s recommendation) blasted for roughly 8 min at 450˚F in the air-fryer, blanched gai lan with oyster sauce, and Vietnamese garlic noodles.
The fish was mildly salty, with just a hint of the sake/mirin, but I couldn’t detect any of the ample amount of ginger I added, nor the garlic. Thankfully, the rest of the meal made up for that by being very salty, and very garlicky
We will have dragon breath for days. Totally worth it.
– all the Bengalis took a fresh plate and loaded up on luchis and dal, and no less than 3 aunties tried to stick me with a fresh plate because how could I NOT? 
!
Nacho nacho man! 
The leftover fried rice from yesterday with the delectable Lao sausage was my lunch, and dinner tonight was sake-miso marinated Chilean sea bass (following 
not that you should have waited.
