Bengali food is not very spicy but yes sweet as much as Bengali girls. Bengalis has this habit of adding sugar to every recipes. Some of Bengali exotic cuisines are made of jaggary (palm sugar), daab (young coconut), malaikari (coconut milk) and posto (poppy seed). Bengalis are inevitably non vegetarian or better say 'fisheterian'. They just love different kinds of fish. There are chingri (river prawns) and various fishes such as bhetki, illish, pabda more characteristic than meat. An excellent dish called bhetki paturi is made up of fish steamed in banana leaf.
Vegetarian lovers please don’t get disappointed. Bengal is food lovers paradise where every type of food is equally welcomed and appreciated. Although vegetarian cuisines are much different in taste than their northern counterpart. Most of the Bengali food are prepared by mustard oil, there are excellent vegetarian choices. Two exotic vegetarian recipes are mochar ghonto (mashed banana-flower, potato and coconut) and doi begun (brinjal mini-eggplants in creamy sauce). Most of traditional Bengali lunch starts with sukto (a fantastic item made from bitter gourd). A typical Bengali lunch comprise of rice, dal(mostly moong), something fried, one seasonal vegetable dish, another vegetarian dish(curry type), fish, chutney, and ubiquitous sweet(s).
Unlike north Indians, Bengalis are not prone to use butter and ghee in their cuisines, they use it little bit for some specific items. Most of the Bengalis Sunday breakfast starts with luchi (puri) and aloo bhaja (fried potato) and round off with sandesh and rossogolla (famous Bengali sweets). A traditional summer drink is aampora sharbat made from cooked green mangoes with added lime zing.
And how can one forget about Bengali desserts? Bengal is a home to countless types of sweets. Bengali sweets are legendary. Most characteristic is misti doi ( curd sweetened with jaggary), best when the crust dries to a fudge texture leaving the remainder lusciously moist.
