Alu…The Omnipresent Lover Boy

Ever heard of that shy boy, with a gentle demeanour, always welcome in any group simply due to his pleasant nature? He isn’t the talkative kind, he listens silently and contributes with a smile. He is never eager to please, but has that gentle assurance about him. That’s the hero of my story, the omnipresent Alu in the life and on the plate of a Bengali.

But before that…who is this ‘Paati Bangali’? We are that breed, who have earned the title of ‘paati’ meaning simple, yet bring the most stringent precision when it comes to matters of the taste bud. Whether it is the extent to which the phoron (tarka, for the uninitiated) must splatter in the kadai or the mathematical degree to which the oil must separate from the ingredients to attain the perfect ‘koshaano’, fair enough to state that no, we don’t compromise on this ground. Things are, more or less, non negotiable when it comes to taste bud demands.

There is a decent lunch waiting, looks inviting from every angle, cooked and ready to be served. And then you notice the rain clouds darkening and feel the chill in the breeze preceding a heavy rain. You and your mother or your partner decide on a whim to push the cooked meal to the fridge and begin preparations of khichudi with begun bhaja and papad instead. Do you relate to this? If yes, you qualify as a true Bong!

We Bengalis relate every life affair to food. Each one. Birthdays and anniversaries aside, is there a final cricket or football match? Friends coming over to watch. Biriyani is a must. An immensely stressed out day at office? Let the stress melt away in a quickly planned late dinner. Heartbroken? The quick fix is a home cooked meal, fresh from the kadai to your plate.

If you are a true Bengali, who swears on home grown food and has ghee alu sheddho bhaat as a go-to remedy for ‘my life is in a mess’, this narrative is as much yours as it is mine. Feeling the blues in a lost corner of the world, miles away from home? A simple mushur daal bhaat with alu bhaja and maachh bhaja can be the ultimate cure for homesickness. Getting the feel of Sunday by treating yourself to Bengali mutton curry of course is the ultimate elixir of life. And in between this spectrum, lies a rich array of vegetables, fish, chicken, mutton, eggs perking their pretty nose across a rainbow of taste and emotions only a Bengali can relate to. 

And in all of these glorious tales of the hunger and the hungry, the one item that emerges king is the omnipresent alu. The innocuous potato. This humble personality, with its mild manners, has the quality to placate the stomach and equally the heart with its gentle personality. Yet this very same gentleman can cook up a storm even in a glam-filled party with its presence, so much so that it demands equal market share. So in a reddish brown looking rich mutton curry, the quintessential question (read, warning) is always – alu achhe toh? “hope there’s potato?” Think of any vegetarian dish and you would see the extra spark in a Bengali’s eyes at the mention of ‘alu bhindi’, alu phoolkophi’, ‘alu peyanjkoli’. Of course, in all these, the alu posto is the reigning queen and a rare case where the dignity and status of the alu finds its equal in posto. Some other day, we shall talk about this epic status war!

A lazy afternoon often comes with a chicken er jhol with the alu which is often tastier than the chicken. Alu in dimer dalna is like checking a basic level fact sheet for any Bong! Cooking up a winter special machher jhol with seasonal vegetables? It ought to be sheem, phoolkophi and the obvious alu!

Halt here fellow Bongs. The Calcutta Biriyani became famous because of the special alu, an affirmation so strong, it has won a place in numerous menu cards across the length and breadth of India and even abroad.  

This humble potato has qualities like those of an evergreen lover boy, minus the glam looks. Shy and gentle, it comes loaded with a deadly potent of alleviating the taste of any dish manifold. The alu emerges as either a gentle understanding partner or the hero in all stories of the Bong cuisine. Never one to demand the spotlight, this gentleman emerges like the melodious song of the lover boy who would remain forever in your heart and on your plate even when the next dish arrives. He truly is omnipresent.

The extra potato by an overzealous cook in a super tasty mutton or chicken er jhol stays back and is never ever an unwelcome guest. In the aftermath of a strong Bong lunch, it remains floating in the remnant gravy, gently lapping up the best of the taste and enriching its stay. So the next afternoon, when it lands on the plate, when the heroes have been consumed the previous day, it still retains its aura and speaks of a bygone lunch. So people lap up the remnant alu and the gravy with a sigh and a smile. A sigh and longing for the mutton piece that was, but sadly has seen its last minute on earth. And a smile for the alu lying innocently in its gravy, a sweet reminder of all good things that ever were.

We bongs have a lasting partial fondness for alu. We force it even in dishes where it doesn’t really belong, like a forced marriage. Yet it slays the role each time, without fail. And just like a person retired from active duty never really retires from work, when all good things melt away into oblivion, there remains the resilient alu that never retires, with a talent of collaborating with subtle partners and in cooking up a storm. We smash it, it still lingers in our taste buds with a dash of shorsher tel and green chillies. We roll it around the kadai, add some peripherals, smashed dried red chillies with some angry green cousins and it kicks up a storm as alu chokha. We butcher it into small pieces, add some cucumber, chhola, a dash of lemon and a sprinkle of masala and there emerges the tangy alu kaabli. We slaughter them into the thinnest of slices and deep fry them, only to have the young and the old of the house fight alike for a fair share of the alu bhaja. 

The story of the alu in the heart of a Bong is one of romance. Its an old love that lingers well after all the hot faves have been lapped up from the plates. It’s a sweet rekindling of your first love, which never really was lost, but remained in our conscience as that lover boy who was gentle and sweet, with a shy smile and a heart of gold.