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A Bengali Wedding Feast
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 "Baro mashe tero parban" goes a popular saying in Bengali. This means Bengalis have 13 occasions in a year to feast. This saying however does not include weddings. A wedding is the most important feast as it happens just once in a lifetime.
Earlier, a traditional Bengali wedding meal was served on banana leaves on the floor. Water was served in earthen mugs. Guests were seated on the floor on a mat spread across the room. Women were served separately in the ladies' chamber or antarmahal.
Food was strictly served by family members and friends- the catering system was yet to take over- no outsider was allowed to serve. Traveller Hueng Tsang recorded in his journals in the 7th century A.D. that a Bengali feast had so many chores that it took a long time to finish a meal!
Guests had the privilege of taking home whatever they couldn't eat. They would wrap with a large piece of clean cloth. This way of carrying back a 'doggy-bag' was called chada-badha.
The ladies of the Tagore household added many innovative items to the traditional wedding menu card- alu dum, potol roast (roast poppy seed) and a variety of chops.
Over time the Bengali wedding feast has imbibed changes both in the menu and way of serving. However, a Bengali wedding feast still has many delicacies, especially a large variety of fish and sweetmeat.
Sarbendra Sarkar, Food & Beverage Manager of The Peerless Inn, Bengali restaurant Aheli says, "Nowadays most people are opting for the buffet and catering system where professionals are hired to serve food. The erstwhile joint family setup made it easier for wedding meals to be organized by the household. With nuclear families predominating it is not very easy to take the full responsibility of a wedding meal. The catering system is quite systematic though some feel that the warm touch of the wedding feast has gone with hired people serving the meal."
When asked how a Bengali wedding feast can be set apart from any other regional wedding feast in India, Mr. Sarkar replies, "No other wedding feast in India has so many varieties of fish and sweet items."
Bengali sweets are served from paneer. Also Bengali meals start with shukto (bitter mixed vegetables), saag bhaja (fried leafy vegetables) and ends with misthi doi (sweet curd), payesh (rice pudding) and paan. Rice items like pulao and ghee bhat (rice with ghee) are preferred to bread items. The radhabollobi (dal stuffed puris) and cholar dal (dal with chola) is a unique dish served in a Bengali wedding. The Bengali wedding feast nowadays includes vegetables, rice, puris, mutton or chicken, eggs and fish dishes.
Fish, considered auspicious by all Bengalis, is a prominent feature of Bengali weddings. Mr.Sarkar says, "The large rahu fish covered with sindoor, turmeric and many sweets are sent to the bride's house from the groom's family on the morning of the wedding."
A Bengali wedding has two feasts - the biyer feast (the wedding feast) and the boubhath feast (the feast when the new bride is to serve rice).
Says Mr. Sarkar, "The wedding feast is usually planned by both the bride and groom's family. The boubhath takes place after the wedding. The groom's family arranges for a few different dishes than what was served at the wedding. On the boubhath day, the bride is supposed to serve food, which should definitely include payesh for the family of the groom's house. This is a good way for the bride to get introduced to the groom's family and relatives."
In olden days the ladies of the house would compete on who could give the best-dressed paan. The paan would previously be pinned together by a clove stick, now it's done with a toothpick. The wedding feast is rounded off with chewing paan while guests ruminate on how gala the wedding was and the good food that they had.
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Pallavi Bhattacharya
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