Bengali Bride: Part 1

I was born and raised in a typical Punjabi family. I fall in love with a typical, traditional Bengali boy. And finally, both got happily married. Now starts a new chapter of adjustment of Punjabi daughter into a Bengali bahu.
As I mentioned my husband is a typical Bengali and for your knowledge, due to my poor general awareness, it came as news to me that Bengalis are far more food lovers than Punjabis. It is said for Bengalis that they live for food, they celebrate food and food is their god and so they pray to the food. And my Bengali husband was no exception. So challenge started when I learned that he cooks equally well and expects the same from his career focused Punjabi wife. But, to me, cooking food was the last in my priority list. After so many confusions, contradictions and arguments, I took it as a challenge to master this skill, all for the sake of my loving husband. There are so many dimensions to the Bengali food or Bengali cuisine that I have to unlearn so much to accommodate this new thing.
So, the first in this series is how Bengali food is different from Punjabi food.
Aloo gobi(potato cauliflower curry), all Punjabi simply love this winter delicacy to the core. Trust me, how amazing feels the smell of a phool gobi tarkari the first few days when it comes in the market in the winter months.
What I found that in West Bengal, phool gobi is prepared not only with potato but shingri(shrimp) too. And, it is an equally hit dish there as well.
We Punjabi love stuffed paranthas(fried bread), especially in breakfast. But, I have not seen such thing in common in a Bengali household. Their concept of breakfast is totally different than Punjabis.
When I have already started about breakfast. And, no breakfast is complete without the mention of tea. Before marriage, I heard of black tea, milk tea, and green tea. But, Bengalis use one more version of tea that is lal chai(red tea). To my understanding to date, I think it is black tea(tea without milk). I might be wrong in this regard, but the red tea is prepared in the exact same way as the black tea. This does not end here, there is another variety very commonly can be found on Bengal sea beaches and market streets alike, called Lemon tea, a kind of healthy version of tea for Bengali tea lovers. My other observation about Bengalis is that they love to argue a lot, that is why Bengal is called the intellectual capital of India too. They have the story for everything. Bengalis are a totally different breed, a continent within the continent. They read a lot, so they accumulate so much knowledge and then they get confuse how to dispense that knowledge. And once they find this opportunity, they never let it go. You can trust me, I am one of the victims. So, I end my post here today, will come again with another interesting observation about Bongs soon. If you agree with and like this article, do leave a word, trust me it encourages a lot.