B&B
People who know me will know and understand :-) that ONE day I would be compelled to write a blog about B&B...no, not Bed n Breakfast but Baingan & Bhindi....i.e aubergine and okra in English ...but I prefer to call them by their Indian names......
Since 1965....(I think....It is in any case my earliest memory...) B&B and my taste buds have had an undying love affair. Of course it is all Mummy's fault! I was a very fussy eater in those days (hmmm, looking at me now no one will ever guess that!) and I would not eat a "proper" breakfast (= Britannia bread, Paulson's butter, Robertson's jam, eggs and milk with Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate ...) before the Army bus came in the (early!) morning to take me to school. My poor Mum was in tears! How can one send ones darling (albeit fussy!) little child to school on an empty stomach?
And so it transpired that every morning she and our cook would make me breakfast!
It was the ultimate Bongo (Bengali) solution... and it worked! ... Rice with melting butter, thin watery masoor daal (red lentils) and of course: Begun Bhaja... fried aubergine......Ooooh! Can there be any better food than this?? I would eat a hearty "Mum's Bongo Brekky" and go happily off to Loreto C...leaving a delighted Mum waving on the doorstep all the way until the bus disappeared from view at the bottom of our spacious Cosmos strewn garden...
(The Britannia bread with Paulson's butter and liberal helping of Robertson's jam was neatly packed in a tiffin box in my satchel for lunch at school!... where I loved and enjoyed it immensely with all the other little girls and remains even today, yet another of my favo-foods)
All the years in India the B&B were daily regular unfailing features of any mealtime... be it accompanied by rice or chapattis. The variations of these humble veggies were endless..... In all my childhood travels, Mum and our varied regional cooks the B&B dishes they served were all delicious. My favourites however remain - Bongo style stir fried Bhindi and Begun bhaja and baingan ka bharta (roasted aubergine)... all quintessentially simple homely Indian fare.
And then I came to Sweden....
Hahh! Of all the myriad things I missed most ....were astonishingly - B&B!
They were rarely available in the mid 80's and one had to travel to special markets in Gothenburg or Stockholm...and they cost almost half my monthly wage for a kilo...to the bewilderment of friends and family back in India! It even prompted my parents to want to start a B&B export business and my Aunt to smuggle Baingan in her suitcase past the watchful customs at Frankfurt and Gothenburg...!!! But of course things have vastly improved in Sweden since... Baingan/aubergine is AVAILABLE now a days... at a price... hmmmm....
Well.... so now you know...
And then! three weeks ago one of the shops advertised Baingan!! O M G! It was so cheap... so cheap.... cheaper than in INDIA!! And huge (that's why I have my glasses in the picture...) . And nearly seedless. And the Deep Purple hue I remember so well.....O m g again... how could that happen? What a pleasant shock...The vegetable rack was literally inundated with aubergines from Italy, Israel and Spain... I was transported to Baingan-paradiso! What joy...
And as if that wasn't enough... for the very first time in my thirty years in Sweden I saw BHINDI (okra) in tiny 150 gm packets from INDIA...!!! - costing the earth, of course...but oh such double joy!! After ALL these years of B&B starvation....
I am, as you can understand, simply compelled to write my ode to this glorious joy ...hehehee....
I have in the last few weeks thoroughly enjoyed my B&Bs in all the various ways as I know how and returned in my heart to my childhood food heaven....and smiled with inner joy.
Signing off for now.
C.S!
(Cresat Scientia)
