The foods of a daily meal are usually simpler, geared to balanced nutrition and makes extensive use of vegetables. The courses progress broadly from lighter to richer and heavier. Rice remains common throughout the meal until the chaţni (chutney) course.
The starting course is a bitter. The bitter changes with the season but common ones are kôrolla (bitter gourd) which is available nearly throughout the year, or tender nim leaves in spring. Bitters are mostly deep fried in oil, or steamed with cubed potatoes. Portions are usually very small - a spoonful or so to be had with rice - and this course is considered to be both a palate-cleanser and of great medicinal value.
Another bittersweet preparation usually eaten in summer, especially in West Bengal, is a soupy mixture of vegetables in a ginger-mustard sauce, called shukto. This usually follows the dry bitters, but sometimes replaces it, and is eaten in much bigger portions. Shukto is a complex dish, a fine balance of many different kinds of tastes and textures and is often a critical measure of a Bengali housewife's abilities in the kitchen. However, shukto is not popular in Bangladesh.
This is followed by shak (leafy vegetables) such as spinach, palong chard, methi fenugreek, or amaranth. The shak can be steamed or cooked in oil with other vegetables such as begun (eggplant). Steamed shak is sometimes accompanied by a sharp paste of mustard and raw mango pulp called Kasundi.
The đal course is usually the most substantial course, especially in West Bengal. It is eaten with a generous portion of rice and a number of accompaniments. In Bangladesh, đal is usually eaten with the fish and meat courses, while in West Bengal it is eaten somewhat beforehand.
A common accompaniment to đal is bhaja (fritters). Bhaja literally means 'deep-fried'; most vegetables are good candidates but begun (aubergines), kumra (pumpkins), or alu (potatoes) are common. Machh bhaja (fried fish) is also common, especially rui (rohu) and ilish (hilsa) fishes. Bhaja is sometimes coated in a beshon (chickpea flour) and posto (poppyseed) batter. A close cousin of bhaja is bôra or deep-fried savoury balls usually made from posto (poppyseed) paste or coconut mince. Another variant is fried pointed gourd as potoler dorma with roe stuffing.
Another accompaniment is a vegetable preparation usually made of multiple vegetables stewed slowly together without any added water. Labra, chorchori, ghonto, or chanchra are all traditional cooking styles. There also are a host of other preparations that do not come under any of these categories and are simply called tôrkari - the word merely means 'vegetable' in Bengali. Sometimes these preparations may have spare pieces of fish such as bits of the head or gills, or spare portions of meat. A charchari is a vegetable dish that is cooked without stirring, just to the point of charring.
The next course is the fish course. Common fish delicacies include *[1]machher jhol, tel koi, pabda machher jhal, Doi machh, Chingri machh (shrimp)[2] malai curry, and bhapa ilish (steamed hilsa)[3].
Then comes the meat course. The divide among the Bengalis of Bangladesh and West Bengal is most evident when it comes to the meat course. Meat is readily consumed in urban parts of Bangladesh and some consider it the meal's main course. Khashi mutton or goat meat is traditionally the meat of choice, especially West Bengal, but murgi chicken and đim eggs[4] are also commonly consumed. At the time of Partition, it was rare for caste Hindus to eat chicken or even eggs from hens, choosing rather, duck eggs if eggs were to be consumed. Although it is debatable as to whether chicken is more popular than khashi in West Bengal today, the proliferation of poulty farms and hatcheries makes chicken the cheaper alternative. Beef is popular in Bangladesh, and has become popular amongst many non-muslims in West Bengal ever since rise of communism.
Next comes the chutney course, which is typically tangy and sweet; the chutney is usually made of am mangoes, tomatoes, anarôsh pineapple, tetul tamarind, pepe papaya, or just a combination of fruits and dry fruits. In Bangladesh, chutney is usually eaten during the đal course and no separate course is dedicated to chutney. Papoŗ(papadum), a type of wafer, thin and flaky, is often made of đal or potatoes or shabu (tapioca) and is a usual accompaniment to the chutneys.
The last item before the sweets is Doi or yoghurt.It is generally of two varieties, either natural flavour and taste or Mishti Doi - sweet yoghurt, typically sweetened with charred sugar. This brings about a brown colour and a distincnt flavour. Like the fish or sweets mishti doi is typically identified with Bengali cuisine.
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