**************************************** For more information/links, see http://goanet.netfirms.com ****************************************
Goa aroma could give clues to Bengalis' sweet tastes By Frederick Noronha PANAJI, March 5: Could distant Goa hold the clue of how Bengali sweets took an unusual turn in past centuries under possible Portuguese influence? A US-based writer and researcher is following the trail of the aroma, and it recently brought her here. Chitrita Banerji is intrigued enough to try dig out whether early colonial Portuguese settlers around the Bay of Bengal were somehow involved in the evolution of Bengali sweets made from 'chhana', or acid-curd cheese. "It all started several years ago when I was writing a paper for the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery (an annual seminar at Oxford)," says Banerji. In several works on food history (including Dr. K.T.Achaya's seminal work, "Indian Food") she found the suggestion that there might be a link between the Portuguese settlers and Bengali sweets made from "chhana" or acid-curd cheese. She told this correspondent: "I delved into a lot of medieval Bengali literature that gave detailed descriptions of food. And sure enough, none of the sweets mentioned there were based on chhana. So the theory seemed right." Until then, it is believed, Bengalis, despite their legendary sweet tooth, did not make cheese by deliberately introducing acid into the milk. So Bengali sweets in the pre-Portuguese days were possibly made either from milk boiled down to solid and semi-solid consistency (kheer) or coconuts, molasses, legumes, etc. "Yet, now, whenever you think of Bengali sweets, you think of sandesh, rosogolla, chamcham and a host of other goodies made from 'chhana'," Banerji added. So, the US-based one time journalist kept thinking of how "a foreign community interacted with the locals in such an intimate way as to create a radical change in food processing". This isn't felt strongly in the case of the British, she says. In the case of the chhana sweets, the Bengalis seem to have adopted the Portuguese technique of cheese-making and then imprinted their own creative stamp on it, to give birth to a whole range of sweets. "My present research is really not so much about food facts as about this human interaction in the 17th and 18th centuries," she adds. She concedes much more work needs to be done. "(In Goa, librarian Lourdes Bravo da Costa Rodrigues) unearthed copies of an old journal, 'The Indo-Portuguese Review' and in one of the articles I found references to the inter-marriages between Portuguese and Bengalis. "This is exactly the kind of interaction that might lead to a radical change in food habits. And I'm looking for more evidence about such connections," said Banerji. Maria Lilia D'Souza, librarian at the Jesuit-run Xavier Centre of Historical Research, also offered her "interesting names and references", she adds. "I would love to know if there are any diaries or journals kept by (Jesuit or other) priests who traveled not only in western India but also came to the Bay of Bengal region," she adds. "I came to Goa because, though my primarily focus is on the Portuguese in Bengal, I think information about the parallel social and cultural intimacies between the Portuguese and the native inhabitants of the Goa region could help me have a better picture of a long-gone historical reality," said Banerji. Goa was the headquarters of the Portuguese colonial empire in the entire east -- from virtually Africa to the Far East -- for much of period Lisbon ruled Goa, between 1510 and 1961. Portugal was the first European colonial power to set up a toe-hold in india. Researchers here point out that even through its global exchange of crops, the Portuguese made a huge difference by bringing in plants like cashew and tobacco to India. Even the chilly, much a part of the Indian diet today, was not available in India till the advent of the Portuguese. (ENDS) -- Banerji can be contacted via email [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511 : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.goanet.org/mailman/listinfo/goanet
