As the harvesting season is here, Bengalis all around the world gear up to celebrate their New Year according to the traditional Bengali calendar, known as Poila Boisakh or Noboborsho. This first day of the Bengali calendar also marks the arrival of the summer season and as the ritual goes, the community people celebrate this day with loads of food. It almost considered an unofficial rule to wish each other with an exchange of food, after all, Bongs are the big foodies. Although some foods are staples for the community, a notun bochor or new year is incomplete without relishing on certain specialties of this community. Whether you’re a Bengali or not, make sure you taste these must-have Bengali dishes once in your lifetime.

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Unline typical Indian pulao, Bengali polao or Basanti polao is yellow in colour as the name suggests and slightly sweet in taste. The highlight of the dish is its fragrant rice (gobindobhod rice) and does well with kosha mangsho or slow-cooked meat curry.

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Luchi is the distant cousin of puri, but only better because it is more crispy, light and flaky, made out of maida or flour.

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It is a dish made out of the fish head or muri with a unique blend of spice and rice. It is nothing like you have ever tasted before.

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The word 'malai' in this dish is derived from Malay style of cooking as this prawn curry uses coconut milk in this making. It is sweet and savoury in taste. It is our favourite!

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Rice pudding with fragrant rice and dry fruits as a topping, what’s not to like about it? You can also try other variants of payesh, such as chanar payesh or gurer payesh.

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