West Bengal

West Bengal is located in eastern India and its cuisine has been shaped by the region’s diverse history. Encompassing influences from Bangladesh, which it borders on the east, the region had strong historical links with Britain, Western Asia and the rest of the world due to its status as a trade hub and epicentre of the British Raj. Influences from all over the world entered its culinary repertoire as a result. Its unique history with Hindu widows also came to bear on the cuisine. The historical repression of widowed women in the region, which famously ended in 1856 with the Re-marriage Act, extended as far as dictating their diets: “heating” or “bitter” foods such as garlic and onion were forbidden, as were meat and fish, and some of the more extravagant spices, but ginger was allowed. Hence arose a diverse vegetarian cuisine that makes delicious use of the cheaper spices and heavily leans on ginger.