Author Archives: Ankita Mukherji

Kasha Mangsho

Background Information: This is a long and complicated traditional Bengali (West Bengal is a northeastern Indian state) recipe that my father makes at home, and that he learned by watching his mother (my grandmother) make it at home as he was growing up. In Bengali, kashano means “to cook slowly on a low flame”. While mangsho directly translates to “meat”, it is generally used, in everyday vernacular, to refer to goat-meat or mutton. The dish is usually eaten with luchi, a deep-fried flatbread made of wheat flour. The combination of luchi and kasha mangsho is usually saved for weekend lunches or special occassions. My father moved to Singapore from India in his 20s, and has started making this dish quite recently – in the last 5 or so years.

Recipe: “So basically, kasha mangsho is a traditional Bengali dish, and what happens is that there is a thick gravy, which is what kasha mangsho means. The original name comes from the slow cooking – which in Bengali is called kashano, so basically slowly cooking the spices. So the ingredient is, mangsho of course… lamb, or goat meat. And this will be with bone – not without bone. That’s the speciality. Let’s say 1kg of mutton with bone, and we’ll take about 4 medium size potatoes cut into cubes… yeah medium size potatoes 4 or 5, cut into cubes, or halves. Uh…then, onion… probably about… 1kg will be about 2 medium size, not too small, medium size onions… Uh, chopped… Then… little bit of ginger and garlic paste… Probably, I would use 1 1/2 tablespoon of garlic and 1 tablespoon of ginger. And then for spices I use whole garam masala. So basically cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, and uh, cloves. These are whole garam masala. And apart from that spices are… turmeric powder, red chilli powder, uh… little bit of cumin powder and coriander powder. So these are the only four spices that go in. Generally, if you are cooking with lamb or mutton, and especially goat meat, which is mostly used in India, it is always preferable to boil it. I mean, basically boil it using a pressure cooker kind of thing. Otherwise it takes a very long time to cook. So while we use the pressure cooker to boil it, you can put the whole garam masala. So what happens is that because it is cooked on a pressure cooker with the whole garam masala, the flavour somehow gets infused. And later for making gravy we use the same water, the boiled water or whatever… the stock, or whatever you call it. Once that is done, take a pan and heat some oil. Traditionally Bengali cooking uses mustard oil, but you can also just use normal oil. Fry the onions… uh, the chopped onions, and after frying for a minute or two minutes at the most I use the ginger garlic paste, and I add a little bit of salt because when you add salt to onions, it always releases the… you know, the moisture from the onion, so it doesn’t become dry, its easier to cook. And then while that’s happening, on the side I am preparing the gravy. So I’ll probably take about 3 tablespoons of yoghurt. Plain yoghurt, completely. And then I’ll add 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon of kashmiri red chilli powder, 1 teaspoon of the coriander powder, and half a teaspoon, or even less, of cumin powder. Because cumin has a very strong smell. So you add this to the yoghurt, with a little bit of water, you can mix it very well into a thick paste. So once the onion and ginger-garlic has been fried for maybe 3-4 minutes, add this paste, fry for another just few minutes, and you’ll see the oil separating from it. Then you put the boiled mutton, the potatoes, and then just on a high heat you stir fry for a few minutes. And then what I do is to cook it on a slow flame and cover the pan, and every ten minutes I just stir. I leave it for 45 minutes or so. Kasha mangsho is supposed to be dry, but you still don’t want it to be too dry, and you don’t want the masala to burn, so once you take the cover off you can add a little bit of the stock from before, to make a little more gravy. And add sugar and salt as per taste.”

Thoughts: Food traditions are an important part of Indian, or Bengali culture. My father learned it from watching it being made in his home, and he brought the recipe, and perhaps the memories associated with the food, to Singapore when he moved. Similarly, I have grown up eating his iteration of the dish at home in Singapore, and I have tried making this and other similar recipes at college in Los Angeles. It is also interesting to consider who is involved in these traditions. In my house, my father primarily did the cooking, as he enjoyed it. This was surprising to many, because in most households, the women were used to cooking for the family.

Coconut oil

Background Information: My mother, since I was a child, has tried to get me to put coconut oil in my hair before I sleep. This is a common tradition among Bengali families, and even though we moved to Singapore when I was young, she has tried to keep this going. I interviewed her about this process, and why she believes it is important.

Ankita: So since I was young, you have always been trying to get me to put oil in my hair. Particularly coconut oil. Can you tell me about that?

Ma: The most important thing here is to lubricate the scalp with the oil, and slowly massage it, because when you massage it the blood circulation will be better. And it stimulates hair growth. That’s what we traditionally believe at least. So that’s why I tell you to put it, before you go to sleep. You put oil, tie your hair, then go to sleep.

Ankita: What else does this help with?

Ma: Blood circulation, longer, thicker hair… It calms you down also. So you can focus better. Not just putting coconut oil in your hair, but also massaging your body with mustard oil and turmeric. These are quite traditional and are remedies too.

Ankita: Where did you learn this? Did grandma do it for you?

Ma: No, she never did, but I saw one of my aunts do it for Raktim (my cousin), and she told me that I should do it too, so I did for you since you were young.

Thoughts: Even though I personally do not follow this tradition and at this moment cannot picture doing it for my own children, should I have any, it is still interesting to consider such folk remedies, and how widespread they are. Putting oil in one’s hair is an extremely common practice among Bengalis, despite there being no scientific data proving whether or not it truly stimulates hair growth or calms one down. It is also interesting to note the organic nature of these remedies – for example, the use of coconuts or coconut oil. Folk beliefs also influence the economy – coconut oil is a widely sold commercial product in India, and particularly in West Bengal.

Ghost Month

Background Information: Ghost Month, or “Hungry Ghost Festival”, is something I have seen being celebrated among Chinese families in Singapore, around houses and apartment buildings. The majority of Singapore’s population lives in public housing units under the Housing Development Board (HDB), and it is primarily around these buildings that the rituals take place. I interviewed Amanda about this festival. Amanda is a Chinese Singaporean, and she and her family grew up in Singapore.

Ankita: Can you describe this festival for me a little?

Amanda: Um, it’s like a month starting in August… the whole month of August is considered Ghost Month, um for Chinese people, at least in Singapore. So there’s kind of like, a lot of superstition involved, because its considered the month where the gates to hell have been opened, and so ghosts from the… other world, I guess, flood our physical world. And so, if we have ancestors who are dead, which most of us do, haha, um then we need to like, burn things for them, because we believe that if we run things like joss paper like money, or like little paper houses or something, they will be able to receive it in the afterlife. Um, and we also leave food out for them. So this is like the kind of thing where you see shrines, or not really shrines, but like small little offerings by the side of the road or whatever, um, you’re not supposed to step on it because it’s the dead person’s property.

Ankita: Is it mostly in these like everyday urban spaces that you’d find them? Like sides of the roads?

Amanda: Mostly on the side of the road, on the outside of houses, like outside gates and stuff… like most people live in HDBs in Singapore, so mostly on the walkways leading up to the apartments and shit. And there’s like these specific burning kind of garbage bins, where people burn joss paper, so it ends up being smelly

Ankita: Is the burning itself a big thing? Like do people get together to do it or something?

Amanda: My family doesn’t do it, because my grandmother’s like, not that superstitious, and my grandfather just doesn’t give a shit. So we don’t do it, but I see a lot of Chinese families in HDBs do it. I don’t think they do it like as a big occasion, but like a couple nights a week someone in the family will go down and burn something. But. There’s also like, a lot of other superstitions, and I think because Chinese people form the majority in Singapore, and it’s such an invasive sort of ritual, haha, like really smelly and all that…that it ends up being like, everyone acknowledges or everyone in Singapore knows that it’s ghost month, so even though there’s no like banners or festivities or whatever, everyone knows that the moment it turns 1st of August, there are specific superstitions that you can choose to follow or not. Like, never stepping on these sorts of things. Or, actually you cannot go swimming, because apparently there’s going to be a ghost in the water… Never shower at night for the same reason… Never walk alone at night, or too late at night. Um, and… stupid things like that.

Ankita: Do you know of any differences in the practice, like, for people in Singapore as opposed to let’s say, Chinese people in China?

Amanda: I’m not totally sure, but I just know like, that is the time for families to take care of their dead. Probably Chinese people in Malaysia would do it differently too.

Thoughts: It is interesting how the rituals or customs of a particular culture can offer insight into the worldview of that particular community. For example, from Amanda’s description of Ghost Month, it becomes evident how death and the afterlife are a significant presence in this culture. A person, after death, does not cease to be a part of a family or the community as a whole, and festivals or superstitions exist to remind people about them and to be wary of them, or as Amanda said, to take care of them. 

Pineapple origin

Background Information: Vanessa is a Filipino American who grew up in Texas. She learned this story in English from her twin sister, who had heard it from their grandmother in Tagalog.

Vanessa: “Um, so my grandma told me this story about the origin of the pineapple. Well, she told my twin sister, and then my twin sister told me, and, the… basic origin of it is that there’s this little girl, who is really lazy, and her grandma keeps asking her to do stuff… So she’ll be like, “Pinya, could you go… could you go, um, wash the dishes”, and like she’ll find later that the dishes haven’t been done and Pinya is playing. And her grandma will be like “why didn’t you do it?”, and Pinya will be like, “I didn’t see them… I couldn’t see the dishes”. And that’ll happen over and over again until her grandma’s finally like, “fine, since you keep saying you, um, you have no eyes, you’ll have hundreds of eyes all over you from now on.” And she left and when she came back she found her granddaughter had turned into a pineapple with a lot of eyes all over it.”

Thoughts: Interestingly, this story seems to serve two functions. On one hand, it is an origin story. According to Vanessa, the story is part of a larger, widely known but unofficial collection of similar Tagalog origin stories known as alamat. On the other hand, the story seems to also have a lesson. It was told by Vanessa’s grandmother to her sister, so it seems the message here for children is to not be lazy, and to complete the tasks assigned to them. 

Mother’s superstitions

Background Information: Eumin is a freshman at USC, and she speaks Konglish, or a mixture of Korean and English, with her mother at home. I interviewed her about some of the superstitions her mother has.

Ankita: Can you tell me about some of the superstitions your mom has?

Eumin: Ya so if I walk around the house without socks on, because um, if my feet are too cold for most of the time, um I won’t be able to get pregnant.

Ankita: Wow, really?

Eumin: Yeah. Or like, she really believes in herbal essences… Like, if I’m feeling sad or something… Like, last semester, like during finals, she shipped me this bottle of lavender extract, and she told me like, Eumin, you NEED to put two drops of this in your water.

Ankita: Is this something just your mom believes in, or is it a more common Korean thing too?

Eumin: A lot of it does stem from Korean things, and I think her being religious also, kind of amplifies her superstitions.

Ankita: What’s her religion?

Eumin: She’s Christian.

Ankita: Do you ever subconsciously find yourself following these or believing in them?

Eumin: Um… yeah. Like, my mom also told me to never write my name in red ink, because that means I’ll die, or like, something really bad’s gonna happen to me. So like, I never write my name in red ink, ever. I dunno, it’s just that’s she’s told me that since I was young, so I’ve kind of just never done it and probably never will.

Thoughts: It is interesting how superstitions guide the everyday lives and practices of many people. In Eumin’s mother’s case, she tries to make sure Eumin follows some of these as well, as a way of caring for her, and wanting to make sure she is healthy. It is also interesting how Eumin herself became subconsciously conditioned into following some of these