When we travel, we embark on a concurrent culinary journey. It clears a host of mystery that is India. Travel is a living lesson and we love to learn this way. Here is our study on the case for “Tadka”. Do read on if you are wondering what is all the brouhaha about.

What does Tadka mean?

In the course of our travels we have learnt an important lesson. India is a land of perplexities and many of these confusions are rather interesting.

Take the case of Tadka and Tadka Bengali style. This is something that baffled both Punjabi and Bengali between us during our culinary journeys that we automatically embarked when we travelled to the North and the East.  So much so, we decided to clear demystify this thingummy through a post about Tadka in North India and Tadka in East India.

Tadka in North India

It all started when the Bengali travelled to Delhi and looked for Tadka in the menu.

Dish called Tadka  – really?

As you may just know, Tadka in Delhi is not a dish but a step in preparing a dish. It is the process of tempering an item while cooking.  The elements used for adding Tadka to a dish would include onion, garlic, fenugreek, cumin or coriander seeds or powder, bay leaf, asafoetida, aniseed, so on and so forth. These ingredients are first added to hot cooking oil still on flame, sauteed till they sizzle or hiss till the aroma fills the kitchen. Thereafter the tempered spices are added as seasoning to the vegetable or lentil dish that is being prepared.

Since the right flavours are the key to a good Indian dish, the seasoning or Tadka in a North Indian dish is the make or break feature. One needs the right assortment of spices and condiments, the optimum proportions so that the flavours blend with each other in harmony and oodles of patience to get the Tadka correct. The wrong combination of spices or under-cooked or even overcooked (read burnt) Tadka would definitely make the dish unpalatable. Yes, the procedure of adding Tadka is that important to Punjabi or North Indian cuisine.

Tadka in Bengali style

When the Delhite travelled to Kolkata, one of the first new food experiences was to be treated to “Roti – Tadka”.  He thought it was some confusion in the menu till he was introduced to the novel gastronomical proceedings.

The most common “Punjabi” dish a Calcuttan might be aware of is the Tadka. Tadka is an iconic twist to a dal dish. This new dish may have developed in Punjabi dhabas and is now an honorary member of this cuisine. Tadka in Kolkata is basically a version of “Ma ki dal” dish in Delhi. A host of lentil varieties – moong, musur, gram and sometimes rajma or kidney beans are combined with tomatoes, onions, garlic and spices. Sometimes eggs or mince meat are added to up the protein. The ultimate dish that titillates the Bengali palate is thick, flavourful and has loads of texture. It is commonly a combination with roti or flat bread, perhaps with raw onion chopped on the side. It is available at reputable dhabas as well as any neighbourhood food shack. There are perhaps two prime reasons why Tadka has been adopted by Bengalis as a right. First it is inexpensive and can be a go to item in dinner menu and second, lentils being an important source of protein, and there is not much frying but slow cooking involved, the dish Tadka is a plateful of nutrition.

If you are travelling to Kolkata – drop all inhibitions and try Tadka or “Torka” as it is pronounced by the Bengali tongue. You might just become a fan.