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.
I love Indian food 🙂 Very interesting to learn the difference between these two dishes 🙂
It is so nice to know about the iconic dish of India called Takda, never tried to taste it but it sounds so delicious and hope to taste this dish someday.
Hope to know how you like it.
To be honest, I’m not a fan of Indian food but with this post and the food featured. It looks so delicious and very tempting to the eye.
This dish quite titillates the taste buds.
Indian food is one of my favorites. I love all the spices.
Tarka and Torka, they not only spell different but the recipes are different too. Although I am a bengali but have been in delhi for 12 years and have a punjabi bestie so I must say you have presented the difference very well.
Glad you think so 🙂
I have never been to kolkata nor have I tried much of bengali food, but being a Delhite I am very much aware of dal tadka and ma ki dal. This post got something new for me to learn, and gk for whenever I travel to kolkata or try bengali cuisine.
This is not part of Bengali cuisine though, it is considered a Punjabi dish in Kolkata although the Punjabis quite disagree 😀
How interesting that the word Tadka can have two different meanings like this. Regardless, all of the food in both pictures looks amazing!
I was unaware that people put egg or meat in dal… This is such a unique information to know
If one can get over the inhibition, it is rather tasty!
Because I didn’t know what either one was, this became such an informative post for me! I feel like I can speak like an expert on the difference now!
Indian food are so savory and unique. Not like most of us food that are either sour or sweet, Indian food use many other spices that you will love.