a bengali hindu wedding feast

Medusa writes this post with much unhappiness, because medusa has embarked on the unthinkable- has started a diet. and medusa knows that the first days of a diet are the toughest (not that she has ever gone beyond the first day), and to make herself less miserable, she is trying to relive memories of glorious wedding feasts, nowadays too frequent to sit well with one's tummy. she's been to four feasts in January, and February promises four more, and with food such as this, it is not a surprise that the family insists that medusa goes on a diet.
that she has been ill and away from work for a week and a half may also have contributed to their drastic decision.
anyway, the thing on top is what medusa saw as soon as she entered the dining area of her friend's wedding reception. tacky mermaid with pearl and huge bowls of salad with cut fruit display.
the next picture shows the contents of the bowls- clock wise from top right: Pasta salad in a bed of lettuce; salsa made of onion, tomato and cucumber; more onion, tomato and cucumber, and carrot, but this time in bigger slices; vinegar onions.
for future reference- medusa loves vinegar onion and may have had a lot, which may have contributed to the fact that she could not eat much else.

What comes next is the quintessential fish fry- something medusa hates with all her heart! she just does not manage to understand why would anyone drool over a dry-ish betki fillet marinated in bread and biscuit-crumbs and deep fried? its texture is like that of biscuit, and its inherent fishiness makes it very fishy to eat.
but then, some like fish!


And then you have to have bread, of some kind, and something to eat that bread with. in this case the rumali roti, followed by chicken kasha, filled medusa's heart.

And then, everyone's favourite Mutton Biryani! Bengali Biryani, which some claim is actually awadhi (Medusa does not know, and doesn't care), is DRY, DRY, DRY. But somehow, the concept of raita hasn't caught on, however, big pieces of mutton, still attached to layers of fat and bone, being chewed to oblivion, is definitely stuff that male fantasies are made of. Medusa, she just loves the rice.
Once again, the learned farts will tell you, you can not have pulao without meat. Well, if the proof of the pudding is in the eating, then here it is!
One more chicken gravy, or was it mutton? filled with oil, rich and tender!
After this, the wedding feast chronicle gets a bit sketchy, Medusa suddenly became conscious of her waist chain cutting into her flesh, and a distinct heaviness that made it difficult for her to navigate all the desert items.
But she did have mixed fruit chutney
and drooled at the gulab jamuns-

Having given the sandesh, the gulab jamun and the ice cream a skip, she consoled herself with several paans, till the paanwala started pointedly ignoring her.


P.S. there may have been something for vegetarians as well, but medusa did not bother to find out.