Miss Masala

I attended the book release program at the Oxford Bookstore in Park Street this evening. The book called Miss Masala is on quick Indian cooking and authored by Mallika Basu the grand daughter of Jyoti Basu.

Mallika’s younger sister Doel, her mother Dolly Bose and Bickram Ghosh were there at the function (picture: Bickram Ghosh, Dolly Basu and Mallika). The book, published by Harper & Collins, has already been released in London. The Book’s introduction says, “This is a book on Real Indian cooking for Busy Living.”

Despite Mamata Banerjee’s rally that drew between 3 lakh to 20 lakh people as per guesstimates, the Oxford Bookstore was packed. Only once earlier did I see such attendance at the Oxford and that was when Gopal Krishna Gandhi released a book on Mrinal Sen in his presence.

Mallika started writing blogs on cooking while in London and soon after the blogs became popular that it matured into a book.
As a hardcore Indian foodie I really enjoyed the discussion that was moderated by Doel with Mallika and Bickram Ghosh actively participating. While referring to one of the paragraphs from the Book which mentioned that Vodka helped in cooking food, Bickram jokingly said that this means Sundeep cannot cook good food because he doesn’t drink.

Anyway, I think it is one-of-its-kind cooking book with its share of unique recipes. With the author sharing her experiences, it is good light reading about heavy food.

ess bee