Names of Foodstuffs - In Bengali and Hindi

Radhe Radhe!

A friend of mine, who is living at Radhakunda wanted to know a few words in Bengali and Hindi. She hasn't started to study Bengali yet and she needs these words to do the daily shopping.

If possible she would like to have them in Hindi and Bengali, but she will be happy to learn at least some of these in either of the languages.

"BUCKWHEAT, BARLEY, MILLET, RYE, PEANUT, OATS, CAULIFLOWER, CABBAGE, BROCCOLI, CAYENNE PEPPER, CAROB POWDER, CORIANDER, SAFFRON, CUCUMBER, CUMIN POWDER, TURMERIC POWDER, CARDAMON, TAPIOCA, LETTUCE, FLAXSEED, TOMATO, CHAMOMILE, RICE, PEAR, APPLE, RAISINS, OIL, SUGAR, POTATO, SPINACH, LEMON, WHEAT, CORN, GINGER."

This what comes to mind for me when shopping in Vrindavan but many are also similar in Bengal:

BUCKWHEAT
BARLEY
MILLET
RYE
PEANUT moongphali
OATS
CAULIFLOWER gobhi
CABBAGE
BROCCOLI
CAYENNE PEPPER mirchi is generic for chilli
CAROB POWDER Nestle/Cadbury cocoa
CORIANDER dhania
SAFFRON kesar
CUCUMBER kheera (heera chora, kheera chora--a diamond thief or a cucumber thief, but both are thieves)
CUMIN POWDER jeera
TURMERIC POWDER haldi
CARDAMON elaichi
TAPIOCA sabu(dhan?)
LETTUCE
FLAXSEED flea-seed "isabgol" is the local equivalent, more common in Ayurveda than flaxseed due to it being less pitta forming IIRC
TOMATO tomatar
CHAMOMILE
RICE ask for basmati but check the quality!
PEAR
APPLE seb
RAISINS kismiss
OIL til (teel)
SUGAR chini
POTATO aloo
SPINACH palak
LEMON limbu/nimbu
WHEAT atta (wholewheatish flour) maida for white
CORN makan...or something but not butter = makhan. But remember that those things which look like roasted corn cobs taste nothing like sweet corn. You get a mouth of mealiness instead of a delicious gob full of crisp sweet corn dripping with butter.
GINGER adrak

I should know many more but I'll have to think on them. Or cheat.

bangla:

peanut (any nut?) : badam

oil: tel

cucumber: kakri

rice: chaval (hindi too)

whole chillies: lanka

sweet: mishti

sour: kacha

Badam = almond in Hindi. This site suggests "chine badam" for peanuts. (Good site as it lists both Bengali and Hindi.)

I write from experience with locals in Mayapur. Their idiom was simple but a bit mixed (eg 'chaval' but the 'proper' word was 'anna'). We ate together every day for which I needed to know the words or I would starve , and badam meant peanuts on ekadasi. But I think it extended to any other nuts (but there weren't any except pistachio very very rarely, which as that site notes, was called 'pesta').

Also salt: hindi- namak
bangla- laban

Funny the site does not mention the cooking style 'posta', literally 'paste'.
We ate jhinga posta akmost every day (called 'jhingey' on that site: regional variation)
- jhinga-posta: a rough ridged gourd (also used as bath-scourer!) in wet poppy-seed paste.

'kakri' for cucumber is no doubt a local Mayapur farmer's word.
'rai sorsey' for mustard sounds odd. Most will surely just say 'susha' as in 'susha-tel' mustard oil, or 'tilka-tel' sesame oil.

The site also does not mention the bitter apettiser called shukta I think (my memory is getting terrible), made from either neem-pata or korela-bhaji. A serious omission.

Ah, very nice addition. I'm familiar with the name khus khus for those poopy seeds. They are the brown kind, not the familiar western variety. A wonderful Bengali man with a rotund belly taught me how to use them. They are relatively expensive in the west though but they make an incredible gravy. Fried potol in tomato sauce was another standout.

On a recent visit to India, I found a great cookbook in the Macmillian showroom. All the recipes were without onions and garlic but better still, the cook really knew what she was doing. Numerous recipes used the famous Bengali "five spice" mix--panch phoran--and others dried mango powder--aamchur. I have since started using both regularly, having dropped them from a long time. Aamchur is a wonder spice with its sweet and sour tang.

Anyways, excuse my gastronomic exhuberance but I ate five or six rasagollas today and am having trouble landing.

Thank you for the link! I gave it to my friend at Radhakund, and she found it very useful. I think I will also print the list and take it with me for our next visit.

It will be very good to know the things you are going to buy in Hindi, because most of the shopkeepers don't know a word in English. Sometimes I almost had to take a pen and paper and draw them what I want, because the spoken communication wasn't simply enough. They presented me five different articles before the right one came.

Here are the Hindi words as I know them (as a Hindi speaker) for some of the items that do not seem to be covered in the list linked by Braja.

Buckwheat is faafar.
Barley is jaun.
Millet is bajra.
I am clueless on rye.
Cauliflower is phool gobi not just gobi. Gobi is a general reference to members of the brassica genus (cabbage genus). The cabbage itself is bund gobi.
I am clueless on chamomile and I doubt you can get this in India as a local product. You may need to substitute with mirzan josh which is the Indian marjoram. It will provide the same medicinal effects as chamomile with the exception of sedation.

BTW, precisely speaking, mirch just means pepper and it orginally denotes "black pepper" the original pepper since "vedic times". The alien cayenne pepper is specifically "laal mirch" (red pepper) or "har mirch" (green pepper). Also almond is pronounced "badaam".

In my ashram in Vrindavan they seem to prefer the word ramrosh (রামরস) for salt instead of labon. Is this common elsewhere in Vraj?

Indeed as ram-rasa ! Haven't heard that in a while

The Hindi word "jhinga" and similar such words in other Sanskrit sourced vernaculars refers to prawns (USA - shrimps). I take it that the so-called jhinga posta that you ate was so called because it is either a contemporary or a historical vegetaric substitute for prawn posta. Accordingly you were eating an imposta!

haha
well I don't know, it is a course gourd which is also used as bathroom scourer when dried and the 'flesh' removed. More like fake-eel I imagine.

Apparently prawn in Bengali is 'chingri'.

Braja-rasa-bhAvana, zuSka-rasa-tADaNa!
I'm still saving four rasagollas which I made for the program.

This is really a good site!


I would suggest Malatilata to include this seriously and regularly in her diet. This is extremly good for the people who are sensitive to any chillies.

Are any Bengali terms needed here?