For about two weeks, my sister had come to stay with us while her apartment was being repaired of the damages from the winter storm. During that time, she cooked for us and introduced us to foods we rarely eat, or have never tried before! It was refreshing to have her at home for longer than one day because she has been moved out for more than 4 years now. Other than that, I also enjoyed her company and had more of an appreciation for her than I did when she lived with us.

Something my sister is passionate about is Bengali culture, and immersing herself with other Indian languages, cultures, and appreciating Indian traditions as a whole. That, I’ve known my entire life. But something I never knew was that she implemented older Bengali traditions (things done in India rather than here) into her everyday life. With that being said, when I was told I was “eating my food wrong”, that took me aback for sure. At home, I am definitely impatient and defensive – so you can imagine my reaction to such a blunt statement. 

“Huh? What do you mean wrong? It’s food,” I said.

She told me my order was wrong – I didn’t even know there was an order to eat food, but apparently there is and she follows it. I really didn’t get it. I mean, it’s food.

Apparently, the order you’re supposed to eat Bengali food in is first with eggplant, then some spinach and a small portion of rice, then rice with lentils, then vegetables, then some sort of protein (typically fish). Above all that, you are not supposed to mix any of the rice around because it looks “messy”. 

I suppose I follow this order subconsciously, but this time I was eating fried rice so I don’t really know what she expected from me. I think next time I will separate everything.