when do you say your ilish has gone bad it is never when the curry is too jhaal or nunpora ask bengalis and they will tell you that ilish goes bad only when it is not served in plenty way before the silver harvest started pinching a deeper hole in our pockets a middleclass bengali familys monsoon feast would include three to four varieties of the fish ilish maach bhaja with ilish bhaja tel begun diye kalo jeereknachalonkar jhol and ilish maach bhaapa or shorshe ilish be it jora ilish on saraswati puja and special items on jamai sashthi what the queen of fishes enjoys in bengali households is pure love while certain dishes of ilish including shorshe bata paturi bhaja and bhape are bengalis staples there are several other items that are as delish but do not enjoy the same popularity for their region of origin ghoti vs bangalin the eternal cultural fistfight between ghoti and bangal ilish is one of the biggest stakeholders while bangals claim they can cook more than 400 different items some unique dishes including ilish maacher tok and posto ilish were introduced by ghotis santanu bhattacharya a kolkatabased hr professional who hails from east midnapore said ilish maacher tok is cooked regularly in his household besides shorshe bata ilish my father prepares this chutney with tamarind pulp and ilish maacher matha we have it with rice or on its own he told usnot just in midnapore in 24 parganas too the chutney is popular kakoli bhattacharya who hails from bakhrahat south 24 parganas said i remember my mother making this chutney in our childhood but none of our siblings were fond of it and hence she stopped making it instead they lapped up a curry that had panch phoron a mix of fenugreek seed nigella seed cumin seed black mustard seed and fennel seed in equal parts my mother used to make ilisher jhol with alubegun and dhonebata potato aubergine and coriander seed paste she would add a dash of mustard paste and after the jhol was done she would temper it with paanch phoron she would also make pui shak malabar spinach with ilisher matha kakoli told us the fishermen community of south 24 parganas has a unique recipe for their time of sailing bimal bera owner of a couple of ilishcatching mechanised boats near sagar said our trawlers travel for over 18 hours at the average speed of 15 kmph we travel almost 300 km from the harbour there we stay for days and eat what we catch to prepare ilish we chop the fish and cook it with onion garlic and chillies meanwhile several households in other parts of bengal use locally available ingredients to improvise the ageold recipes srabani raha a homemaker in berhampore murshidabad said she started replacing mustard with posto poppy seed we prepare ilisher jhol with potatoes since posto is common in our kitchen i tried replacing shorshebata with poppy seed paste she told