From Kolkata to Brooklyn
We have lived in Kensington, Brooklyn, for twenty-five years. This is a place that has become a real, stable home since our journey to America from Kolkata, India, forty years ago. In many ways, Brooklyn reminds us of the city we left behind. It's chaos and cacophony – although much more subdued than what we see in Kolkata, its residents from many races, languages, and religions, its “un-American” dingy streets and alleys, its two o’clock in the morning honking cars with loud music, and yes, its Indian community.
Our home is in a strip between Little Pakistan on Coney Island Avenue on the East, and McDonald Avenue, aka Little Bangladesh, on the West, separated by the ever-busy Ocean Parkway. The thousands of students who visit my now-renovated, brightly lit kitchen to learn the craft of Indian cooking tell me, “You truly live in India away from India, don’t ya! You’re literally sandwiched between Pakistan and Bangladesh.”
They even add a smiley after they text me.
In American suburbs, you would think this would be kind of unthinkable. But this was Brooklyn, where you could feel the presence of a society full of warm, friendly, smiling people. They would include your students, and they would include your neighbors.
When it came to cooking, I very quickly found the confidence I needed to make something of it, and with this encouragement, the demos turned into classes, which turned into a business that took on a new level. Converting a demo class into a full-blown hands-on lesson has been an adventure, and I’ve had the pleasure of teaching many, many students the wonderful world of Indian cooking, all from scratch.
Learning Flavor Through an Indian Lens
I first began my classes in my Brooklyn backyard. I can remember putting out a large table in the yard next to my garage, arranging some chairs, and bringing out an electric oven to show them firsthand a few dishes that could be easily made in a short amount of time. In the early days, the menu was made up of eggplant and potato fritters with chickpea powder paste. I made some handmade Indian bread, and I made Indian lassi with cold milk, ice cubes, and sugar, with a sprinkling of cardamom powder.
There would be five to ten Brooklynites gathered around the table, watching my every move. I would even look up from time to time to find out that not only were my students watching, but curious eyes were lurking from the second or third floors of surrounding apartment complexes. In summer, occasionally, a few women would come out onto their narrow iron balconies to watch me work. It was the ultimate compliment, someone spending their free time enjoying my craft.
I’ve always had a variety of unique visitors. Most of my early students came from various corners of Brooklyn. Some happened to be living close, some would join my class along with their spouses, and some even brought their children. It was a community affair. Then we had students from Manhattan, Queens, or the Bronx. Some came from New Jersey. Believe it or not, in my fifteen years, I have even had students who flew from California, or Great Britain, or yes…Finland!
But Brooklynites have always been the primary attendees. Their cheering wows and giggles have steadily filled up my kitchen all these years, and in a way, my cooking is a love letter to them. I cannot thank them enough.
The Brooklyn Street Markets
Brooklyn gave me another great resource to expand my business and create value of depth. Because my home is conveniently located between Little Pakistan and Little Bangladesh, from time to time, I am able to take my students on special group tours to markets where you can see the various Indian spices, rice, dal, vegetables, and other important ingredients for this kind of cooking. You can even find pots and pans that are essential for Indian cuisine.
Some of these trips to the Brooklyn street markets have been extraordinarily fun: imagine ten, fifteen American young men and women following their Indian teacher gleefully to Pakistani and Bangladeshi shops, spending an hour or so inside the markets, enthusiastically searching for special recipes, only to bring them back to my kitchen, where they would follow my instructions for the next two hours cooking butter chicken, spicy cauliflower curry, handmade roti and paratha, and chickpea curry with coconut shavings! From vegetarian and vegan to meat dishes, they had ingredients they’d grabbed themselves to cook with.
A Love Letter to My Community
Occasionally, I would have a chance to speak with my students about my history with cooking, explaining how I learned in Kolkata, who my first mentors and inspirations were, and the other various elements of nostalgia that we have always carried with us throughout our forty years of living here in the U.S. The biggest takeaway from that conversation is always how, after spending almost fifteen years in small Midwestern towns and upstate New York, we have found a true home away from home right here in Brooklyn, New York.
Brooklyn has become our abode of peace because it is so strikingly similar to Kolkata. All I have to do is take a walk through my Brooklyn kitchen, and it’s as if we’ve never left.
We have adopted America as our home away from home, and we have come to this point in our lives after going through a hard struggle in our first few years as new immigrants. We have left a lot of life’s precious things back in India, and we miss them all the time. This is, of course, a familiar story here in America – the Land of Immigrants. You can talk to your grandfathers, grandmothers, grandaunts, and granduncles: their stories from Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, or England would not be much different.
We came much later, but we can easily relate to their stories. While we feel happy to have assimilated into this land of diversity, it is especially sweet that we stumbled on Brooklyn, New York, where people, especially my neighbors, friends, and students, have given me the opportunity to share what life has taught me.
Brooklyn has rewarded me plentifully for my passion, hard work, and desire to fulfill my dream. I thank Brooklynites and New Yorkers immensely.
Additional Classes by Mukti’s Kitchen
Healthy Indian Vegetarian Dinner
Butter Chicken, Chana dal and Paratha Dinner