Angry Eggplants and other food names

Khandoma

Namaste Friends,

I was told that the dish "baigan bhartha" translates as "angry eggplant".
I love that. The dish and the name, both.

Do you know of other colourful, evocative or funny names of Indian dishes, and their translation ?

Thank you and bon appétit !

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Khandoma
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sssall

Namaste,

I also love baingan, especially baingan sabzi. I've not heard of the translation that you describe. Bhartha or bhurtha means mash or puree.

In northern parts, it has been known to say when one's angry, 'mein tera bhurtha banaa doo'. Which roughly means 'I'm going to make mince meat of you'. The meaning of bhurtha is still the same.

Unless of course it means something in other parts of India.

To add to your thread, I can think of 'Gulab Jamun', which means 'Rose berries'.

In my brief search, I've found a few links that you may find interesting.

http://indiancook.wordpress.com/indian-food-glossary/

http://www.indianfoodsco.com/Classes/Glossary.htm

Khandoma

Heloo Sssall,

Many thanks for your reply. Your links are excellent !

Thank you for clarifying the meaning (and appropriate spelling) of baingan bhartha. Now I understand how the meaning slipped from literal to figurative.

I got the meaning from a collection of short stories by Bulbul Sharma, published under the title "the angry eggplant" in French. Did a quick search and couldn't find it in English, but if you read Hindi you may be able to locate those short stories. They are marvelous short texts about Indian cuisine, food and culinary traditions ; I would advise anyone to read them.

Thanks again for your answer.

sssall

Bon jour Khandoma,

That's about the limit of my French. All those evening classes have gone to waste.

My Hindi is very rusty as well. The book you mentioned is however available in English from Amazon and others and is called 'The Anger of Aubergines'.