Dehradun, Aug. 24 -- Culinary Chronicles

Many dishes are in common with Assamese and Bengali cuisines. Like Aloo Pitika in Assam is Aloo Bhorta in the second. Called by different names yet the recipe remains identical.

An uncomplicated entree that almost took me a week to grasp!

During our tenure in Guwahati, each dawn the cab picked me up and, later, a colleague for work. While I waited for her to arrive, a camp of road workmen caught my fancy where the preparation for their first meal of the day was going on.

I noticed a heap of steaming hot mashed potatoes with julienned onions on top; was confident enough that it could not be for "Aloo Paranthas". Left me wondering what it could be for.

The following day the scenario was alike ex...