Brick Lane by Monica Ali is the story of Hazneen, a Bangladeshi girl who moves to London when she is eighteen for an arranged marriage to Chanu, a middle aged municipal worker. Hazneen and Chanu live in the housing projects of London, and the novel follows about twenty years of their lives. The book gives an insightful portrait of the immigrant experience in London, but is mainly the story of one woman's personal growth and awakening. There is lots of mention of food in the book, as Hazneen spends a lot of her time cooking for her family, though she never eats with them. She is always sneaking into the kitchen when her family is asleep or away and eating cold food - cauliflower curry, rice and dal (lentils) - eating alone is her way of coping with her unhappiness. I dug around the internet looking for Bangladeshi recipes, and it was so hard to decide what to make. I decided to go with the basic Bangladeshi/Bengali red dal, thinking it may be kind of boring, but was the type of food Hazneen's family would eat every day. Well I was wrong about it being boring - this is a highly spiced dish that is both warm and comforting and exciting to eat.
