Pestle and mortar

Sofina: In my country this is called a ‘siya’. There should be a base with it and you crush your garlic and ginger and your spices with it. You can make chutney, mango chutney, you can do anything with it…it's very useful. It has actually disappeared a bit. Obviously going back twenty years ago, every house had one, everybody crushed their spices by hand. But there are factories now, you can buy it already prepared.

It was also used to make medicine. Lime and syrup (sugar cane) were crushed together if you cut your hand or finger to stop the bleeding. Tumeric, that’s used as an antiseptic. In the olden days, back home, doctors would make the medicine up in front of you.

Sofina, Bengali Men's Group