The Indian Olive

The Indian Olive, a desi version of the olives found in the western world is abundantly available in West Bengal, North East and Bangladesh. It is either eaten raw, pickled or cooked to make the bengali 'chutney', wich is essentially a dish in itself and not just another sauce, like it is in most other Indian cusines.

Called 'jalpai' in bengali, the Indian Olive is greenish in colour and has quite a tangy sting in its flavour. This one however, is not laden with the olive oil, as we usually find in its western counterpart.

The funny bit here is that - most people refuse to believe that there actually exists an Indian Olive, since our knowledge about the fruit is dominated by what we know about its mediterranean cousin....Just another example of how we often fail to appreciate that which is our own!