Uchhe Alu Bhaate literally means bitter gourd and potatoes in rice. 'Bhaate' are a type of frugal Bengali dishes where vegetables are boiled along with the day's rice. Once cooked, the boiled vegetables are fished out, and then may be mashed, seasoned with salt and garnished with pungent mustard oil. A tiny helping of this is served just at the beginning of the meal to be eaten with rice. This opens up the palette to the other more extravagant dishes that are coming up. Uchhe or bitter gourd is also eaten during the spring when the cold winter turns to the hot summers in Bengal, and various contagious diseases such as measles and pox become common. Bitters were believed to help protect the body against these diseases.
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