Poribortok: Winter Harvest social lunch

The Bangali word ‘poribortok’ (পরিবর্তক) represents many things: change, transition, transformation.

Join us on Saturday 8 August at Magenta House for a winter social lunch with Bengali-born, Gadigal-based home cook Shishir (aka Table Tok) as we unravel migration, memory, and transformative moments through food and storytelling.

Together, we’ll explore decolonised eating at the dinner table–savouring food with our hands to better connect with its flavours and textures, while we discuss zero-waste cooking methods and cultural practices instilled across generations and diaspora. Guided by the Bangali philosophy of balance, the lunch will explore the essential tastes: Tok (tangy), Jhal (hot, pungent), and Mishti (sweet)—with each meal thoughtfully composed using seasonal and ancestral ingredients that pay homage to the rituals and memories of South Asian home-style cooking. 

What to expect:

Biography

Shishir is a Bangali based in Sydney, with eight years of experience as a journalist and humanitarian worker. Her work explores food, memory, migration, refugee crisis, gender, and human trafficking. She runs a supper club celebrating Bangali zero-waste and intuitive cooking methods. Her food takes influence not only from regions across Bangladesh and her experiences growing up in different parts of the country, but also from everyone who has ever cooked a meal for her. She believes that every time we leave home and create a new one, we lose a piece of ourselves in the process. Originally from Bangladesh, this supper club is her way of recreating home — a space where everyone shares a table, makes food a way of sharing life, and experiences it together, at least for a few hours.