What "Bohemian Rhapsody" Tastes Like
- Arpana Gvalani
- Dec 3
- 2 min read
Queen — Bohemian Rhapsody
Banana, Harissa & Calcutta Paan Cake
(Track 4 of the “What A Song Tastes Like” series)
What if a song had a flavour?
Some songs are simple to taste.
A soft love song might feel like vanilla cake.
A quiet acoustic track might feel like warm bread.
And then there’s Bohemian Rhapsody — a song far too dramatic, unpredictable, emotional, and operatic to fit into any neat category.
It isn’t one flavour. It’s several. All at once. In one breath.
The question was never “What compliments this song?”
It was: “If this song were a flavour… what would it taste like?”
And the answer arrived as a cake that shouldn’t make sense, but absolutely does.
How this chaotic cake came to be
Bohemian Rhapsody has never obeyed structure. It moves from soft to explosive to ridiculous to brilliant, without asking anyone for permission.
That’s exactly what I wanted the cake to feel like: a little theatrical, a little dramatic, a little mischievous - and somehow harmonious at the end.
Banana brought softness.
Harissa crashed in with heat and attitude.
Calcutta paan added perfume and a little mischief.
These ingredients weren’t meant to sit quietly together… but once they did, they created their own logic.
There was a moment - spoon in hand, batter doing whatever it wanted - when it struck me that this was the same wild charm of the song:
you’re not here to control anything; you’re here to enjoy the chaos.
The cake refused to be predictable, and that made it perfect. Warm, loud, sweet, spicy, fragrant — a tiny opera in every slice.
Very Freddie.
THE RECIPE
Banana, Harissa & Calcutta Paan Cake
Ingredients
3 ripe bananas
100 gms plain flour
100 gms wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
150 gms castor sugar
90 gms oil
1 tsp vanilla
1– tsp harissa
2-3 tbsp crushed Calcutta paan masala
Honey (for glazing)
Powdered sugar (for dusting)
Method
Mash bananas in a bowl.
Add sugar, harissa and vanilla, Mix gently.
Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine lightly.
Fold in the oil little by little (no Moira and David here).
Fold in the paan masala gently.
Pour into a greased pan.
Bake at 180°C for 30–35 minutes, until golden.
Brush with honey while warm.
Dust with sugar before serving.
Anyway the wind blows…
Some songs aren’t just heard. They’re felt. And sometimes, if you let them, they can even be tasted.
This one tasted like banana, fire, paan, honey…and a little glorious chaos.
Freddie would approve.
Listen While You Eat
Volume: Up enough for the cake to make sense.
Chaos needs company.
Reel:
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