The most popular and easily available fish in Bengal are the carps, particularly Rohu and Catla. Among catfish, walking catfish (maagur in Bengali) and stinging catfish (shingi) are very common and easy to digest and also easy to eat for having fewer bones. Climbing perch (koi) is also very popular, but hard to eat without experience because of too many sharp bones. While the above are everyday fish, Hilsa (ilish) and Chital are both the contenders for the top position for taste. But Hilsa is notorious for its innumerable small and sharp bones and needs some experience to eat efficiently.
The most popular fish in restaurants is Bekti (distortoin of Bhetki in Bengali). It has few bones and can cut into boneless fillets. Another easy to eat and widely available fish is pomfret.
Usually fresh water fish are sweetish and have a mild flavour. These are best cooked in light gravy (jhol). Sea/brakish water fish have strong taste and smell. If that is undesirable (as many Bengalis find it), a thick spicey gravy (jhaal) is good for cooking them. Depending on the nature of the fish, you can cook any fish using either of these two kinds of gravy. A friend living in London reports that Salmon jhol tastes better than any Bengali fish dish.
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