Bengali food means rice and fish. From this it is easy to guess that Bengal is on the monsoon-drenched east coast of India. The other characteristic of coastal cuisines, the use of coconut, is clear in the the cuisine of eastern Bengal (Bangladesh). Unlike other coastal kitchens, however, coconut oil is not used. The preferred cooking medium is mustard oil. Bengali spicing is somewhat different from the norm in the heartland of India, but similiar to that used further east.