Why Bengali pastes taste better ground on a shil nora

Many Bengali cooks still prefer the traditional shil nora, a flat grinding stone with a hand-held roller, over mixer-grinders for posto bata, mustard paste, bhortas and dal bora. Cookery columnist Rukma Dakshy says the stone crushes and rubs ingredients under sustained pressure, releasing natural oils and aromas, while a mixie's rapidly rotating blades simply cut them.