DOT Desk: Bangladeshis do love to cook, feed and eat. If we look closely at the regular items we devour, we see that the amount of preparation they require is massive, particularly in case of home cooked meals, reports TBS.
Starting from the preparation of items to the final act of cooking, every step requires proper measurement as the binding of spices with the vegetables or the meat are profoundly important and an act of patience.
The same is true for our festival foods. With signature aroma, flavours and the aftertaste they leave, they became an important part of our memories of not only devouring a special item, but also the sheer joy we attain by sharing those with our near and dear ones. However, in a city like Dhaka, where restaurants popping up here and there are offering a smorgasbord of local and international cuisines, how important is a food festival? Especially one that offers only regional delicacies that bear a testimony of culture and heritage? Mujib’s Bangladesh Food Festival Taste of Bangladesh, organised by Bangladesh Tourism Board, was somehow able to attract a diverse group of visitors, foodies and bloggers, and of course for the right reasons. With 46 participants featuring their delicacies in 51 stalls from both urban and regional setups, the festival became a melting pot of gastronomic diversity that is Bangladesh’s best kept secret from even its local Gen Z and backpacking international travelers. The one spicy curry that was selling like hotcakes at the event was Abbas Hotel’s mutton Chuijhaal curry. Using the bark of a tree from Khulna, the northern district of Bangladesh, the curry is filled with gravy, spicy, and will give you a sweaty experience of a meal sure to release lots of endorphins and dopamine. One piece of meat costing Tk220 seemed a bit pricey to me. However, almost everyone I found having lunch was binging on this curry.
Chattogram’s famous Mezbani goshto or Khulna’s Tiger prawn malaikari were also there but the thunder of both was stolen by Chui jhal. Food Village Eco resort’s fried Crab and Lobster were also picked up often as they required little effort to devour. One piece of crab was Tk200.