Flavours of Bangladesh

The aroma of food breathes music in the hearts of Bengalis. We bring you some mouth-watering dishes of Bangladesh that will keep you coming back for more

The way to a Bengali’s heart is truly through the stomach. Good food and Bengalis share an irrevocable relationship. Their closeness to food is resonated in the fact that they ‘live to eat’. With a variety of dishes from rice to lentils to fish, it is said that if a Bong does not lick each of his fingers after a meal it is to be understood that he has not truly enjoyed the food.

When it comes to Bangladeshi cuisine, it’s unique in its abundant use of fish and its employment of a wide variety of fiery pastes made from ground roots, spices and chilies. Bangladeshi cooking is a culinary art form that has been passed down the generations. It is a tantalizing blend of wonderful and fragrant spices that will keep you coming back for more. We bring you five must-try dishes once you are in Bangladesh.

Steamed Hilsa

In Bangladesh, there is no substitute for Steamed Hilsa or locally called Bhapa Ilish. This dish is a gravy prepared with mustard seeds paste and usually served with rice. A preparation of Ilish usually doesn’t require much of spices as the aroma of the fish itself is enough to make the dish exquisite.

What makes Steamed Hilsa a favourite among Bengalis is the way it is prepared -- the easiest and most flavourful Hilsa preparation. The steam cooking process keeps the aroma of all the ingredients intact and the mustard paste and green chillies nicely balance all the sour, sweet and spicy taste.

Kacchi Biryani

Biryani is the king of every food in Bangladesh. Be it a family get together, or a birthday party, this is a must have food. In Kacchi Biryani, raw marinated meat is layered with raw rice before being cooked together. Cooked typically with goat meat, or with lamb, potatoes are often added before adding the rice layer. A boiled egg and mixed salad often accompanies the dish.

If you come to Dhaka and do not taste biryani from any of the famous restaurants, you’ll miss half of the food culture of Bangladesh.

Bhapa Chingri

The sound of Bhapa Chingri breathes music in the hearts of Bengalis. Steaming is an honoured way to cook fish in Bangladesh; spice coated, packed, sealed and cooked while you hold your breath, waiting for that first whiff of the exhilarating aroma. Bhapa is steamed and in most steamed fish curries there is mustard and also mustard oil. This is a quintessential dish, made with mix of mustard, and poppy seed paste, slender hot chili peppers and a generous drizzle of mustard oil.

Beef Tehari

Tehari is an authentic Bangladeshi aromatic rice that packs a pleasant punch contributed by green chilies and curried beef. There are many versions of tehari, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, in South Asia. However, Bangladeshi tehari is predominantly a rice dish that is always made with beef. Authentic old Dhaka tehari is cooked with mustard oil.

The difference between biryani and tehari lies in the cooking method. For Biryani, rice, meat and potatoes are cooked separately and then layered during cooking, while tehari is cooked with oil and the cooked beef is added to rice and mixed together while cooking.

Morog Polao

Morog Polao is a very special food of Bangladesh, especially served at marriage ceremonies or any other big family festivals. Morog is Bengali for chicken, and polao means rice cooked in a special way. Morog-polao is specially cooked rice with large portion of chicken, and a drink known as borhani is also served with it.