Fragrance of kacchi, stench of the gutter: The Old Dhaka food experience
Unless you are free of the clutches of social media and have managed to steer clear from the time-sucking whirlpool of Youtube, you have definitely seen clips of food vloggers from Bangladesh and abroad roaming around Old Dhaka, tasting the many delicacies the area has to offer.
In all of those videos, the vloggers are invariably wowed by the food, in love with the chaotic ambience and tout the entire experience as unforgettable.
Seeing locals and foreigners with an expression of bliss as they devour a plate of tehari or bite into a bakarkhani, one can’t help but romanticise the entire experience. But the people who have been there in person know that the ground reality is a bit different.
What those videos can’t show and the vloggers don’t say is that in Old Dhaka, the fragrance of biriyani is accompanied by the stench of open sewers. The giant pot with mouth-watering goat tehari of the famous Hajir Biriyani is less than a few feet away from a steady stream of greyish sewer water.
Still, as we live in a city with little to no source of entertainment, we put on our rose-tinted glasses, willfully ignore the unhygienic conditions and go out of our way to go to Nazirabazar in Old Dhaka to dip our fingers into a culinary experience that is unique to Dhaka, and hopefully our not our toes into the puddles of sewerage.
At midnight on Sunday, it was the turn of my cousins and I to put on the rose-tinted shades as we decided to go on a food tour of Old Dhaka in the dead of the night.
We thought we were being smart by choosing to go out at night. We would beat the scorching sun and the unbearable traffic and also get to experience a less congested Old Dhaka.
We were right on the first two accounts but were surprised to find that Nazirabazar was teeming with people and vehicles at midnight because many like us had the same ‘bright idea’ of going on a midnight food tour of Old Dhaka.
Our culinary journey began with a visit to the Hajir Biriyani. It was almost 12:30am but the place was at a hundred per cent occupancy. We had to stand beside people with half-eaten plates of goat tehari, patiently wait for them to finish their meals and leave their seats so we can sit.
After a small waiting period, we finally got to sit and soon plates of tehari and bottles of burhani were at our table. The fragrance of mustard hit our nostrils and soon we took the moist pieces of goat meat with the fragrant rice and scooped this into our mouths.
The hustle and bustle around us stopped for a while as we enjoyed an explosion of flavours. After every few mouthfuls of tehari, we sipped the burhani to cleanse our palate, making us ready for the next mouthful.
We stepped out of the eatery more than satisfied. But as we stepped out of Hajir Biriyani with the aftertaste of mustard oil still fresh in our tongues, we were hit by the unmistakable odour of sewer water, which was enough to snap us out of our trance.
The next stop in our food tour was the famous Bismillah Kabab Ghar. It took us a little while to find seats here as well, but eventually, we were all seated together eagerly waiting for our chicken chaaps and parathas.
Thankfully, the wait didn’t last more than a few minutes, as very soon all of us had a leg piece of what I presume was a fairly large chicken presented in front of us with a couple of parathas on the side.
Bismillah’s chicken chap was worthy of all the hype surrounding it. The chicken was tender and as I took a bite into it the amalgamation of the juicy meat with the many masalas brought a smile to my face. I looked up to see what my companions were doing and saw a similar smile creep up on all of their faces.
Next up, was the Beauty Lacchi. The initial plan was to taste both their lassi and the lemonade and also try their faluda.
But after eating the kacchi and generous portions of chicken chaap, we were nearing our eating capacity. So we chose to only have the lassi.
The buttermilk prepared with curd, rose water and sugar syrup was exactly what we needed in the hot and humid conditions and after two heavy meals.
We stepped out of Beauty Lacchi with renewed energy, ready to explore more of what Nazirazazar had to offer. But one of our companions was at her limit.
The heat, congestion, the ever-present stench of sewer water and also the occasional yellowish goop on the side of the road which could only be one thing, became too much for her.
She started feeling dizzy and had to sit on the stairs of a pharmacy while a couple of my cousins ordered one of the many special varieties of betel leaf available in Old Dhaka in an adjacent shop.
Just as they put the betel leaves inside their mouths, our sick companion started puking out the chaap she had eaten just a few minutes back right beside the open sewer.
After that, needless to say, we all lost our appetite and decided it would be best to leave for home.
All in all, the tour wasn’t a complete bust. We got to taste delicious food, visit many famous eateries and experience Dhaka under the moonlight.
The night, however, ended not so pleasantly. But I guess that made the experience more authentic. Old Dhaka is the place where delicacies and filth are placed adjacent. Why should our tour be any different?