Breakfast Bonanza around Dhaka

Breakfast Bonanza around Dhaka

Breakfast Bonanza

Faizul Khan Tanim heads out early for a hearty breakfast across Dhaka

Be it the quintessential hangover cure, the ultimate fuel for the whole day, or the first chance to refuel blood sugar levels, a hearty breakfast is a meal you should never skip.

Those who love food will travel as far as Tongi Bazar for that perfect paratha and beef bhuna or drive to Comilla for the ultimate malai cha.

But you don’t have to go very far. Breakfast in Dhaka has healthy and not-so healthy options, some of it served in places not for the faint-hearted.

For the ultimate breakfast, I crave all the greasy, crunchy, mouth-watering items. Think of golden crispy parathas, bowls of labra and an omelette or ‘mumlate’ as it’s called locally, or you may prefer a bowl of hot semolina or chicken soup.

The first step towards making my mornings satisfactory is with breakfast and it can be from one of the temporary stalls that open up as day breaks or at one of the popular eateries such as Star, Dhanshiri, Al-Razzak, Kosturi, Ujjol and Three Star, located anywhere from Old Dhaka, Moghbazar, to Gulshan, Banani and Dhanmondi.

Breakfast is the main meal that kicks of the business for the day. If you want nehari and payaa sprinkled with coriander, with a dash of lemon, all the fine spices blending with the fat and the marrow, to make a broth that is savoured with the steaming naan, then you can have it at any of these venues.

Some of the eateries have signature items. For instance, kolija bhuna at Dhanshiri, daal gosht at Ujjol and Three Star’s khichuri, are incomparable. Finish it off with a cup of tea. For me malai cha is the ultimate end to a hearty breakfast and leaves my Bengali psyche and tastebuds completely content.