Food for Thought - A Foodie’s Trip Around Dhaka

Food for Thought - A Foodie’s Trip Around Dhaka

Once again Faizul Khan Tanim goes out on a food quest and came back absolutely mesmerized

It was a random day and one of those bleak days as well that this stomach wanted to indulge in an explosion between unusual food and a gurgling stomach’s digestion juices. And I must confess that these wide range of food items can be very potent, tempting and cure emotion sickness on top of catering a rendezvous with voracious appetite.

To begin with, I was hungry and needed energy in my blood stream and what can fetch it more speedily than eggs? So I spotted this van near Shahbagh which says Dim Cake/Egg Cake (Taka 20 each). And to my mind’s amusement and my stomachic curiosity, the person making the cake or pie was putting in raw egg in between a rush of golden yellow liquid dough. And what came out of the stove? A delightful oval cake with the sun in the centre of full boiled texture and my god it had such an imaginative combustion in my mouth – a little sweet, a little salty and a lot of it was heavenly. I could feel my blood fueled with exciting possibilities and the craving for ‘more’.

Now, readers can obviously guess what a brilliant dose of appetizer can do to your hunger. I started walking towards Bashundhara City and to its Food Court on Level 8 because a friend of mine once told me, “Since you are a foodie, don’t just go there for Chhola Bhatura and Luchi...if you love Seafood, you MUST (in caps lock) visit the stall Delhi Seafood.”

Now, Seafood is a word which reminds me of happiness by the sea...of Cox’s Bazar, the mammoth street food life in Bangkok...literally an incredible epitome of joy and all that jazz. To my astonishment, the stall waiters said they can serve grilled octopus, fried squid, grilled prawn, crab fry or curry, grilled snapper and pomfret and a couple of other seafood items at affordable prices, which by the way are only available at top restaurants as per my knowledge. So It took me some time to digest this sea-dream. And to begin reviewing their food, I have to start with the word ‘crunchy’ and end with the expression ‘Oh! What an experience’ and in between I experienced the seven deadly sins – Wrath of the taste...it was strong; Greed of not sharing; Envy towards the restaurant owner, the Pride of me and only me having the food; the gastronomical Gluttony; the Sloth of not leaving the table and finally the Lust for more. Half portion of the grilled octopus cost only Taka 250, their specialty spicy seafood soup bowl was Taka 170, a plate of fish cake Taka 230 and sea food fried rice with fish curry and vegetable priced at only Taka 280. In the end, I could feel a little devil inside me but in a good way so I said Amen with a smile.

The food needed creative digestion and I still wanted to have dinner after all so I took a strong sour lassi to blow bubbles of peace while digesting the massively elastic palette I just devoured. And of course, walking did a lot of good for me.

And while commuting from Bashundhara City to the surrounding areas of the ever hustling and bustling Dhanmondi Satmasjid Road, I saw a lot of other interesting streetfood mobile stalls. Chotpoti/Phuchka and Haleem were the most common with occasional vans of Murali (sweet sticks), vegetable Pakoras and even more occasional vans selling orange coloured fried large shrimp and prawn heads and no matter how appealing they look, I must refrain because the menu of my dinner is Sinfully Amazing but Food-wise Deadly.

And without further ado, let me introduce the all important dinner – freshly made toasted Sandwich and Beef-cheese Burger Melt. With the advent of gadget, cell phone and DVD shops all over Dhaka, Shimanto Square, previously known as Rifles Square in Dhanmondi has a diminished appeal but can the food kiosks – namely QuickBite and Bengal Meat Fast Food (franchisee owned by Mila Fast Food) on the parking ground of this mall be the elements to bring back crowd? The answer should be a loud yes since I made journey to this spot on multiple occasions already. Apart from QB Sandwich and BM Fast Food, there are other kiosks of Prominent Sweets, Shwarma Club and few others.

Armed with real meat, these grilled cheese sandwich and burger melts are definitely not for the weak hearted and will cost within Taka 150 only. The QB sandwich has all of the necessary elements of a dainty sandwich - grilled chicken, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, onions, shredded carrots, cheese melted, dashes of sauces and cream and all the other essential condiments in the world – and after waiting in the queue for almost 25 to 30 minutes, if you still do not feel love at first bite, you are not meant to have this heavenly sandwich in the first place.

And the BM grilled cheese burger melt has all the makings of a supreme burgasm. It is the wholesome ground meat patty  trapped between two grilled/toasted buns, layered by a thick slice of cheese that would fuse and in the baking process, the secret burger condiments would soak in to the inner layers of the bun and bring about the perfect moist for the beef/chicken to turn on its flavour. A halo with devil horns is reserved for anyone who tastes this  sinful cheesy burger and who knows, if the cheese gets under your skin deep enough; you might as well become the next best thing to Ananta Jalil in the most positive way.

*This article was first published in The Independent Weekend Magazine - http://theindependentdigital.com/index.php?opt=view&page=44&date=2013-03-15