Sehri - Eating Out before Subah Sadiq

Sehri - Eating Out before Subah Sadiq

Faizul Khan Tanim

Indiscriminate screams – “Sehri’r shomoy hoyechhe, uthhey porun” (It’s sehri time, wake up and have your meal) or “gorom gorom biriyani, khaya jaan, loya jaan” (Warm biriyani to eat and take away) - these lines fill up the sehri places as scores of people crowd the streets of Old Dhaka to eat out before Subah Sadiq (early dawn). The streets throb with noises of spoon banged on steel plates and loud merry shouts, many different colours and the atmosphere is taken over by the aroma of mutton leg roast, glassi, the different types of biriyanis, naan-kabab, khichuri or the conventional shada bhaat-maach-gosht-daal and more. This is where Ramadan festivity starts for many. And according to the thousands of sehri connoisseurs, these are few of the sweetest lines or catch phrases they listen and experience with pleasure while in the sehri capital – Puran Dhaka. Upon reaching the eatery Al Razzak, Star Hotel (Old Dhaka, Banani, Dhanmondi and Karwan Bazar branches) and about 20 to 30 other places around Nazira Bazar, Kazi Alauddin Road and more, smell of hot and steamy dishes like the biriyanis, teharis will assail your nose and you will find multiple camera lenses focusing the giant dishes, street models up to the little cups of tea.

Due to this happiness, sehri is no longer the meal associated with gentle rude-awakenings at 3 am in the morning, rather, it has become an urban shindigs of old friends, relatives and new. A culture has brewed over the past few years of visiting Puran Dhaka food hotels or new Dhaka restaurants for the Mughlai style or deshi assaults of the dainty dishes. And thanks to this late night journeys and drives of the Dhakaites towards the Puran Dhaka eateries, sehri has become a mammoth venture for food entrepreneurs and now, the traditional Puran Dhaka places are not restricted to exclusive iftaar items only. This is another time we can indulge in the spirit of Ramzan and enjoy not only delicious post-midnight delicacies but harvest friendship and bonding in groups as well.

And this time, couple of restaurants in the newer parts of Dhaka have started their sehri ventures for the stomachs to make their trips and indulge in different types of cuisines. The Backyard Chef from Uttara for example, popularly known for making amazing burgers (which I call ‘burgasms’), has something to offer to those to want to eat out during Sehri time, titled ‘Biriyani Buffet’. Although the more-glamorous eateries are coming up with ideas to catch foodies, these food aficionados love the street-side restaurants and basic bhaat (rice) joints, affectionately known as ‘Italian’ restaurants, because at the end of the night, it’s the oily, greasy and hot curries which give the maximum satisfaction for famished taste buds.

Thanks to @ishtiaque khan for the lamb roast picture