Here I realised that Bangladesh shares a common culture, language and history with its neighbouring Indian state of West Bengal. This shared culture also carries over to their dishes and many recipes are shared across borders, sometimes also referred to as Bengali cuisine. Bangladeshi cuisine may not be known to many. The cuisine varies between very sweet and mild to extremely spicy. The use of spices for both meat and vegetable dishes is quite extensive and include many combinations.
My favourite was the fish cooked in mustard gravy, Shorshe Mas and beetroot cutlet. Beetroot is something that I have been struggling with to come up with interesting recipes and the cutlet with some peanuts and and grated beetroot made a very interesting dish. The Payesh was to die for!
The Salad and starter lineup was basic with a very nice and hearty Mashed aloo pitika and a Prawn salad. There were dimsums and sushi and baked fish and what not, this was not a part of the Bangladeshi cuisine but an addition to the overall assortment. Having said that the dimsum and the sushi were just average.
Katla Kalia, none can find this dish in most of the weddings. Pond Fish simmered in Onion , tomato Gravy and full of aromatic Bengal herbs. Doi Potol (Parwal in curd based gravy), Palok Borir torkari (Spinach and daal wadis cooked in mild spices) and AamDaal and mutton biryani and Ghee Bhaat to name a few dishes.
Desserts filled a huge table and there were chocolate rasgullas( as exotic as it sounds, it just was zebra colored rasgulla), Payesh(which was the star as I have already mentioned),Kesar Chum Chum – the Bengali sweets are hard to resist. This was absolutely amazing and so was the Gur Sandesh (awesome). There was also a counter for London dairy ice cream which fulfilled my chilhood fantasies ;). Some desserts which I thought were average were Mohanthal and chocolate pastries.
My Verdict: Everything in the Bengali cuisine was exotic and yumm, beyond that it could get better. Now waiting to see what they can do with another region. When it came to Bangladeshi food, they nailed it!
Price: Lunch and Dinner – INR 3,400 (all inclusive)
For table reservations, please call +91 (22) 6117 5115
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