The famous iftar lane of Chawkbazar: Running more on legacy than taste
We tasted the famous Boro Baaper Polay Khay, keema paratha, traditional chhola, and chops. And for refreshments, we chose lassi. And we kept it simple, only focusing on the roadside shops
For us Dhakaites, Old Dhaka is nothing less than Badshah Harun al-Rashid's Baghdad. Everything about this place resides in our imagination as a golden zari-bordered dream, straight out of Alif Laila.
Walking through its alleys and streets takes us a hundred years back, as if at any moment Begum Akhter will start her 'thumri' inside the old palace-like buildings. That is the reason the iftar lane of Chawkbazar never loses its charm, and every year, we run multiple pieces on the same iftar items.
From traditional lassi and sharbat to fritters, kababs, and parathas, one will find a vast array of food here during Ramadan.
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Hakim Habibur Rahman, in his book 'Dhaka: Pachas Baras Pehle', wrote about how, during the end of the 19th century, in the 1890s, the iftar market of Chawkbazar was full of delicious iftar items, and the quality was top-notch.
Rich and poor — everyone came to the Chawk and bought at least something. Fried fritters were popular even back then.
Mijanur Rahman, in his book 'Dhaka Puran', gave us a glimpse of the Raadan sharbat tradition during the Nawabi period.
"During Ramadan, people were served with fragrant sharbats made with almond and pistachio paste, saffron, milk, rock sugar, and many other things. It was unlimited for the passers-by. Whoever tasted it once would come back here for more," wrote the author.
In 'Kingbadantir Dhaka', Nazir Hossain said that the rich and fragrant sharbat of Chawkbazar was so famous that people from faraway places came here to taste it.
All these stories and legacies point to the probability that the tradition of the iftar market of Chawkbazar is fairly old. Nazir Hossain says Chawkbazar was a prominent marketplace during the Mughal period.
It was in 1702 that Nawab Murshid Quli Khan turned it into a proper modern market. This means the market dates back to at least 300 years.
If we maintain the quality, we would have to raise the price of the food. And then you will not buy from us. How are we going to continue our business then? We have to reuse the oil, the aubergine slices get thinner every day, and per kilogram of beef costs Tk750 now. How are we supposed to fill the paratha with keema?
We do not know exactly which year, but at least for more than a 100 years, the iftar shops have been sitting here during the holy month of Ramadan.
Continuing with the legacy, once again, we visited this year's iftar market in Chawkbazar to try some of the most common and also some of the most famous iftar items. We also wanted to experience if the market really lives up to the legacy.
We tasted the famous Boro Baaper Polay Khay, keema paratha, traditional chhola, and chops. And for refreshments, we chose lassi. And we kept it simple, only focusing on the roadside shops.
And it was absolutely disappointing.
Boro Baaper Polay Khay
Some of you must have heard that famous Urdu quote, 'Jo khaye wo pastaye, jo na khaye wo bhi pastaye', meaning those who eat it regret it and those who don't eat it, also regret it. This iftar item is the embodiment of the quote.
Boro Baaper Polay Khay literally means the food eaten by the son of a rich father, referring to it as an aristocratic food item.
Once you take a bite from it, you will realise that this is the last time you are ever going to touch this food. Because this absolutely preposterous iftar item is nothing more than a hotchpotch of leftover food from the last few days.
With some dry shredded chicken and a few dry chickpeas, it was nothing more than a bed of sand-like brown crumbles. A kilogram of this disappointment costs Tk800 to Tk1,200.
However, we searched for the origin of this food. Mijanur Rahman, in his book 'Dhaka Puran', gave us a clue that it was around a 100 years ago when the food was first made by a man named Qamel Mia. After that, his son and grandson kept the tradition alive.
According to the book, Boro Baaper Polay Khay should have chicken pieces, cooked beef liver and brain, eggs, keema, chickpeas, fried potato, sutli kabab, ghee, and a mix of spices that will have cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, black pepper, nigella, and fennel seeds.
It might sound like a royal dish; even the writer said that you will get to eat it only once in your life and never after that.
However, what we got from the market had none of these components. It felt like crumbled leftover fried batter. But why do people keep coming back to this?
Md Nazmul Mia, one of the iftar shop owners, said, "It is the name that brings people to this market to buy this. And you will find this only during Ramadan."
Keema paratha
The only reason we chose an item from the bread and paratha section was because of the legacy of such items in this iftar market.
I remembered Hakim Habibur Rahman mentioning sheermal (a special bread made with milk) becoming popular besides naan and bakarkhani. Sheermal sprinkled with lots of pistachio and dipped in sugar syrup is still very popular in Old Delhi during Ramadan.
"Alauddin Halwai came from Lucknow and opened his shop in Chawkbazar. He brought the sheermal bread of Lucknow, samosa, and nimakpara," he mentioned in his book. After that, sheermal bread became popular for iftar.
Author Mijanur Rahman gave us a glimpse of Old Dhaka in the 1950s in his book 'Dhaka Puran'. Here, he explained how sheermal bread was. "The bread was bathed in sugary ghee. It was served from the pool of ghee to your plate."
Unable to find authentic sheermal though, we decided to check the paratha section. But the keema paratha was more of a simple paratha stuffed with leftover spiced onion, not a speck of keema or meat could be found inside the oily pocket. Every piece costs Tk80.
Chickpeas and fritters
Chhola-muri or cooked spiced chickpeas with puffed rice is the ultimate Ramadan food for us. With that, traditional fritters like aloor chop, piyaju, and beguni are the best combo. From another store, we took cooked chickpeas, beguni, and chops; everything was obviously cold.
"We start selling iftar after Zuhr prayers, at around 2pm. We have to start preparing it at 10 or 11 in the morning," one of the shopkeepers said.
The beguni or aubergine fritters had the thickest coat of batter and the razor thin aubergine slices could not save its grace. The same goes for the potato fritters or chops.
The saving grace was the chickpeas. In fact, the moisture in the chhola helped us chew the food down. The fritters cost Tk5 per piece while the chhola was Tk320 per kilogram.
And at last, lassi
We know we should have started with it. But we felt we should end it on a sweet note to forget the trauma of the food journey. However, as we mentioned earlier, we chose to try the roadside stores and not the famous shops like Beauty.
The lassi did not terribly disappoint us, or maybe we were too heartbroken (and worried for our stomachs) to judge it.
Full of ice cubes, the frothy, white drink smells slightly of stale yoghurt but the use of too much sugar did not really let me concentrate on that. All I could think of was: Here comes diabetes! Per glass of the lassi costs Tk150.
Our recommendations
Md Ashiqur Rahman came to Chawkbazar that day to buy iftar for his family. "Every year, at least once, I take iftar from here for my family. It's like a tradition for us. But due to the price hike, the quality has deteriorated, I feel."
We agree with Ashiqur. The hype of this iftar market has felt like more of a legacy than actual good quality.
"If we maintain the quality, we would have to raise the price of the food. And then you will not buy from us. How are we going to continue our business then? We have to reuse the oil, the aubergine slices get thinner every day, and per kilogram of beef costs Tk750 now. How are we supposed to fill the paratha with keema?" Md Ramjan Ali, a small iftar shopkeeper, told us.
We did not have the answer, but we have some recommendations for you. Rather than going to the roadside hotels and makeshift new shops, try to stick to the old, traditional bakeries and confectioneries in Chawkbazar and the adjacent places in Old Dhaka.
The chicken patties, kolija samosa, and sheermal from Ananda Confectionery are still available at a reasonable price. The same goes for Bombay Bakery, Prince of Wales Bakery, Amania Hotel, etc. For drinks, there is Mohabbater Sharbat and Beauty Lacchi.
There might be other good, small-scale iftar shops too. But one must be persistent enough to try all the shops to find those gems and that might take a while. Maybe next year, we will bring out that list for you.
