It’s that time of year again when the Bangladeshis get married. I am lucky to have been invited again. A year ago, I went to a combined holud which I described in an earlier blog. At the bride’s holud this year, the bride was carried in on a palanquin. While the groom was absent, his family and guests attended, carrying gifts. I will blog more about the next part of the wedding later… right now, I need to go to dance practice!
Happy New Year! Thank you to those who read my blog. If you wondered, I blog using WordPress… and they (or their monkeys) have written this post for me… The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 17,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 4 Film Festivals
Click here to see the complete report.
I will keep writing my blog as long as folks keep reading it. Enjoy more food and adventure in 2013! Love and be loved.
If Jaflong provides rocks, then the rivers in the nearby areas provide the next best thing — cement. The sand comes down from India and is considered of the finest quality. It is very fine in size and seeped in my canvas shoes through the canvas.
The process of sand fishing involves getting pails of sand from the river bottom, hauling them up into the boat, letting the sand drain a little, and then letting your colleagues push the drying sand into the center of the boat. At the back of the boat is a bilge pump or a guy bailing the boat. The sand is ferried down to waiting trucks and then the trucks move the sand to hand cranked cement makers.
I’ve tried 49 different restaurants in Dhaka. I did a first, second, and third roundup. This is my fourth:
Diner 360 (10/13): Continental. Good high end diner food. Steak sandwiches and a filet mignon dinner for 850 Taka. ($10.25)
Margharita Pizza (3/13): Pizza and fast food. It’s a small local place. Very flat and small pizza. Very local.
Samdado (6/13): Japanese/Sushi/Korean. Old established place to take business clients at lunch. Note: saw a rodent skitter across the floor during our incessant wait for the bill.
Crepe-au-Lait (7/13): Crepes, savory and sweet. Hip new place filled with hipsters. Note: Savory crepes were not bad. Service is slow.
Kozmo (6/13): Cafe. Hip place in Banani. Various Indonesian and other cuisines on small menu. Note: Mini chicken kebabs are cute.
Bella Italia (7/13): Pizza and pasta. The Penne a l’Arabiatta (spicy pasta) was the best dish. Note: It’s in the building with Royal Thai and the sign for Roy Rogers Roasters.
Dhansiri (9/13): Bangladeshi. Next to the Westin. Acceptable local food when you have people who want to eat Bangladeshi food.
Suraon BBQ (8/13): Korean BBQ, same owners as Sura. Across from Soi 71. Note: It has LA style kalbi (beef rib slices). Most of the food had something missing from the flavor. Too bad. The raw fish was bad.
Do Mi Ok (8/13): Korean BBQ. Try: the cubed daikon radish kimchi was crunchy and acceptable. There was no traditional napa cabbage kimchi served. Rest of the food was uninteresting.
Shwarma (3/13): Shawarma and mini pizzas. This place is so popular but I can’t really figure out why. The “meat” was chewy and not in a good way.
Cheng Chong (10/13)): Cantonese. Fried rice was good. Corn soup was good. Will try more stuff later.
Spices (3/13): It’s the airport restaurant. They serve fresh juice and all kinds of other items.
Bangladeshi women wear colorful saris. Seeing the colors every day, one forgets sometimes. Here are some photos showing some of the colors.
Madventures.me is one year old. One year ago, I started this blog in preparation for new adventures in food and travel. One year of great food and travel in Amman, Copenhagen, Dhaka, Doha, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Krabi, Luang Prabang, Mumbai, New Delhi, New England, Singapore, and many more.
I started this blog to share some of my adventures with family and friends. As I’ve blogged, my blog has evolved into a source for providing information on restaurants in Dhaka, shopping, and how much one can do in Bangladesh. As a blogger, I’ve been enormously happy when readers from all over the world visit my blog. Thank you for stopping by… from almost the entire world:
As my readership expands beyond people I know, I’m curious about what leads readers to my blog. So here are the top search terms people have searched for in the past year:
Shopping directly from the artist’s studio is the most unique experience (but more about that in a later post) for acquiring household goods. Otherwise, since there is no Ikea, Target, and Pier One in Dhaka, these are some of the main stores where expats buy goods for the home. Plus clothes, gifts, etc. Here is a list of some of the places where I shop.
Arong: A chain with many outlets. Located in Gulshan 1 and Uttara, etc. Like a Pier One. Everything from curtains, doohickies, clothes, shoes, plates, etc.
Jatra, 60E Kamal Ataturk, Banani, Dhaka-1213: On Kemal Ataturk. A place to get saris, hand made paper, rugs, bracelets, gifts, doohickies, etc.
Aranya: Same as Jatra and located in same building.
Decor Idee: Rangs Arcade, 153 A Gulshan Avenue, Gulshan 2: A custom made 70 inch long fabric hanger for 3,300 Taka. They text messaged me when it was ready at about 10 days.
Probhatina: Down in Dhanmondi somewhere. Lovely soft material and other items. Mostly Clothes. A little snooty shop.
Kumudini: on Gulshan. Several stories high and sells clothes, cloth, and some household stuff.
Carlotta Sisters: In Bashundura. Call to make a reservation. They are nuns who teach students to make lace. Tablecloths, aprons, runners, napkins, etc.
Then there are the markets: DIT 1, DIT 2, and New Market. And the “malls” like: Bashundhara and a place next to the flagship Arong in Uttara. Lastly, there are the roads: Road 11 in Banani is filled with shops and restaurants. The markets will give you the “local color” more than the newer stores.
A secret was revealed to me… plain home cooking Bangladeshi style. Every time I’ve been to a Bangladeshi home, I’ve been served beef, chicken, biryani, and other bounty of the table. The food in Bangladeshi restaurants is fancy as well. I just want home cooking. Apparently, home cooking involves lots of “mash” made from different vegetables. Like in most cultures, this is not considered good enough for guests.
Finally, a Bangladeshi friend of mine understood me and my out of town guests (it makes me really happy when this level of cultural understanding happens) and he invited us to dinner. He made us “ordinary” food of vegetables. And more vegetables. I loved it. We had taro root in three different ways, tamarind sauce, squash, peas, eggplant, potatoes, fresh chapati, rice, beans, shrimp, and so much more. My favorite was the white taro mash with chiles. My guests were thrilled to be invited to a Bangladeshi home on the very night of their arrival from the other side of the world. I’m glad to have been given a friend who so comprehends me. He explained to me that even he likes to drop in on friends so that he can get real home cooking.
So now I’ve got to learn this skill. More taro root for me please!
Photos are still the best souvenirs. The one I got here of our boat driver was my favorite from the hundreds I took on a touristy trip to a village where they make pottery. While the trip was geared for tourists and the villagers are used to being photographed, they were still kind and friendly to us. I didn’t feel so milked as I have in many other “villages” around the world. On top of which, at this village, the forced shopping component was at a pit stop along the road back to Dhaka. It was a fun day out.
The bowls we got to try our hands are mainly used for yogurt.
Color, colorful, vibrant, and so on are some of the words used to describe the traditional dress of Bangladesh. It’s not only women who wear colorful clothing. Bangladesh is known for its garment industry and the clothes reflect the bounty of this industry.
Women wear sarees or shalwar kameeses. Some cover their heads and some cover their faces. Some wear all black and some wear all color.
While the traditional dress for men is a lungi (see my post here), many of the men in the big city of Dhaka wear jeans or pants/trousers instead. Men can also wear a dressier bottom (of which I cannot remember the name right now), and everyone dresses up for special days including weddings.
Hopefully, these photos give some idea of what people wear in Bangladesh.
“Where do you hear about the restaurants?” is a often asked of me when I find new restaurants to try in Dhaka. Delightfully, often I hear about a “new” place from one of my friends, jute sandals slap-slapping down the hallway. Otherwise, I let it be known that new (for me) restaurants are “my thing” and that I am a collector. Plus, whenever I am out and about, I am always on the lookout for new restaurants or advertising (yes, it does work!) about new eateries.
However, I also search online. Until Yelp arrives in Dhaka, I must make do with the following social media sites:
Dhaka Snob: Local to Dhaka and quite static. Needs to be updated. Lots of dead links.
HottDhaka: Also needs to be updated.
Trip Advisor: They are the leading international site BUT it is hard to add new places and hard to communicate with headquarters. To their credit, they wish to verify a location… but that makes it hard to for me to check back and see when I will be allowed to post a review. Boo. Yelp allows easy posting and THEN verifies. Does Trip Advisor have someone go to each location? How does one get that job?
Lonely Planet: THE BOOK for many travelers and bucket lists.
Google: Start there.
Facebook: Many restaurants don’t bother with a formal website and go for a Facebook page.
FourSquare: Never underestimate the desire to “check in” and conquer a location!
Read about the 50 restaurants I’ve already been to in my previous posts: Restaurants in Dhaka – Part Three, Restaurants in Dhaka – Part Two, and Restaurants in Dhaka – Part One.
Still have 47 restaurants to go!
Wedding season in Bangladesh is December-January mainly because the temperature cooler (and family from abroad can make it as well). It’s been ten months since I started this blog and one of the most popular themes I’ve notice people search for is information about Bangladeshi weddings. Now that I had the honor of being invited to another one, I have more photos to show.
My friend and arrived at the community center three hours late due to other social engagements which was just in time to sit down with the bride and groom.
I know that before I went to my first Bangladeshi wedding, I was curious about what would happen. I hope to go to more weddings while here.
