#blahvsfood goes to Kasturi and gets an introduction to Bangladeshi (Dhakai) food

 I went to the original Kasturi at New Market with my Chef friends Priyam Chatterjee and Rishabh Seal and I had just one request. I said I wanted to have dishes that I’m not familiar with. I am no one to vouch for how authentic the Bangladeshi food in Kasturi is but I could see the menu was different and that’s what I wanted to explore.

My god, did this meal deliver?! This was a very very special meal for me. Maybe it didn’t hit the heights or my visit to Tarun Niketan Pice Hotel but it came closer to that feeling than any other Bengali restaurant I’ve been to. 

There’s some sort of cognitive dissonance when you eat Dhakai food when your frame of reference is Ghoti food. It feels familiar and comforting but also new and exciting in a way that you can’t put your finger on. 

The food is more full bodied with much more aggressive use of chilli and spices. Onion, garlic, dry chilli and mustard are used liberally but not without balance. The gravies seem more robust, the flavours more explosive.

The aloo posto was more moist than the version I’m used to and featured both onion and garlic along with spices. The dal didn’t have the sweetness of the Ghoti version thanks to the use of the mustard oil and garlic. 

There were two dishes that I loved in particular. Chingri bhapa with kochu pata (colocasia leaves), and a lot of mustard oil. And a dryish Chingri ghonto made using tiny young river prawns with mocha (banana flower), mustard oil, and strong garlic and chilli flavours. Both dishes were a cornucopia of flavours and textures, different elements coming together like some sort of brilliant fireworks display in your mouth. It showed a completely different approach to prawn cooking than canonical Ghoti dishes like chingri malai curry. 

I also loved that we ate the mutton pulao with a mutton dish (the mutton dak bungalow) on the side. The pulao itself was darker, more fragrant and more subtle than the standard Kolkata biryani. It didn’t have a potato. Instead it had fried onions and aromatics. The mutton curry was unapologetically direct with none of the nuanced layers of spicing that you get in a Khosha mangsho. When combined they created this intense jugalbandi that I loved and couldn’t get enough of. 

For dessert we had the obligatory mishti doi but also a lip smacking raw mango chutney (with chilli) that we had with crushed papad.

What an unforgettable meal. Thank you Priyam and Rishabh for being so patient and explaining the nuances of the dishes, and the context to the cuisine. 

This was an incredibly special experience. 

What we ate: 

•  Postor bora

•  Jhur jhure alu bhaja

•  Shona moong dal

•  Aloo posto

•  Kochupata diye chingri bhapa

•  Mocha chingri ghonto

•  Chital Muitha

•  Dhakai Mutton pulao

•  Mutton Dak Bungalow

•  Chutney

•  Papad

•  Mishti Doi