Review: Matir Ghor, Purbachal

Great traditional food just outside Dhaka  

Our table at Matir Ghor  

I feel lucky to have visited Dhaka at the end of 2019, just before the global pandemic kicked in. I've counted my blessing more than once over the last couple of years, especially as so many people haven't been able to see loved ones and family for much longer than me. My last visit home was unusually short, in between two busy periods at work, so it meant I actually stayed in Dhaka for once rather than travelling out to other places in the country. 

Of course, this wasn't something my parents could bear, so they had to take me out of the city for one road trip at least. Except, we didn't really head that far out of the city - only going partway to a planned new town project to the north-east of Dhaka called Purbachal. Apparently there was a really good fresh produce bazaar by the road on the outskirts of the town they wanted to shop from, as well as a nice traditional restaurant called Matir Ghor they thought I would like. And they were right, because Matir Ghor served up some really delicious traditionally Bangladeshi food. The restaurant is over an hour away from Dhaka, depending on where you're travelling from and what traffic is like on the day. As I was on holiday and my parents are retired (aka permanently on holiday - not as great as it sounds, they're usually bored), we went outside of rush hour on a weekday, making for quite a swift trip to a fairly empty restaurant. 

The restaurant building, just to the left

The venue is on a side street just as you turn off from the main road. There wasn't a gate or sign when I visited, just a bright-red clay path winding away from the street into the trees. Follow the path down, and you'll realise you're in the right place when you get to a bit of a clearing with parked cars. The site is a collection of single storey buildings set amidst a nicely overgrown garden. Talking to the staff, we learned that this was the owners' grandparents' home. Apparently the family aren't in residence anymore, but they wanted to preserve the site by turning it into a traditional restaurant. The main restaurant building is indeed made from earth as the name suggests, complete with a tin roof and bamboo supports. The structure has some supporting brickwork, along bright red metal doors and windows.

Clay walls, wooden benches and art on sale 

The look continues on the inside, with lanterns hanging form the ceiling, wooden furniture and earthen tableware - everything from the serving dishes to plates and glasses. But the little fans give away that the place does have electricity, despite the lanterns on the ceilings. And despite the old-fashioned look, this is a slick operation - with attentive staff, written menus and art for sale on the walls. A lot of the food is out on display in quirky serving dishes at the end of the room, and I would recommend wandering up to a have a look before ordering. 

Clockwise from the bottom left: tomato, lau, shutki, haash and murgi

The whole family loves eating, and so we ordered generously. From the vegetables we had tomato bhorta, lau pata or gourd leaf bhorta and paachmishali or 5-grain mixed daal. From the meat and fish options we had chicken cooked in bamboo, duck bhuna, king prawns with aubergine and shutki or dried fish bhuna. All of the food was delicious and clearly expertly cooked - and refreshingly a far-cry from the overly oily and spicy food served at a lot of Dhaka eateries serve. The ingredients tasted fresh too, and it really did feel like I was having a meal made from ingredients just brought in from the farm a few hours ago. I particularly liked the veggie dishes, as there's nowhere to hide when you're working with delicate flavours. The shutki was also very welcome, as I hadn't had it in quite a while. The bamboo-cooked chicken made it clear the place was potentially serving Chakma food and that the chef was possibly Chakma. And indeed, the spicing in some of food was slightly different to what I'm used to, but I don't know enough about Chakma cuisine to be able to describe exactly what was different. We rounded off the meal with some doi and payesh for dessert, but the former was bought-in and the latter was made with plain sugar - so I wasn't a big fan. However - dessert is not why anyone's coming here! 

This is a meal best shared with others, as all the portions are one and a half person's worth of food in my opinion. It's worth noting that this place is an actual restaurant catering to clientele on a day out from Dhaka - rather an a casual roadside eatery - and the prices reflect this. You pay similar to what you could expect from similar places in Dhaka back in 2019, with vegetable dishes around the TK 50 mark, whereas meat and fish dishes cost TK 200 upwards.  

Matir Ghor can be a bit tricky to find as it doesn't have a very specific address. I've noted down the restaurant's contact information as usual at the bottom of the review, but for convenience the Google maps location is here. I've decided to stop scoring reviews, and given I visited Matir Ghor a good while ago I'm not sure I could justify scoring it anyway. However, I can certainly say I'm looking forward to visiting next time I'm in Dhaka! 

A: Ketun, Dhaka Bypass Road, Kalihonj, Gazipur

T: +8801716883120

W: None

Places to Eat in Bali

Bangladeshis - if you thought we had lots of rice fields, just wait till you see Bali

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Before you read further, please consider donating to the Red Cross Indonesia Earthquake and Tsunami Appeal. The Red Cross is supporting rehabilitation efforts from the tsunami that struck the country in December 2018.

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I spent a large part of my childhood in Asia, living between Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Thailand and even briefly the Philippines. This time was perfect for seeing much of the continent, but somehow I never made it to Indonesia till late last year. For someone who spends his life meticulously planning every meal, it was a somewhat impromptu trip - aided by the fact that Bangladeshis no longer need visa to visit the country as a tourist. I think this is a relatively recent rule change, and I took full advantage of it while booking last minute flights and hotels. 

I had around 9 days in the country, courtesy of a break in between jobs and a relocation from Scotland to England. My friends and I kept the itinerary simple, visiting 3 different parts of Bali - Ubud, Sidemen and Nusa Dua. Bali felt like the perfect holiday destination for me, as the it had a whole range of things to do within driving distance: from mountains and jungles to beaches and watersports. But I digress - this is a food blog rather than a travel blog! And hence the below is a very short food guide, focussing mostly on Ubud and with a single entry in Sidemen. I will unashamedly admit to confining us to a luxury resort while in Nusa Dua. Unusually for me, I've also listed a couple of places I wouldn't necessarily recommend going - more as a cautionary tale as they're quite well known. 

The food in general around Bali was quite good, and you can't go far wrong if you're amenable to south and southeast Asian flavours. I found myself making regional comparisons a lot - the fried rice was served a little differently to Thailand, with many small portions of food surrounding a central mound of carbohydrates. More interestingly, so many of the curries reminded me of Bangladeshi dishes, with slight accents of lemongrass or peanut. But as ever on holiday posts, I can claim no expertise on the food - and the below is simply a list of places I recommend going (or not!). 

Places to Eat in the Riviera Maya

Tulum Beach, Riviera Maya

I haven’t travelled as much I would have liked to recently because life happened. However, things are changing - and last year I did get to spend a week on holiday in the Riviera Maya, Mexico. The Riviera Maya is a long stretch of Caribbean coastline on the eastern side of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, known for its beaches, blue seas and archaeological sites. In short, I’ve always wanted to visit. To see Mayan ruins, yes, but also - and unsurprisingly for me - because of the food I would get to eat! However, while planning my trip I struggled to find (English language) blogs with recommendations for places to try. Hence now that I’m back, I’m putting together this post listing places to eat by area. 

I have no expertise whatsoever on Mexican food, so these are just my favourites from the establishments I managed to visit. One of my cooking teachers sent me a great cartoon infographic illustrating the different terms used to describe Mexican dishes. Do check it out as a starting point if you're not exactly sure what a fajita is (I wasn't before I went!!). Be aware that everything below is "post-Hispanic" cuisine, and I didn't make it to restaurants like Axiote which serve grasshoppers and ant eggs. Also don't worry if insects don't appeal to you, as there'll be plenty of meat, cheese and tortillas abound instead. The list is also by no means exhaustive, but hopefully I'll remedy that by traveling back over the years and adding more to it! On this trip I was mostly in Playa Del Carmen, with a couple of days in Cancun and a day in Tulum, and my picks are based on these areas.  

The parts of Mexico I managed to see, downtown Cancun in particular, really reminded me of Bangladesh. The local buses with their loosely defined stops, the rain-worn buildings that could use a lick of paint and the chillies in my food - all this felt a little like home. Of course, a lot of this in my imagination, and Mexico is far more economically developed. The local buses may look rickety, but many of the drivers speak English. Gleaming new buildings are the norm if you head to the hotel zone, and not everything is still under construction like it seems to be in Dhaka these days. For now, I live in hope that one day Dhaka will catch up! 

Eggs From Our Sundarbans Trip

ক্যাপসিকাম ও পাপরিকা দিয়ে ডিম ভুনা 

Eggs, Red Pepper & Smoked Paprika Bhuna

Egg bhuna, served with khichuri on the boat during our trip
through the Sundarbans. From my Instagram feed.

Curried eggs have a long history in my family. In Bangladesh, they represent a cheap, inexpensive way to incorporate protein into a family's diet. Growing up, I had a great dislike for eggs and currying them used to be one of my mom's tactics to get me to eat them. They're also easier (read: quicker) to cook than meat, and therefore often a common enough recourse when she was pressed for time in the kitchen. This recipe is my own, based on the basic chicken curry recipe I posted long ago here. The addition of smoked paprika is the result of a slight personal obsession, and the red pepper gives the dish sweet-sour notes without resorting to sugar or yoghurt. I have been cooking this dish for a while, and have served it to guests when a vegetarian main has been called for.

On the left, the banks of the forest as we sailed past.

On the right, the beach our walk eventually took us to.

Our trip to the Sundarbans for New Year's Eve served as a reminder to post this, as the chef on board our ship served a very lightly spiced version of this with khichuri for breakfast. It made for a heavy breakfast, which was reasonable in light of the walking we were going to be doing throughout the day. Unless you're preparing for a similar excursion, I would recommend serving this as a main or side dish for dinner or lunch. 

Blogging From Bangladesh

I'm Praying For Internet

Some things in Dhaka, like traffic, have gotten slower.

Technology on the other hand, has gotten faster.
Much respect to this brave soul undertaking rickshaw computing!

I admit got a little teary when the plane landed at the airport in Dhaka. But then we stepped out of the lounge the 138% humidity hit me like a wet towel. Then it took us 3 hours to get home because of the traffic, and reality had begun to catch up with me again.

But I’m still holding onto shreds of optimism as I sit here typing this on a train headed from Sirajganj to Dhaka. I’m tethering my phone’s EDGE connection to my laptop, and hoping that it’ll be good enough to actually upload this post. This in itself is a major improvement as far as I’m concerned. I’m on my way back from Salop, the village where my parents’ ancestral home still stands (barely!).