Home-style cuisine is Sylhet's flavour du jour
Traditionally famous for tea, stone mining, rain and cooking with the sour-tasting wild orange known in Bangla as shatkora, Sylhet has, in more recent years, also gained a reputation for its cosmopolitan dining. Thanks to the Londoni phenomenon of Sylhetis living abroad, mostly in the United Kingdom, past decades saw expat money return, with many choosing to invest in the restaurant trade. As a result, more than other divisional centres of comparable size, in Sylhet City dining options include many exotic cuisines. But more recently still, a new cuisine has taken centre stage: local.
Panch Bhai restaurant in the city's Zindabazar, which opened in 2008, was among the first to offer local diners not only the types of dishes mother used to make but also a homely ambience. At a time when home-style food served at a restaurant was unimaginable, Panch Bhai opened its doors with a handful of tables and a philosophy to serve delicious and fresh food at reasonable prices.
“It used to be expensive to dine out,” says Ali Ahmad, a student of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and regular Panch Bhai customer. “Prices were high and the menu seemed designed for wealthy customers. But now home-style meals are available.”
Two minutes' walk west of Zindabazar, Panshi restaurant has followed suit. It serves traditional aloo bhorta, mashed potato, lentils and rice as standard and free of cost along with main meals that feature shutki dry fish and handmade tomato sauce. With seating for 300 diners at a time, the food is prepared by 18 cooks and the restaurant caters to almost 6,000 diners per day, says manager Ali Hossain.
Compared with many of the older restaurants featuring foreign cuisines, another exception lies here: even filling a hearty stomach is unlikely to set a diner back more than Tk 200.
Panshi has proven so popular that another two branches in Moulvibazar and recently inaugurated at Madhopur on the Dhaka to Sylhet highway have opened. “We're planning another branch for Sreemongal,” says Hossain.
Another secret to Panshi's business success has been to look after staff. “Our salary is good compared to other restaurants,” confides waiter Mujahidul Islam, who enjoys serving customers from all walks of life, from students and teachers to city office professionals. “A few days ago the actress Mousumi ate here,” he says.
With the adjacent museum of eminent mystic poet Hasan Raja, Panshi has also become a destination for tourists, with the number of patrons doubling during holiday periods.
Along with Panch Bhai and Panshi, names that have become well-known across Sylhet, others including Bhujon Bari, Palki and Jholsiri restaurants have followed the home-style trend. Sharing the main ingredients of fresh, traditional food at reasonable rates, these establishments which serve customers twenty-four hours a day are redefining the Sylheti restaurant landscape, giving the city's more pricey foreign cuisine restaurants a run for their money.
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