Exploring Mirpur’s bazar of salvaged food
At Mirpur's Mazar Road, three to four vans can be seen running an off-beat food business. Throughout the week, especially on the weekends, sellers set up shop with an offering of delicacies, all at dirt-cheap price.
From biryani to firni, their "menu" consists of everything one would hope to find at the most lavish wedding events. Yet, none of the items cross the Tk 200-300 mark, and herein lies the twist.
The concept of the business is to buy extra or discarded food from wedding events, doa mahfils, and even from restaurants, and sell it back to those who don't have the good fortune to access these events.
Visiting the area on a Friday, this correspondent spoke to three such traders.
One of them, a woman choosing to remain anonymous, has been engaged in this trade for the last three decades. "It started with my parents. Back then, you could buy a tukri [basket] of 50 kg food at a meagre sum of Tk 100. We would resell it at double the price."
"We didn't have fridges back then. If the food got wasted, you threw it away," she continued. "This was especially true since the food that came in wasn't very good to begin with. It came unsorted and rarely had whole pieces of meat. Each plate would go for Tk 1-2, with primary customers being rickshaw-pullers and construction workers from the area."
With the business trajectory, a lot of things could be learned about the country's socioeconomic change over the years.
"Meat started coming in at the turn of the millennium, deep fridges were added in the last 10 years. The same customers now earn more, and they want better food, not just 'jhuta' (discarded food)."
As long as it doesn't smell, rickshaw-pullers are willing to pay even Tk 100 for a small bowl of mutton," she said.
But there's controversy surrounding the way they resell discarded food, often days after its cooked. Asked, the seller didn't hesitate to answer, "I understand your concern, but if the food really was rotten, we wouldn't be able to continue our business for three decades. We've never had any complaints. In the past, there used to be 10-12 traders here, but none of them are here anymore."
"Don't you eat reheated, jhuta food at home? We see it the same way. Only if you think about it too much, it becomes an issue," she said.
"This kind of business has been going on since after the independence," she said, adding, "In the past, they used to pull in big crowds. While customers have thinned, the crowd is still there when the food comes in first, when it's freshest."
On the topic of profits, she said, "Of course we make profits, otherwise we wouldn't survive. Fridays bring us the most profits; we buy food worth Tk 15,000-20,000 and make at least Tk 2,000-3,000 surplus. On weekdays we buy food worth Tk 1,500-2,000, mostly from restaurants."
"We endured a really rough patch during the pandemic. There were no events, and restaurants were shut down. We took out loans to survive."
Besides Mazar Road, there are at least four other places in Dhaka where this business sprouted. At Mohakhali, near icddr,b beyond the rail crossing, Shahzadpur, Jatiya Press Club and Jatrabari. Karwan Bazar used to be a hub too, but it's dried up as food prices increased.
There's two types of jhuta: one that's lumped together at the end of a programme and another that comes in well sorted.
The former doesn't go for much, Tk 10-20 per plate at max. The latter, however, is prime real estate -- bought for Tk 100 per kg, sold for double the price.
The woman informed that the supplies come in around 5pm to 7pm. When there aren't enough customers, (though this is rarely the case) food starts rotting fast, as they're not well kept at the community centres. By midnight, the food starts smelling.
This is when it's taken home and refrigerated. It's later reheated before being sold the next morning. If the food is not sold at one go and goes back home, the traders suffer. Customers sensing even a bit of smell don't pay much.
The traders also face extortion regularly, and a lot of their profit goes into the pockets of the linemen, who allegedly distribute the money among law enforcers, political activists and local goons -- around Tk 500-600 per day.
Competition persists in the business as well. Once the food comes in, the sellers ask for a high price. Later, 3-4 traders compete between themselves to buy the food, and the highest bidder takes the prize.
Besides community centres and restaurants, there's the big fish: Hotel Sonargaon, Sheraton, and the like. At these hotels, there's a tender for wasted food every year. The food goes for multiple lakhs (Tk 40-50 lakh).
Fascinatingly, a youth standing by the roadside asked this correspondent, "How many times have you eaten from Sonargaon? I am a regular."
Meanwhile, one trader said kitchen staffers often put aside fresh food before they're served. Additionally, food that's saved due to under-attendance make their way to the vans too.
The waiters/assistant cooks of the community centres earn around Tk 800 per day. On average, they get three paydays per week, which isn't nearly enough to sustain their families.
One such cook who lives in Savar's Hemayetpur said, "I have four children, there's no way I can run the family with just my formal income. I do this to supplement my earnings. While waiters get tips, we at the kitchen have nothing. On usual days, I can earn around Tk 500-700 with this."
The menu includes mutton, chicken curry, rezala, chicken roast, kebabs, borhani, jarda, firni, polau, white rice, tehari, biryani and more.
Fresh tehari goes for Tk 50 per plate, but if it's a little stale, the price comes down to Tk 20. Most people buy the food to share it with family.
A woman from Aminbazar said that she comes here every Friday. Her family includes herself, her truck driver husband, and their three children.
She tries to get here before evening, when the food is freshest. Interestingly, as a former community centre staffer herself, she knows the ins and outs of the business.
"In a glance, I can tell apart the jhuta from the fresh," she said.
She said buying from here is cheaper for her than if she had to cook the same food herself. For example, to buy and cook half a kg beef, she would have to spend Tk 450.
"Here, two bowls of beef, around 1.5 kg, is sold for Tk 500. Add Tk 20 worth of fare, and that's it," she said, adding that she's been buying from here for the last 6-7 years.
The sellers said they're proud of their profession. "We supply good food to those who can't afford it. We prevent food from getting wasted. We're proud to be the reason why a day-labourer gets to eat food from Raowa Club or Sonargaon," said another seller from the area.
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