I have been exploring Bangladeshi food by roaming around Desker Road, Singapore's Little Bangladesh.
There are a few chap cai png (mixed dishes / economic rice) format eateries around here in Little Bangladesh, Singapore. These cheap and good food places are designed for a quick, affordable meal of precooked dishes laid out in warming trays. There's no menu card - order by just pointing to the food you want.
I am told that Bangladesh doesn't have such CCP format eateries (which are quite common in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia).
The thing about CCP format is the colourful array of dishes always fascinate me, make me excited and salivate. The problem is I don't know what I am seeing i.e. don't know what to order.
I doesn't help that I am not able to speak Bengali with the owner or staff. But, anyway, through trial and error, and much unaccounted for calories, I am narrowing down to a few personal favourites.
One of them is bhorta. Every Bangladeshi "CCP" spread will have a few bhorta dishes.
In Singapore, some of us humble brag that one of our national favourite dishes, char kway teow is "the world's ugliest dish".
Well, I think we got serious competition from bhorta.
Anyway, bhorta(s) are mashed vegetable, meat, fish dishes often flavoured with turmeric powder, dried chili pepper, garlic, onion, and mustard oil. The ingredients (leftovers) are mashed, blended, and sautéed / pan fried together.
There are many combinations of vegetables, spices and fish. Actually, infinite as the dish is in principle made with leftovers, even peels and stems. It is an austere dish made with simple tools and simple to make. But, there is much human ingenuity in it as it is simply delicious.
Recipes developed as certain combinations of leftovers and taste profiles caught on, favoured by many. The following are three examples for illustration.
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Alu or mashed potato bhorta is one of the most common and well loved bhortas.
Boiled potato is skinned, mashed and hand mixed with garlic, onion, green chili pepper, and dried red chili pepper which had been lightly browned by pan frying in mustard oil.
Hilsa fish bhorta. Hilsa fish seasoned with turmeric powder, pan fried in mustard oil. The meat is scraped from the bone and mashed. Mix with sautéed crushed onion, green chili pepper, dried chili pepper and chopped coriander.
Gobhi or cauliflower bhorta. Chopped cauliflower seasoned with turmeric powder simmered in water. Then mashed and mixed with sautéed garlic, dried chili pepper, onion and chopped coriander.
There are many, many types of bhorta - the three above are just to give you an idea of the dish.
Bhorta is eaten as side dishes to accompany rice or panta bhat (water rice). You can make your meal consisting of just different types of bhorta(s) with rice. Bhorta can be eaten with other side dishes such as curries, etc.
Bhorta is a unique Bengali dish (besides Bangladesh, it is also enjoyed in the Indian state of West Bengal). It was mentioned in 8th century epic poems before the arrival of Islam in Bengal in the 12th century.
Bhorta has been elevated from the peasants' means of salvaging leftovers, to become comfort food, mainstream dish, a Bengali identity marker, and a Bangladesh culinary icon found on the menu of Bangladeshi restaurants around the world.
Try some bhorta next time you are in a Bangladeshi restaurant.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to insights from friends like Alex and Jason who are involved with the local Bangladeshi community, and the Bangladeshi friends they introduced to us - they flatten my otherwise steeper learning curve.
Written by Tony Boey on 29 Oct 2023
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