Nur-E Farhana handles business operations and acts as the restaurant’s gregarious host. Gulshan, 61, is the chef and sole cook at Korai Kitchen, the Jersey City restaurant she opened last February with her youngest daughter, Nur-E Farhana Rahman, 31. “We are not used to cutting pumpkin with the knife in Bangladesh.” “Too hard,” she said when asked why she doesn’t use a chef’s knife. Gulshan, who prefers the boti, its blade shaped like a viper’s fang.
#BENGALI RESTAURANT FREE#
Her face was inexplicably free of sweat as she sliced bulky calabazas into small diamonds.Ī large knife might suffice for other cooks when it came to that task. “Their lollipop chicken is a big deal.JERSEY CITY - One Monday afternoon in December, Nur-E Gulshan Rahman was perched on a hot-pink step stool, her body hunched over a boti, a steel cutting instrument she bought back in her native Bangladesh.
Sagar has three locations of Sagar Chinese and they serve Bengali Chinese food,” he adds. “We’re also really big into Chinese food. “I specifically mentioned those items because you won’t see them at Indian restaurants,” says Islam. Their chicken roast is also really good, it’s akin to a chicken korma, but not as creamy, and heavy on the caramelized onions and something called aloo bukhara, which are like prunes, with a sweet and tart flavor.”īangladeshi food is constantly being tied up and confused with Indian cuisine, because the two do share a lot of the same spices and ingredients, and some Bangladeshi restaurants will also serve a lot of Indian dishes. “Sagar has both, but they are known for the heavier stuff, like their goat biryani and a chicken seekh kabab, which is made from ground chicken and lentils. “With Bengali cuisine, you’ll have the food we eat when guests come, which is heavier, with more ghee and meat and biryani and the food we eat at home, which is lighter, with more fish and vegetables with white rice,” explains Islam. Plus, he includes a few Tibetan, Nepali, and Pakastani favorites to round out his list.
He’s especially excited to give some exposure to his favorite Bengali spots, which are often overshadowed by the more well-known Indian restaurants of the borough. Islam lost in the Democratic primary, but he continues his work for the community.Īs a native and lifelong resident, Islam is always thrilled to recommend his favorite South Asian restaurants, bakeries, and cafes in Queens. His platform focused on community building, actually affordable housing, community-inclusive development, free CUNY and SUNY education, increased mental health services, and participatory budgeting.
Islam paused his work with Jhal NYC last year because of the pandemic, and because he decided to run for office-specifically for his home district, New York State Assembly District 24, which encompasses Jamaica, Richmond Hill, Holliswood, and Hollis Hills in Queens. They helped stay-at-home mothers learn English, understand the subway system, write a resume, and polish other skills to help them adjust to life in a new country.
Soon, Jhal NYC was doing pop-ups all over, sharing Bengali food and culture with New Yorkers and serving as a grassroots effort to help Bangladeshi immigrants get their footing in the US. They even ended up employing Islam’s mother and aunts to cook the food, eventually hiring other stay-at-home immigrant mothers who didn’t speak English and had trouble finding other work. A few months later, they returned as vendors under the name Jhal NYC (“jhal” means “spices” in Bengali), vending Bengali street food using their mothers’ recipes.
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