Join twowildtides on the country challenge. Each week, we’re going to be heading to a new country (in spirit). Primarily, we’ll be cooking a meal from each country; but we’ll also be watching travel documentaries, reading travel blogs, and listening to music. During the global pandemic, travel was largely inaccessible. We want to reignite our wanderlust, satisfy our travel bug as much as we can, and learn some new things along the way. I have a feeling our bucket list will have a number of items added to it through this experience as well. We created a simple alphabetical spreadsheet with all the countries of the world, and each week we will draw a random number that corresponds with a country on the spreadsheet.
This week, we’re off to Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Bustling markets, delicious food, and vibrant street life. Extremely affordable for tourists. Bangladesh is a valuable stop on any Asian backpacking trip.
To represent Bangladeshi cuisine, I opted to make biryani and a curry. After some research, I decided on Kolkata-style Chicken Biryani and Chingri Malai Curry. We followed this recipe for the biryani and this recipe for the curry.
The biryani involved many steps and many ingredients. For a recipe that is so involved, I was disappointed it did not come through with much flavour. Overall, it was fine but fairly bland. The curry was disappointing as well. I was really excited about a shrimp dish, but the balance of spices was way off. It turned out to be bitter and grainy. Unfortunately, we couldn’t even finish the shrimp curry.
I’m definitely willing to take this one on the knuckles and say with confidence that the failures of this dish occurred on my end. I’m certain that these Bengal-inspired dishes would be truly fantastic served in Bangladesh or by someone with experience cooking Bangladeshi foods. Perhaps I’ll revisit this country someday and attempt something else.
Let us know what you think!