Halim: Halim is one of the extremely popular foods item of Old Dhaka. During Ramadan its popularity becomes more . Halim is made of wheat, meat (usually beef or mutton, but sometimes chicken or minced meat), lentils and spices. This dish is slow cooked for seven to eight hours which results in a paste-like consistency, with the taste of spices and meat blending with wheat. Old Dhaka is known for the delectable halim. In Old Dhaka a bowl of halim cost only 40 to 250 tk. The halim maker sold halim by decorating it with lemons, fried onions, strips ginger, chilies etc. They also use different vegetables to increase its taste.

(iii) Nihari & Halim: Nihari and Halim are extremely popular food items of Old Dhaka. They are very taste and delicious food. Those food items contain a huge amount of nutrition and calcium. Here is a short description of those food items.
Nihari: Nihari is a curry made from beef shank (rarely lamb) and spices. It is widely popular in Old Dhaka. The dish is known for its spiciness and taste. Nihari was very much popular during Mughal period. The main element of this soup is bone marrow. The Nihari maker use coriander leaves, fried onions, green chilies, strips of ginger, lemons, sliced white radishes etc to make this dish delicious. In addition they use garam masala to improve its taste. In Old Dhaka Nihari is served with different Ruties(Breads), specially with Nun Ruti. A bowl of Nihari cost about 30 to 250 Tk. This delicious food item is highly available in almost all over in Old Dhaka.

Sutli Kabab: Sutli kabab is one of the delicious kabab that is found in old Dhaka especially in Chakbazar. It is the most common food item of Iftter during Mahe Romzan. From huge types of kababs it’s different for its size and taste. It is the biggest kabab that’s available in old Dhaka. This kabab is made of meats kima. The kabab maker use thread or yarn to give the shape of this kabab. This is the basic reason why people called it Sutli(yarn) Kabab. It has a delicious smell. Sutli kabab is highly available in Chakbazar, Shakharipotti, Bongshal etc. area of Old Dhaka. It is one of my favorite kabab.

Tikya kabab: Tikya kabab is the most common kabab in old Dhaka. In Old Dhaka this kabab is basically serve with Polau, Rost etc. at any party. Like any other kabab the main ingredient of this kabab is meat. The kabab maker use kima of meat, flower of peas, chilies, sugar, salt, oil, ganger, egg, onion etc. to make it taste. Egg basically used to make this kabab crispy. Without this kabab Old Dhaka’s foods become uncomplete. This kabab is highly available in almost all the restaurant and local hotel at low cost. The local price of Tikya kabab is between 5 to 50 taka.

(ii) Kababs and Grill: This category is for those people who love Kababs and other Grill foods. Different types of Kababs and Grill Chicken, beef are available in old Dhaka. Tikya kabab, Sutli Kabab, Shahi Chicken fry, Sik kabab, Grill chicken, Jali kabab, Taj kabab, Shahi kabab etc. are most famous food items in this category.
Shik kabab: Shik kabab is one of the mouth watering food items of Old Dhaka. It is generally sarved with Nan ruti. Shik Kabab has a delicious smell that attracts people to eat it. The kabab maker use meat, elachi pest, ganger pest, flour of peas (beson), oil and salt to produce this kabab. First they mixed all ingredients with meat, and then they make hole in each piece of meat and put it in a skewer (Shik) to grill the meat. As kababmaker use skewer or spit to grill this kabab people called this ‘Shik kabab’. It cost about 25 to 100 Tk for 4/5 piece of shik kabab. Although this kabab is found in all the area of old Dhaka, Chakbazar and Najirabazar are the places where delicious shik kabab is highly available.

Mughlai Porota: Mughlai porota is one of the delicious food items of Old Dhaka. This porota was very famous at the time when Mughol emperors ruled this country. Baker use Kima, Oil, ganger pest, onion pest, white flour, egg, chilies, salt etc. to produce this ruti. It has an attractive smell. This ruti has many layers. Each layer contains kima and other spices. This ruti is found in all area of Old Dhaka specially in Chakbazar. Mughlai ruti is very taste to eat and is one of my favorite bread.

Nan Ruti: It is another type of famous bread in old Dhaka. It is also known as ‘Tandoorer Ruti’ because it is baked in tandoor. It is generally eaten with Nihari or kababs. It is similar to Bakarkhani. The basic difference is that this ruti is more soft then Bakarkhani. Different types of ingredients are used to produce this ruti like white flour, ghee, dalda, suger, testing salt, corn flour, egg etc. Some time baker use cheese to increase its taste. Like Bakarkhani it is also found in almost all the area of old Dhaka.

Details about Foods of Old Dhaka

As we already have known that huge amount of traditional foods are available in old Dhaka. Now I am going to write detail about those foods according to some categories.
(i) Ruti (bread): The first category of traditional dhakaiya foods is Ruti. There are different types of Ruties in old Dhaka. Bakarkhani, Nan Tuti,Muglai Ruti etc. are the most famous ruti of this category.
Bakarkhani:It is the most famous and common ruti in old Dhaka. As it is so dry local people called it ‘Sukha Ruti’. It tastes salty. Generally it is eaten with tea and sweets. This ruti is generally made of white flour, mawa, dalda, salt, soyabin oil, ghee, milk etc. First Bakarkhaniwala (Bread-maker) mixed all the ingredients, then they give the shape of Bakarkhani ruti and take this to the Tandoor(Oven) to bake it. There are different flavored Bakarkhani in old Dhaka. They are Cheese Bakarkhani, Ghee Bakarkhani, and salty Bakarkhani etc. As Bakarkhani is a famous and common ruti in old Dhaka it is found almost all the place of Old Dhaka. A single piece of Bakarkhani cost about 2 to 25 taka.