Bhabi Rehana's Rasoi

Bashundhara

Rehana is from Habiganj, where her family has been cooking for community events for three generations. She learned to manage a wood-fire kitchen before she was twelve, handling vats of khichuri and beef curry for hundreds of guests at milad gatherings. Her specialty was always the shutki preparations — she could transform pungent dried fish into dishes so aromatic that even people who claimed to hate shutki would ask for seconds. In Bashundhara, Rehana runs a tight operation. She takes orders by 8 PM the night before, shops at Karwan Bazar at dawn, and starts cooking by 9 AM. Nothing is pre-cooked, nothing sits around. Her naga morich chicken, marinated overnight in a paste of the world's hottest chili, is not for the faint-hearted — but her regulars swear it cures everything from colds to heartbreak. Rehana also makes a Sylheti pitha that is impossible to find in Dhaka: tel pitha filled with coconut and date-palm gur, fried golden and served warm. She only makes these on Fridays, and they sell out before noon every single week.

Signature dish: Naga Morich Chicken