Bangladeshi food comes to Hamtramck

Source: Detroit Free Press
On the table between us, Eleem Chowdhury placed a small dish filled with a reddish-umber spice mixture called garam masala, so fragrant and vividly colored I knew it had been freshly ground. I inhaled its exotic aroma and placed a tiny bit on my tongue.

The intoxicating blend filled my mouth with the spiciness of black pepper and the warmth and sweetness of cinnamon and cloves. But what else?

Bay and cardamom, Chowdhury showed me, pointing out the leaves and pods on a plate of whole spices he had also brought out from the kitchen.

The garam masala -- it's pronounced gah-RAHM mah-SAH-lah -- blended and ground in Chowdhury's kitchen was my first taste ever of Bangladesh's interesting, complex cuisine.

And the recent afternoon I spent at Aladdin Sweets & Cafe at 11945 Conant Ave. was my first contact with Hamtramck's large and growing Bangladesh community. It won't be my last.

Wave of migration in the last decade, some 15,000 to 20,000 Bangladeshis have moved from Queens to Hamtramck and nearby areas, Chowdhury says, mainly to escape New York City's high cost of living. Just as with every other immigrant migration, a few people moved, some relatives joined them and more friends followed, bringing their cuisine with them.

That's what I wanted to learn about from Chowdhury, who had a mission of his own -- to make more metro diners aware of his small, neat restaurant and its authentic menu.

A tiny country of only 55,000 square miles, Bangladesh sits on the Bay of Bengal, nearly surrounded by India, so its cuisine is fundamentally the same as India's with only a few minor name changes, he says.

Diners familiar with Indian restaurants will recognize most of Aladdin's menu, including curries, shish kebab, tandoori chicken and biriyani, a mixture of rice, chunks of meat and aromatic but mild spices, including some used in garam masala.

The prices are right

Chowdhury, who owns Aladdin with his uncle Litu Chowdhury, describes the mostly take-out restaurant as Detroit's first Bangladesh fast-food place. It's actually part of a chain; four others operate in Queens.

Prices are fast-food cheap, too; full tandoori chicken or chicken biriyani dinners are $4.99, for example.

For just 75 cents, you really should try Aladdin's delicious singara, a snack with serious addictive potential. Think of it as an exotic, pyramid-shaped pasty -- a flaky crust filled with cooked carrots, potatoes and onions and mildly seasoned with Aladdin's freshly ground spices.

"We would like to see more people trying our food. Whoever tries it keeps coming back," Chowdhury says.

What an unexpected little dining adventure -- and right in the heart of Hamtramck, between Holbrook and the Davison freeway. Just stop in or call 313-891-8050, 11-11 daily, for takeout or delivery.
Source: Detroit Free Press