Cooked Beef Sells by the Kilo in Dinajpur Every Friday, Drawing Crowds at 850 Taka a Kilo for Kalabhuna

Every Friday, cooks arrive at various intersections in Dinajpur district town with pots full of cooked beef at temporary stalls. Alongside the beef, chicken roast and polao are also sold by the kilogram there.

From 7:30 on Friday morning, they set up stalls of cooked food at important points in the town including Chhoy Rasta Mor and Staff Quarter Mor.

A year or so ago, a cook in Setabganj began selling cooked beef every Friday at 800 taka a kilogram. Seeing him, cooks began selling cooked beef at various important intersections of Dinajpur district town as well.

Because the price of raw meat in the market and the price of cooked meat are almost the same, crowds of buyers are gathering at these temporary stalls.

At these stalls, cooked beef kalabhuna sells at 850 taka a kilogram, chicken roast at 700 taka, jorda polao at 400 taka and shahi polao at 120 taka. Tikia and bora also sell at 10 taka each.

Khairul Islam came from Teghra village in Biral upazila to Chhoy Rasta Mor in Dinajpur town to buy cooked food. He said there is no one at home to cook, he heard about it from people and came here, and if he likes it this time he will come again. The cost of buying raw meat and cooking it and the price of cooked meat work out almost the same, he said.

Student Imran Hossain said he always worries about what to cook at home on Fridays, but today he suddenly came to take cooked food from here. He had heard a lot about it from people, so he came to buy, he said.

Another buyer, Moinul Haque, said raw meat bought in the market contains more bone and fat, while cooked meat has less bone and fat. Another thing about this meat is that it has a different taste, he said, which is why he came to buy cooked meat.

Housewife Nargis Begum said something good is usually cooked at home on Fridays, but she sees a big crowd here every Friday, so today she too came to buy.

Vadu Baburchi, a well-known cook in Dinajpur, said he set up his stall at Chhoy Rasta Mor long ago. Seeing them, many others set up Friday stalls at various places in the town, but many of those stalls have now closed. They are still selling cooked food every Friday, and the number of buyers has grown a lot, he said.