Iftar items aplenty in city bazars

FE Report

People thronged the makeshift iftar bazars in old Dhaka especially Chawkbazar on Friday, the first day of Ramadan, to purchase a wide range of delicious and lucrative iftar items.

Traders in other parts of the capital city also prepared varieties of iftar items and put them on display in their stalls.

Star Kabab, Royal Restaurant, Laziz, RFC, BFC, HFC, CFC, FFC, Fakruddin, Haji Biriani, Pintu Mian'r Shahi iftari, Mama Halim at Kalabagan and other outlets in Baily Road, Gulshan, Uttara, Mirpur, Banani and Mohammadpur areas were busy selling iftar items.

Five-star hotels in the capital offered lucrative items for the upper-class people. Besides the brands, hundreds of makeshift shops were set up near markets and mosques as well as intersections and lanes.

Fruit vendors are also passing a very busy time during this holy month of Ramadan as various kinds of summer fruits have already arrived in the city markets.

Like the previous years, the traders started displaying a variety of iftar items on around 30-metre long lane at Chawkbazar since the afternoon. Nearly 300 vendors were seen busy with customers.

Prices of almost all high-value iftar items increased this year while usual items showed a mixed trend.

About 104 items prepared of meat, vegetables, sweet, milk, pulses, ice and other materials were available with Chawkbazar iftar outlets. Presence of media people added an extra crowd to the gathering.

No new iftar item was found at Chawkbazar except for 'Nargis Chop' which was being sold at Tk 25 per piece by Md Shoyeb, a restaurant owner on Harnath Ghosh Street in Lalbagh.

He said the chop is made of local chicken, egg, potato, pulses and spices.

Traders Haroon Baburchi, Khokon Mahajan, Maku Shah, Haji Shahid, Md Salekin were selling the most popular delicacy 'Boro Baper Polay Khai', a mixture of chickpeas, brains, minced meat, potato, chira, egg, chicken, spices and ghee.

Talking to the FE, Mr Salekin said price of the item has increased to Tk 400-450 per kg from Tk 350-400 per kg last year due to sharp rise in beef prices.

All the traders acknowledged that iftar items were selling well as vendors finished selling them before 5:00 pm.

Most famous items including giant beef, chicken, mutton roast, twenty types of kebabs, mutton and chicken cutlet, kima roll, kima parata, chicken parata, borhani, matha, labang and roasts of pigeon, koel, hen and duck were available in Chawkbazar, but their prices increased by Tk 5-40 per piece or per kg.

Like previous years, Md Abdul Jabbar was selling a dozen of 'shahi doi bora' (fried and spiced pulse balls dipped in yoghurt) at Tk 120, nearly Tk 20 lower than last year.

In other shops, a dozen of 'doi bora' was sold at Tk 100.

Jabbar had a little time to bargain with customers as he was very busy packing items for others. He said he has been selling iftar items in the market for 43 years.

"I'm expecting a Tk 14,000-15,000 sale every day," he said.

Shahi halim (cooked meat with lentil and spices) was sold at Tk 400 a pot, up by Tk 50 than last year, said Md Ariful, a vendor.

The most common iftar items are 'chhola bhuna' (fried and spiced chickpeas), 'muri' (puffed rice), 'beguni' (a popular fried item prepared with eggplant and pulses' powder), potato chop, 'piyaju' (made with finely chopped onion with pulses paste), 'pakowra' and other fried items.

Chickpea and muri prices remained static compared to that of last Ramadan, according to vendors.

Muri of normal variety was sold at Tk 60-70 while special quality at Tk 100 per kg.

But the prices of different kinds of fruits increased by 25-30 per cent in last two days. Prices of different varieties of mangoes rose to Tk 60-90 per kg from Tk 50-70 per kg two days back.

Bangi, one of the popular fruits for Ramadan, was sold at Tk 80-120 per piece.

Blackberry, star fruit, jackfruit, cow fruits, guava, apple, pineapple, banana, watermelon, grapes, malta etc were also sold at higher prices.

Different varieties of date were sold between Tk 120 and Tk 1,200 per kg -- 25 per cent hike in a year, according to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).

Traders said the prices of few items might increase further following uptrend in raw materials.

Professor Golam Mowlah of Institute of Nutrition and Food Science at Dhaka University said during the holy month of Ramadan, many vendors sell stale food items which can cause food poisoning, serious kidney and liver diseases, diarrhoea and dysentery.

He said fasting people should avoid taking huge amount of spicy and oily food items which can protect them from many diseases. "But it is necessary to ensure that the fruits are free from formalin, carbide or any kind of chemicals."

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