Khulna Specialty · Spiced Vine-Stem Curry
Chui Jhal Gosht
Photo: রিজওয়ান আহমেদ (Rizwan Ahmed) / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
The heat doesn't come from chili at all — it comes from chopped pieces of a pepper vine's stem and root, and locals rate the root so highly that it sells for more than the stem.
Chunks of a climbing pepper vine called chui — its peeled stem and root, not its fruit — are simmered for hours with beef or mutton until they turn tender and release a sharp, horseradish-like bite into the gravy. Khulna's markets and eateries treat it as the region's defining curry, distinct from anything found elsewhere in Bangladesh.
Why it's made this way: Chui (Piper chaba) grows and is cooked almost nowhere else in the country the way it is in Khulna division, and its cost — among the pricier spices in Bangladesh — has made the dish something of a special-occasion showpiece.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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