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 mainly from chili — it comes from chopped pieces of the chui vine's stem and root, which diners chew after cooking to release their sharp, peppery sap.
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 — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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