Dawn Ritual · Slow-Cooked Beef Shank
Nihari (Nehari)
Photo: Miansari66 / Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0
Its name comes from the Arabic word for 'morning' — it was built to be eaten right at sunrise after simmering all night, though Old Dhaka now happily serves it any time of day.
Beef or mutton shank, bone marrow, and hock simmer for hours — some Old Dhaka kitchens run the pot up to 17 hours overnight — in a thick, dark, chili-laced gravy until the meat falls apart. It's ladled out at breakfast counters across the old quarter, scooped up with roti or naan.
Why it's made this way: It arrived with Urdu-speaking migrants who settled in Old Dhaka after Partition, and the neighborhood's all-night degchi pots have kept the original slow-simmer method alive as a point of local pride.
More from Bangladesh
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.