Dhaka’s office canteens where meals and memories are made

Our Dhanmondi office was a typical posh eighties two-storied house, with a manicured lawn and an annex building for the kitchen and other service quarters. When this beautiful home was rented to our office in the early nineties, our threadbare office canteen was situated at the far corner of the kitchen wing; serving only singaras and tea.

Our athletic teaboy used to carry a tray full of cups with steaming tea and hopped down the stairs as if he were an acrobat in the act. He loved showing off his skills, and we loved appreciating it.

However scruffy and small office canteens are, they are lifesavers, especially in areas with fewer restaurant options, as opposed to downtown districts, where restaurateurs have set up eating houses that are famous for their specialty all over the town.

The office goers of this busy city chalk out their office lunch plans according to their preferences – options included home-cooked meals, restaurant food, or canteen food – or skipping it altogether. The subsided office canteens, serving anywhere from 100 to 500 people, in big and small offices, come to the rescue for most. Many canteens take a monthly fee for a mid-morning snack, lunch, and seasonal fruit; others have a pay-first option for an array of choices. Offices have canteens under their administration wing to monitor and maintain quality and hygiene while preparing the meals. They hire professional cooks and chefs for their canteens.

The tea room on each floor is fun to watch though, with a motley collection of mugs and cups with funny and interesting quotes on them, and of course, their favourite tea and coffee blends. The smell of brewing coffee or tea is stimulating. Fancy additions are a French press, but the majority go for office coffee machines and stick to their preferred order of double latte or double tea bag milk tea.

While canteens serve lunch and mid-afternoon snacks in most Dhaka offices, it is the newspaper canteens that work till midnight. Thus, their snack menu is as diverse as the front page. Let's begin with the ever so-delicious egg-paratha roll, the potato and vegetable croquette, puffed up aloo puri with tamarind chutney, fried chicken, and the absolute favourite "loodles" (noodles) with slit green chili as a substitute for veggies. Special lunches of ilish polao, beef tehari, steamed bhetki in tomato puree, and the vegetable labra are to die for.

Imagine this scrumptious meal for a subsidised bill.

However, you cannot afford outside food every day, it's detrimental not only to your health, but your wallet as well. But many office goers refuse to carry packed lunches; and having canteen food day in and day out can be taxing on your digestive health, especially when the leafy greens turn into an utter black, tasteless dread or when the fish smells, well fishy! And the beef is swimming in oil and some sort of black masala paste.

Then again, good and bad office canteens are still beloved. The long hours of hot political debates, the rantings about social attitude changes and personal woes over cups and cups of bad tea and fried food; lunches and tea breaks are the most favourite part of our working hours.

Needless to say, the canteens and tea rooms are owned by you. There is always a game on the television, and colleagues gather around it to cheer for their team. During football matches, even the canteen staffers put on their favourite jerseys and lay bets with the office people. There is a beautiful comradery. It is the only place in the office where you get to see people from all departments, hear their stories, share your meals, and sit with friends.