Digging into the Halim!

Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

"So what's your real name?"

"They call me Mama! Even my wife and kids, and I love it that way!" answered Mama of the legendary Mama Halim with a proud smile on his face.

For almost 35 years Mama Halim has been a household name in the city of Dhaka, especially during the month of Ramadan. People from all over the city have been seen gathering in front of his small stall in Kalabagan for a plate of his mouthwatering halim. Before independence, this delicacy was called Dal Gosht and was popular mainly in the Bihari circle. Legend has it that Mama is the first person to make this dish popular in the country by changing the name to Halim. What used be sold at a small shop in Green Road is now one of the major food items of Ramadan in our country, all thanks to Mama himself.

"I started out as just a bus boy for a Bihari restaurant. Everybody loved me there and used to call me Mama, that's where the nick name got stuck," says Mama. He carried out the bus boy job till the liberation war. "Three months after independence, I came back from Comilla and started thinking of starting a business," says Mama. His guru who was the chef of that Bihari restaurant first gave him the idea to start Mama Halim. "My plan was to spice up this dish. An the beginning, it was quite bland, so I tried to add a lot of spices to it, which later became the Mama Halim signature."

Mama's Halim is known to be fresh and filled with loads of spices. Nobody yet knows the secret recipe and Mama is also not eager to spill it out. "The sauce is one of the reasons behind Mama Halim's success. More than 15 kinds of spices go into this sauce," says Mama. During Ramadan he starts to cut the meat at 12 in the afternoon which gives him just enough time to serve it fresh. He gives the spices right in front of the customers.

"For every season, you need different spices. For example, we are experiencing a lot of heat this month so the Halim needs to be a little cooler, meaning less spicy," says Mama. "Much like this, in winter the halim is made to be hot, meaning spicier then usual." Mama's experiments with spices has driven the franchise to this far. He sets a perfect example of how food can be timeless through the chef's effort.

Much like Haji of Hajir Biriyani, or Fakhruddin, Mama is considered to be a true legend of our countries culinary world. He has taken his dish to a lot of prestigious events over the years and fans of his still wait in line. Just to take this specialty home.