The treasures of Kaptan Bazar

It is a whole new world altogether. Kaptan Bazar is an old and vibrant marketplace. The entire road is lined with butcher shops, tea houses, dry fruit souks, and the biggest pigeon market in Dhaka -- a motley mix but each category has its distinction.

Stinky garbage dumps at intervals, a bloody stench from the butcher shops and vegetable markets, spice stalls, and teahouses are meshed up in this lane. Once you brave the traffic, learn to ignore the dirty ambience and enjoy the treasure you will find in this timeworn open market.

Try to make the best use of the offers there. The quality of the products, especially tea leaves, dry spices, and dry fruits is something I can vouch for. The wholesalers never compromise on this aspect.

Dry fruit souks have the most exclusive collection of sugar-free Sakura plum, which is a very tasty, delicious, and healthy palate cleanser. Whole fig in the dried form is an excellent snack for people who are careful about calorie intake. We can always source the sliced and diced one but the whole form of the dried fig is rare. Black sultanas, green and golden raisins, and saffron -- the most expensive spice -- are found here.

Sweet and heady fragrant green cardamoms, the ones we do not get in the local markets are all found in Kaptan Bazar.  There are a few varieties of green cardamom pods, from best to not-so-fresh. I love to stock up on this spice of extremely complex flavour profile and Kaptan bazar is the place I avail it from. It can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes. Like old Aunts I hide my cardamoms and saffron from my cooks and use them ever so stingily.

Then there are wholesale shops for tea leaves. Be it masala, dhudh cha, or rong cha -- you need to procure the best quality of loose tea leaves like Orange Pekoe, Orthodox, Fenning Orthodox Tea, or Premium Blend Tea. And these are definitely not found in your local grocery stores.

The wholesale market has tea shops that procure tea directly from tea auctions held in the port city. These shops sell to most, if not all, tea stores and stalls in Dhaka.

A considerably old fish market, in a dilapidated building, is also part of Kaptan Bazar fame. And of course, not to forget the pigeon market there. It is the largest and most popular pigeon market in the capital, where the price of a pair of pigeons starts from Tk 500 and goes up to exorbitant heights depending on the rarity of the birds.

Many claim that Kaptan Bazar was established around the 1940s. It was originally incorporated into Thatari Bazaar but later, after the colonial rule ended, many ship captains when stationed at Sadarghat, shopped in this lane and it is from there it got its name Kaptan (Captain) Bazar.