A tiny mother-and-daughter food venture earned a nomination for the prestigious James Beard Award for Chef Nur-E-Gulshan Rahman, and a highly coveted three-star rating from The New York Times. Here is a closer look at how Bangladeshi flavours are winning hearts and minds in New Jersey.
America is experiencing a renaissance in Bangladeshi cuisine. It feels like stumbling into the kitchen at midnight, opening a pot on the stove, and discovering something simmering that smells so good it heals a part of you; the part of you that misses warm home-cooked meals prepared by loving hands. Across the country, tiny Bangladeshi restaurants, often no frills and intimate, are pulling people in through their doors with the force of bold flavours.
Bangladeshis know what this is all about. These spaces are familiar. They resemble the kitchens and dining spaces Bangladeshi people have grown up in. The ones where our grandmothers and mothers created dishes that stood the test of time and memory.
In the heart of Korai Kitchen, a small but bright restaurant in New Jersey, the whiffs of mustard oil transport patrons to traditional Bangladeshi homestyle kitchens. Founder Nur-E Gulshan Rahman, or better known as “Amma” to everyone who has passed through the Korai Kitchen orbit, didn’t set out to create a trendy spot for New Jersey’s foodies. Korai Kitchen opened in February 2018. Amma and her daughter, Nur-E Farhana, have cultivated the restaurant to offer patrons the same meals Amma fed her own children. She maintains her cooking to be the same as how she cooks at home: meals are made with generational cooking methods, with portions being generous, and with Amma refusing to make changes in the dining experience to suit inexperienced or delicate palates.
Although the bulk of Korai Kitchen’s patrons experience Amma’s dishes through take-out or delivery, Korai Kitchen offers a dine-in experience aptly named “Amma’s Dinner.” This dining experience is what drew in reviews by The New York Times and three Michelin stars. The world wants a bite of Amma’s Dinner!
Amma’s Dinner at Korai Kitchen is an experience. Half of it is the magic of communal gathering in the small, simply decorated restaurant space to experience storytelling through food and conversation. The other half is a gastronomic journey through what Amma has decided will be on the menu that night. The experience consists of traditional bhortas and shared platters (because Bangladeshi food is not meant to be eaten alone, but with community and presence). You may be lucky enough to taste Amma’s hilsa fish in mustard sauce or beef rezala. Every spoonful carries with it memories of Bangladesh.
To attend Amma’s Dinner, one needs to reserve seats through Korai Kitchen’s website. But good luck, because their reservations are booked solid, usually months in advance. Amma wanted her guests to eat the way she grew up eating — surrounded by people, noise, and love. In short, if you make it to Korai Kitchen, and maybe even experience Amma’s Dinner, you will experience the bold, emotional, and overflowing energy of Bangladesh on a plate. THAT is why people sign up weeks in advance. It is why The New York Times praised this little Bangladeshi institution. That is why Michelin gave it three stars. Korai Kitchen may be a small restaurant in New Jersey, but it is also a portal into experiencing the warmth and love that emanates from a Bangladeshi kitchen.