2022
Bangladesh is known for it's diverse cuisine but a large part of it, our pickles remain the unsung hero in many stories about the food and culture. We know for a fact that our pickles are not only unique and enhance the already spicy and colorful dishes, they are also exported outside of our borders to please the palettes of foodies all over the world.
In order to understand how our vibrant culture has produced such delicacies in different parts of our country, we need to take the climate into account. The greenness of Bangladesh is largely grain fields but at ground level, you can always spot fruit trees all over the place. Dedicated fruit farms are also quite abundant that produce most of the seasonal fruits. However, these fruits have always been consumed or pickled shortly by the housewives. Commercial production has been a rather new practice and hasn't covered much ground in terms of variety. The involvement of housewives is a key factor of the plethora of variations in the pickles we see at every house in the country. Their creativity, combined with the improvised uses of spices produce unique flavors and tastes that can only be found at the respective households.
Since mango is one of the most abundant raw material, different variation of mango pickles are made throughout summer. It starts with green mangoes that are used to make mostly sour, sweet and sour, hot and sour pickles. Plums are probably the second most used fruit and since it comes immediately after the mango season, the work never stops. Pickles made from plums also come in sweet, sweet and sour, hot and sour flavors. Olive pickles are mostly sour, spicy and sweet and served throughout the year since sour olives otherwise have little to no use.
Unlike the residential productions, commercial manufacturers offer the typical varieties like sweet plum, sour tamarind, sour green mango. Pickle enthusiasm is mostly attributed to women and children. And their creativity and innovation play a key role in the homemade pickle scene. They make pickles out of just about anything! Strange materials like garlic and chili are also made into pickles despite little to no popular demand.
Because of their affinity towards pickles, pickle vendors often camp outside girls' schools to cater to their target demographic. Hog plum and elephant apple pickles are generally not that popular as a homemade variety so the street vendors take the opportunity to serve these alongside mango and plum pickles. They make an honest living from this while contributing towards keeping the gourmet variety of pickles alive among aggressive commercial products. A small portion of the commercial production feature famous recipes that are picked from a competition attended by housewives and small scale commercial producers all over the country.
For Bangladeshis, the two most common uses of pickle are as snacks and as condiments alongside main dishes like khichuri and biriyani. We have six distinct seasons and plenty of distinct fruits that accompany each of those. However, our hot and humid climate doesn't allow us to enjoy these fruits all over the year in any other form than pickle. That's why we've developed ways of making pickles from both ripe and green fruits. Besides, fruits like olive, hog plum and tamarind are hardly appropriate to be eaten raw or unprocessed.
Have you visited Bangladesh and tried our pickles? Tell us about your experience in the comments.
