Topic: Mystery Bangladeshi Chicken Dish - Sonar Goan

[Herman Hari Mirch]

Hi everyone - any ideas as to what the following might have been, served up in our local curry house as being cooked "in the Sonar Goan style" and a house speciality - this is from the name Sonar Goan (or Sonargoan) which is an ancient Bangladeshi/Bengali city, nothing to do with being Goan, as in coming from Goa !

it was listed as consisting of chicken, onion, green peppers and green chillies - exactly the same as for their jal freizi, but with the addition of potato, which was served up as part of the dish

didn't include the usual "base sauce", and in spite of the spuds, was a very light dish - the only discernable, individual taste (other than the above bits) was cardamom, and maybe peppercorns and a little saffron (it was a fairly pale yellow colour)

any ideas as to what "standard" dish it might be most like, or derived from ?

oh - very highly recommended indeed - it's the Sonar Goan in Wadhurst, East Sussex 

[JerryM]

not had or seen anything like.

nearest on my TA menu all appear "Goa" dishes - the main difference appears to be the use of yogurt and mixed pickles during the cooking to produce a thick spicy sauce.

all dishes would include at least some base for me.

[chinois]

From my experience names of chef's specials or even basic curries in most places outside england rarely mean much (this goes for india too). Chefs just make up names to differentiate dishes. I know because i do too - guests often expect dishes to have names. Personal experience has told me that calling a dish Zeera Chicken has a better reaction that saying "it's the same as the others just with more cumin".

Examples of how little a name means is clear on most menus. The words arent meant to define a dish, they're just a description. Westerners are keen to label/pidgeon hole everything and that's the reason we have such relative uniformity now in BIR.
You hear statements like "a korma should always be mild", "a madras doesnt have lemon" or "tikka masala has to have tomato". All of these are nonsense comments as they only relate to their own interpretations. I do wonder how much the staff laugh at their customers' reluctance to try something new. Customers effectively force restaurants into an identikit/franchise style of business so that when they want a big mac/CTM or a subway/bhuna they know it will be the same anywhere.

Jalfrezi just means stir-fried, korma means braised, bhuna is the first stage of cooking most curries, tikka masala means something cooking in the oven with a sauce. None of these describe the taste of the dish at all.

To actually answer the question ( ) it sounds like a jalfrezi with potato and i reckon the chef comes from Sonargaon, or fancies someone from there  ;D

[JerryM]

chinois,

love the assessment - got me real chuckling

[pforkes]

Sonar Goan would translate in to Golden Goa ("sonar" literally translates into "golden"). 

Just north of Boston (Massachusetts) was an Indian restaurant that did a starter called "crab Goa style" which was probably just their creation.  I've never found a recipe for it or even seen it on a menu anywhere.  Damn!  It was GOOD!

[Razor]

Hi Herman,

Found this on wikipedia,  probably doesn't help you much in yor search for the dish but an interesting read nonetheless.

Sonargaon (Bangla: সোনারগাঁও) is the ancient capital of Isa Khan's kingdom in Bengal. It is located near the current-day city of Narayanganj, Bangladesh. The great Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta visited it in the 14th century. It is the eastern terminus of the Grand Trunk Road, which was built by Sher Shah Suri in the 16th century, and which extends approximately 2500 kilometres across northern India and Pakistan to Peshawar in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province.

Ray