What is hardship food? I had no idea. The thought of what people eat during natural calamities, war, displacement and such, never came to my mind. It is something we do not think about unless we start to live in destitution.
I came to realise this, and the profound impact nature bears during difficult times, while walking through Shankhari Bazar with Nahla Tabbaa, a Jordanian Bangladeshi interdisciplinary artist, chef, and curator.
Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation (DBF) recently hosted Nahla’s culinary performance, a rather unique experience in Dhaka.
For Nahla, the grief and anger over the genocide in Gaza left a grave impression, out of which her work, “Thil”, came into being.
“Thil manifested into a mythical creature that is both our collective shadow and rage over the injustices,” Nahla says.
Thil, the Arabic word for shadow, is an intuitive artistic process and art installation that is iterative. Nahla continues to add contexts and perspectives that plague her mind with each repetition.
“Inside the Belly of the Beast” is another iteration of Thil, acquired by the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation (DBF). The artist, in this edition of Thil, undertakes a culinary residency, imagining what the insides of such a powerful beast would taste like, while exploring tensions between the urban and the organic, the beautiful and the grotesque.
Nahla is a composed and meditative person by nature, and as a part of her healing, she sought answers in nature, folklore, mythology, and the Quran, exploring seasonal shifts and invasive plants as symbols of resilience, while she conceptualised “Inside the Belly of the Beast” and started working on a menu that was leased from meals you have during hard times.
“The results are hybrid foods that have emerged from points across Bangladesh’s history through famine, partition, and liberation, and my region is also currently experiencing war and famine. The food also celebrates wild and indigenous plants from both regions, and touches upon dishes that straddle trauma and joy. I deeply feel that nature is a witness to human atrocities,” Nahla explains.
Nahla took inspiration from seasonal greens found in Dhaka and twined them with what edibles she carried with her, and came up with a menu where each course was a revelation.
Her spiced ghee candles were a surprise act of talent, as the candle burns, melting the ghee, it turns to a dunk for your shrak bread and zaatar and kishkeh paratha. Her stinging nettle, khubaizeh, helencha shak, kalme shak, soup with alu bhorta gnocchi, gives our alu bhorta a star status.
Ilisha polao stuffed vine leaves, chicken paan with pomegranate molasses, marigold and pumpkin flower tempura with dukkah, was indeed a fusion menu between Bangladeshi and Arabian cuisine.
“It has been a learning experience for us at Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation, helping us realise how the Almighty has created nature to support humanity in different, sometimes adverse, conditions. As an art foundation, you may wonder why we’re involved in practices beyond the traditional art forms. We like to challenge the boundaries of art, pushing it beyond conventional media and culinary performances and culinary arts, like Thil: Inside the Belly of the Beast, are very much an art form to celebrate,” says Durjoy Rahman, Founder of Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation.
