Joy! Restaurant (in Savar)

Have you ever been to National Memorial in Savar?
Joy Restaurant which Parjatan Corporation operates is opposite side of the road of National Memorial.
One of my best co-workers was transferred to Joy Restaurant, and he kept telling me to visit there.
2 hours journey from Dhaka........I was too lazy to spend 4 hours on the bus in weekend.
However December 16th, on the Victory day, I finally visited there.

Inside.
It was crowded, especially people who visited National memorial on Victory day.

My co-worker Mr. Parvez is very confident of all the improvement he has done such as quality of food and decorations....

 

One thing I was impressed is that he created special set menu for the Victory day.
We foreigner often don't have idea what to order.
Set menu makes us to decide easier.
For example Bengal New Year, they will serve special menu, too.

Here is regular menu.
Biriyani.(Bangladeshi chicken-250tk)

Mixed vegetable curry.(50tk)

Beef Curry.(230tk+rice 60tk)

Chicken.(220tk/Bangladeshi chicken)

I don't have picture, but daar of Partajan's restaurant is one of my favarite menus.
Please try if you go there.

Here is my co-worker, Mr. Parvez.

If you have any opinion, please talk to him!

 

Joy! Restaurant

Address : Joy! Restaurant, Savar(just opposite to National Memorial)

Tel : 880-2-7791971

Charcoal Steak House

Steak, BBQ.....
You may sometimes feel like to eat meat.
Then, visit Stake House.
 
It moved from Gulshan 2 to Gulshan 1.
From Gulshan 1 circle, walk to south(to Niketon) and turn left at the second street.

Fancy interior.

Bread is served complementary at first.

Main menu is steak, of course.
Decide fish/meat, and choose 2 side dishes from following choices.

- Fried rice
- Vegetable
- Mashed Potato
- Fried potato- Jacket Potato (baked potato with sour cream)
- Lyonnais Potato (baked potato with fried onion)

Potato and potato and potato!!

This is Teriyaki Chicken(1310tk+Service Charge 10%+VAT15%).

Sirloin Steak(1500tk+Tax).

 

Meat was so soft that I even didn't have to cut by knife.

We also ordered appetizer.
Tomato and mozzarella cheese salad(480tk+Tax).

It was also good though I wanted more amount!
There is some more space for cheese and tomato on the dish.....isn't it?

 

Service wasn't the best as a restaurant which charges service charge, but food and atmosphere was nice.
If your mood is steak and potato, let's try.

＜Charcoal Steak House＞
Address: House#3/B, Road136, Gulshan1, Dhaka
Tel: 02-984-0033
E-mail: charcoalbd@gmail.com
 

Caspian

Iranian restaurant in Bangladesh....
I wanted to visit the restaurant for a long time (and didn't get chance) since my friend recommended.

The restaurant's name is 'Caspian'.
It is located between Gulshan 1 and Gulshan 2, 4th floor of the building whose first floor has Agora(supermarket).

Entrance.

Inside.

There was no one when we entered.
I said...
"No one??"
Staff said
"It is still 6pm, people will come after 8pm".
But we only found one couple by 9pm.
Good for us, but can they run......????

Anyway.
The main dish in this restaurant is Kabab.
There are many kinds of kabab......but we weren't sure what was what.

So, we opened the page of "Caspian special", and ordered "Caspian kabab for 2 people".
You can choose 3 items from chicken, mutton, beef and fish.

Our choice was chicken, beef and fish.
(Most of Japanese don't choose mutton.....including us)
3 types of rice and 2 types of sauce were served together.
Saffron rice, butter rice, and....butter rice with raisins and nut.
Rice was Basmati rice which is quite different from Bangladeshi rice.
Basmati comes from the word in Sanskrit which means "fragrant".

One sauce is tomato based, and another is yogurt based.

Beef with tomato and fish with yogurt sauce was good!
I liked fish the most, but chicken was incredibly soft!
I also liked baked tomato put besides meat.
1,800tk+VAT(5%)+Service Charge for 2 people.

It was actually too much amount for 2 girls, so if you don't eat much, it may be better to order kabab for 1 person and some side dishes.
I found hummus in menu, so would like to try it next....(I love hummus!!)

If your mood is not curry, Chinese, or Korean....why don't you try Iranian?

Caspian
Address：RM Centre(4th floor), 101 Gulshan Ave. Dhaka
TEL：01748776655
WEB:http://www.caspian-bd.com/

Poplar

Weekend.......
I was spending lazy day......then, came up with going to cafe with my laptop.
Let's do some work with a piece of cake & a cup of coffee.

Poplar is in Gulshan 2, opposite of Westin hotel.
Entrance.

At first, it seemed like bakery.
There were many kinds of bread. Quite similar with Japanese bakery.
One piece is around 100tk.

Lovely cakes!

I haven't seen these kinds of cakes for a while. (I used to in Japan!)
Then, inside is cafe.

I ordered baked cheese cake and coffee.

It wasn't too sweet and tart was crispy.
Coffee is ok.......but I was impressed they served hot milk with coffee.

 

Each of cake & coffee was 200tk(+VAT15%+Service Charge2%).

Wifi is available.
You can have relax time or work with your PC.
(I didn't work much as a result, but at least finished this blog!)

PoplarAddress：#203(2nd floor), 138 Gulshan Ave. Gulshan-2, Dhaka
TEL：01678013636

Sundarbans(4) -Day.3-

5:30am.
Staff knocked everyone's door!
Yes, we had boat trip on the 3rd day too.

Sky was.....pink!!

This time, we were supposed to walk grass road.
However, it started raining.
We ran to a forest office which forest guards live.

In Sundarbans, no one lives except the guards.
Their life is quite separated from the other world.
Food is brought from city once in every 2 weeks. 
They use solar system for electricity, use rain for drinking water.

From the window of the house, we found.......something like crocodile.

We have waited for a while, and then went back to vessel.
We missed chance to walk around, but it was also interesting experience to see forest guard's life.

After rain, rainbow.......!!
It can't be seen clearly in picture, but it was beautiful.

After coming back to vessel, again all we did whole day was chatting and eating.

We headed back to Khulna.
Breakfast, morning snack, and lunch...

Lunch was Kichuri, my favorite.

It is evening snack....but without moving, I didn't get hungry.
So ate a liiiiiiitle bit.(I could have skipped snack, but didn't)

In the evening, earlier than expected we arrived at Khulna.
As we were coming far from forest and getting close to city, we felt sad...

We spent some time on the deck to take pictures.

One interesting shot.

Can you see what he is doing?
He is taking group picture(including him) from the roof.
Curious how the picture came out....

After finishing dinner, we had closing session.
Some of participants gave speech(or showed dance) with thinking back memories of the 3 days.

On behalf of Japanese group....

They are staffs supporting our 3 days tour.

Cleaning, cooking, taking care of the vessel....they worked so hard whole day.
(For example, after finishing breakfast, they started cooking morning snack, and during that they prepare lunch.....e.t.c)

When we left vessel, everyone knows everyone.
We took small boat from the vessel to the port......and on the way, all of us felt sad.

Thank you for friends traveled together and all the staffs!
If you are interested in Sundarbans tour, you can contact Bengal Tours.

<Tour information>
2 nights 3 days plan
(including all the meal from breakfast on 1st day to dinner on 3rd day)
- For foreigner    15,000tk
- For Bangladeshi  11,000tk

Bengal Tours.
Tel: 02-8857424, 9857424, 9858134
Webpage: http://bengaltours.com/
E-mail: info@bengaltours.com

Sundarbans(3) -Day.2-

In the early morning, at 5pm.

Staff knocked our door, and we had coffee and left for morning boat trip.

Boat trip was organized in the morning.
Sky was veeeeeery beautiful.
It changes colour by each minute.

Birds were singing.
The sounds were clearer than yesterday evening boat trip.

As I stayed on the boat only with hearing sounds......I felt sleep.
Not only me, but also some people were half asleep, and an Italian guy who always seems sleepy lied on the boat.
However, it was good feeling.....temperature was good, slight wave of water was good, birds's song was good....
We didn't find much animals, but found a deer very close to us.
 
So finishing a boat tour, let's have breakfast.
The second day was Bengali breakfast with ruti, omelet, and daar.
I liked this simple Bengali breakfast.
However, an Italian said he couldn't believe to eat spicy food in the morning.
(He eats only sweet stuff for breakfast. It is also surprising.)
Wow, did I become Bangladeshi?

After breakfast, we had 1 hour break.
Then, leave for wild beach!
 
We left the vessel and walked grassland.
It was......actually hard because of sun.
It would have been good walking if sun was not that strong.

Yes, it was hot......
But we found deers again, so good.
 
After.....about 50 minutes of walking, we arrived at wild beach.
Beach?

It was high tide.

Waves were coming through trees.

People went to water and enjoyed waves.
I am tempted to go into water, but I couldn't help thinking of wet clothes and washing these.....
We spent time there for about 1 hour.
Though I didn't go into water, it was fun to see people excited in water.
 
Then, we went back the same way to vessel.
We again found deers, but some people seemed too tired to take pictures!
Including me.

Coming back the vessel, had lunch.







Food is basically curry, but there were varieties.

We had shrimp, fish, beef, chicken and mutton during the trip.

 

When we don't have activities, there are actually nothing special to do except chatting and eating.

Morning snacks are served between breakfast and lunch, evening snacks are served between lunch and dinner.

Sometimes keep eating.

 

In the afternoon, another activities.

We went to small trekking to find tiger(which is next to impossible).

We were divided into 2 groups.

One group goes into jungle, one group walked paved wooden street.

I was so tired because of walking under sun in the morning, but shouldn’t I go for jungle if I came all the way to Sundarbans?

So, I was in jungle team.

Got in mud with my shoes.

Soon realized it wasn’t possible to walk with shoes.

Eventually most of us took off our shoes.

As a result.....

Though sometimes roots of mangrove attacked us, it was much easier to walk without shoes. 

Walked into jungle..... 

Walked into mud.....

 

Walked into.....river even!

This is called "tiger trail" where tigers pass.
We also went to places where tigers take a rest.
(they were absent, of course. If 20 people walk with making noise, of course...)

But, found a foot print!!

And snake.

Do you know what it is?

 

Roots of mangrove.
There are about 50 kinds of mangroves in Sundarbans.
Unique thing is that roots grow not underground, but on the ground.
They need to breathe twice in a day, but it is not possible in silt...so roots come up to the soil. 

This is the place once damaged by cyclone.
There was still no plants.

 But scenery from the place was very beautiful, especially with sunset.

However, we didn't have enough time to enjoy sunset because we had to reach another place by dinner time.
We hurried to the vessel.

Then, what to do?
Everyone needed to take shower and wash clothes.

 

Then, have evening snacks. 

Dinner of the second day is BBQ, we heard.
From the evening, staffs prepared BBQ on the deck.

We expected to have BBQ dinner on the deck, but it was served at kitchen as usual.
Hmmm....a bit disappointed.
But taste was very good!

After dinner....just relaxing.
Talking with different people and went to sleep.
I wanted to spend time on the deck more talking with people, but my body insisted me to go to sleep early.

So....it was the second day.
Continues to the 3rd day.