Sirajganj's traditional 'pituli' meat is now known across Bangladesh. It is the highlight of the district's social and religious gatherings, and relatives travelling from far away ask to be served it, Ittefaq reported. Nobody can say exactly when the custom began; even the oldest residents say they heard about it from their fathers and grandfathers.
Pituli is cooked in Chhongachha, Bagbati and Ratankandi unions of Sirajganj Sadar and throughout Kazipur upazila, usually at a mezbani held for the fortieth-day prayers of a prominent person who has died, to pray for someone leaving for Hajj, or to strengthen family ties. Almost every household in the host village, men, women and children, is invited, and villagers help cook without pay. Guests used to be served on banana leaves; plastic plates and glasses are now more common.
The main ingredients are beef or buffalo meat and powdered aromatic (atap) rice. Preparation begins the afternoon before: the meat is cut as the cook directs, several earth stoves are built, cooking starts around midnight, and at a set stage the rice flour is stirred into the meat.
Cook Hossain Ali said pituli needs fresh atap rice flour pounded in a dheki, the traditional foot-operated husker, and the flour must still be damp when it goes into the meat; it is techniques like these that have made Kazipur's pituli famous.
Serving begins after the dawn (Fajr) prayer and is usually over by 10am. Separate people serve the rice, the pituli and the ghol (buttermilk); rice and pituli are served once, followed by the buttermilk. Abul Hossain, 70, of Pipulbaria said hospitality feels incomplete without pituli. Aynal Haque of Maijbari in Kazipur said cooks are even hired from Sirajganj to make pituli at functions in Dhaka.
The report is by Mahmudul Kabir, Ittefaq's Sirajganj correspondent.
Source: Ittefaq
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