Mezban

Mezban (

Traditionally Mezban is a beef-dominated meal^[2] and a symbol of social prestige. The rich and the poor arrange feasts on various occasions as much as circumstances allow them. It has a prominent style of cooking and proper Mezban meat demands a certain skill;^[2] for example:^[1]

1. Spicy beef cooked with a lot of red chilies, with every kind of meet that have in a cow. like bones, fats, liver etc.^[3]
2. Less hot and spicy broth made from the tubular bone of a cow, which is known as Nawla kanji
3. A kind of pulse which is cooked after peeling the skin of
   beans
   and then crushing them; it is called Bhuna dal
4. Food of slightly pungent taste made from chick-pea pulse, bone, fat, and meat.

Hindu tradition

In the middle of the 18th century, Shamsher Gazi, who was a governor in the northern region of Chittagong (then known as Islamabad) in Feni district and Zamindar of Tripura, Chakla-Roshnabad dug a large pond after the name of his mother Koyara Begum and arranged a feast by bringing many fish from the neighboring ponds as well as those in Nizampur area of Chittagong.^[1] Fish is used instead of beef while cooking Mezban in Hindu tradition, as eating beef in forbidden in Hinduism. Since the Hindu community of Chittagong organises Mezbani each year under the banner of "Chittagong Parishad", with curries made from fish, vegetable and dried fish.^[1]

Celebrations

The practice of Mezbani started in the capital city Dhaka in the late 1960s, when National Professor Nurul Islam became the president of Chittagong Association, Dhaka for the term of 1968 to 1983.^[1]

References

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