Restaurant Review: Korai Kitchen – The New York Times

Imagine you’re in the middle of dinner. You’ve been promised eight courses. You think you’re almost done. But no, five more are coming. I reviewed Korai Kitchen, a Bangladeshi restaurant in Jersey City. The chef, Nur-E Gulshan Rahman, and her daughter, Nur-E Farhana Rahman, opened Korai Kitchen in 2018. On Fridays and Saturdays, you are invited in for a dawat — an invitation to a feast. You start with a mango lassi, a refreshing way to clear the palate for what’s going to come. Quartet of bhortas, which are mashes. You’re going to get a lot of heat from chilie and the steady hum of mustard oil. The bhortas are meant to be eaten with rice. As Nur-E Farhana will tell you, they don’t believe in wine pairings. They believe in rice pairings. The eggplant dusted with turmeric, fried with a little salt. There’s always rui, delicate river fish imported from Bangladesh. Part of the pleasure is working your tongue around all the little bones as you eat. As Nur-E Farhana says, her mother does not believe in anything boneless. This is the way you’d eat it in Bangladesh. And this is the way you’ll eat it here. Act Two — steady march. Kebabs — beef or goat. The glory of murgir roast, a chicken for the ages — fragrant and lush with chiles, plump golden raisins. If the stars align, there will be kacchi biryani — dark shambles of goat with all the juices trickling, cut by the bright tang of sweet-sour dried plums. So there’s so much that’s brought to each dish. The dessert alone takes seven to eight hours, somewhere between a flan and a cheesecake. It’s exactly how you’ll want to end the evening.