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Traditional food of Bangladesh: 13 dishes to know

Bangladeshi food is built on rice and fish, the staples of a riverine, monsoon country, traditionally cooked in mustard oil, with lentils and many vegetables alongside. Dhaka adds a rich Mughlai tradition of biryani and kebabs. The dishes to know first are ilish (hilsa), bhorta, kacchi biryani and khichuri, with sweets made from curd and fresh cheese.

Updated 2026-10-125 min read

What Bangladeshi food is built on

Bangladesh is a delta crossed by large rivers and soaked by monsoon rain, so growing rice and fishing have always been the main occupations. Rice is eaten every day and at every meal, and fish is the most common source of protein, with hundreds of species from rivers, ponds, floodplains and the Bay of Bengal. Cooks prefer freshwater fish, served as a curry or a fried steak. Mustard oil was the traditional cooking fat before soybean oil arrived, and Bangladeshi cooking uses some 250 plant-based ingredients.

Most Bangladeshis are Bengali Muslims, and Bangladeshi food is part of the wider Bengali cuisine shared with West Bengal in India. A meal moves from lighter dishes to richer ones, and rice stays at the centre until the chutney near the end. Meat is expensive and eaten far less than fish, but beef is popular among Muslims, while Hindus cook fish and vegetables instead. The dish most often called the national one has its own article: the national dish of Bangladesh.

Rice and fish at home

The everyday Bangladeshi plate is a mound of rice with fish, a mashed side, vegetables and dal.

Ilish bhaja — Steaks of ilish, the hilsa, the national fish of Bangladesh, rubbed with turmeric and salt and fried in smoking mustard oil. The oil left in the pan is poured over hot rice. About 97% of the world's ilish comes from Bangladeshi waters, and it was registered as a Geographical Indication in 2017.
Shorshe ilish — Ilish cooked in a sauce of ground mustard seed and mustard oil, the best known of the more than 50 ways Bengalis say the fish can be cooked. Because ilish is so oily, it needs very little extra fat.
Machher jhol — The everyday fish curry, with plenty of thin gravy, made with fish such as rohu, boal or pabda and vegetables. Dopeaji, fish or prawns cooked with lots of chopped onion and chilli, is its richer cousin.
Bhorta — Mashed vegetables or fish, such as aloo bhorta of potato, begun bhorta of aubergine or dried fish bhorta, eaten as a side with rice. The dried fish version is prized by connoisseurs, especially around Chittagong, where shutki, sun-dried fish, is most common.
Panta bhat — Cooked rice soaked overnight in water so that it ferments a little, eaten in the morning with salt, onion and green chilli. It was the traditional breakfast of farm workers, and on Pahela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year, city people eat it too, often with fried ilish.

Biryani, khichuri and festive dishes

The Nawabs of Dhaka brought Mughlai cooking to Bengal, and its rice and meat dishes are now served at weddings, at Eid and at iftar during Ramadan.

Kacchi biryani — Mutton marinated in yogurt and spices goes into the pot raw, under parboiled rice, and cooks only in the steam trapped by a sealed lid. Kacchi means raw. Like korma and kebabs, it is still served at weddings and at Eid.
Bhuna khichuri — Khichuri is rice cooked with lentils, spices and ghee; it is a staple at iftar during Ramadan and is given to the sick mixed with ginger. The dry, pilaf-like bhuna version roasts the dal and fries the grains in ghee first.
Kala bhuna — A Chittagong dish of beef shoulder cooked with spices until it turns dark and tender. The region is also known for Mezban, open communal feasts where a beef curry with plenty of red chilli is served with white rice.
Borhani — A drink of sour yogurt with green chilli, mustard seed, black salt, coriander and mint, served at weddings and formal feasts after or before a rich meal to help digestion.

Pitha and sweets

Sweets are given at births, weddings and exam results, and most Bangladeshi sweets are made from curd or chhana, fresh cheese.

Pitha — Homemade rice cakes, mostly sweet, made with rice flour, date or cane molasses, coconut and oil. The pitha season starts with the late-autumn rice harvest, when date juice and molasses are available, and an exhibition in 1991 displayed 106 kinds, from bhapa and chitoi to patishapta.
Rasmalai — Small balls of chhana soaked in thickened, cardamom-flavoured milk instead of syrup. Comilla's is the most famous; the related rasgulla, white cheese balls in sugar syrup, set the pattern for most Bengali sweets.
Mishti doi — Sweet yogurt made by boiling milk until it thickens, sweetening it with sugar or date molasses and letting it set overnight in earthenware pots. The version from Bogra, in the north, is known across the country.
Chomchom — An oval, brown sweet of chhana from Porabari in Tangail District, sprinkled with dried milk granules, which dates back about 150 years. It is denser than rasgulla and keeps longer.

Regional cooking across Bangladesh

Old Dhaka's cooking mixes Mughlai, Central Asian, Armenian, Persian and Bengali influences: morog polao, chicken pilaf, is a signature dish, Haji biryani has been served since 1939, bakarkhani flatbread comes with tea, and Chowk Bazaar is the focus of iftar during Ramadan. Chittagong curries are hotter and often made with beef, and the region has the most sea fish and dried fish. Sylhet cooks with local citrus such as hatkora and with very hot naga chillies. The north is dairy country, known for its doi, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts, home to the Chakma and Marma peoples, cook with herbs, bamboo and fermented fish pastes.

Bangladeshi and West Bengali cooking share most of their dishes; compare with the traditional food of India, or explore the wider South Asian kitchen.

Cook Bangladeshi food at home

Ilish bhaja, kacchi biryani and bhuna khichuri each have a full recipe with quantities and step-by-step methods in the Copper app. You will find all three on our page dedicated to Bangladeshi recipes.

The recipes

Questions people ask

What is the most popular food in Bangladesh?

Rice and fish, above all ilish, is the answer most often given. Biryani, khichuri and bhorta are among the most common dishes, and pitha and mishti doi among the best-known sweets.

What do people in Bangladesh eat for breakfast?

In the countryside, panta bhat, rice soaked overnight, eaten with salt, onion and chilli, and puffed or flattened rice with milk, yogurt and fruit. Wheat roti with vegetables or tea, and paratha with fried egg, are also common.

Is Bangladeshi food spicy?

Many dishes are hot with chilli, and Chittagong's highly spiced curries and Sylhet's naga chillies are known for their heat. Mughlai dishes such as kacchi biryani use mild spices.

What is the national fish of Bangladesh?

Ilish, the hilsa. It has been a Geographical Indication of Bangladesh since 2017, and most of the world's catch comes from Bangladeshi waters.

What is the difference between Bangladeshi and Indian Bengali food?

They share most dishes, rice and fish above all. Mughlai food, including beef kebab, is more common in Bangladesh than in West Bengal, and Bengali Hindus avoid beef.

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