Introduction/Interest

Hello, My name is Mehdi Shad and I am Bengali. My project is about learning the history and cultural significance behind underrepresented dishes that have deeply influenced the identity and lifestyles of my home country that often go unnoticed. To truly understand the roots of these dishes, I’ll be making them from scratch, by doing things such as sourcing my own ingredients from the wild, to recreate how they were traditionally prepared. I’ll also make the same dishes using modern methods to compare the effort, flavor, and emotional impact. As for the dishes I will be focusing on, I chose the national dish of Bangladesh, Hilsa Curry, and a struggle meal that was often eaten during the genocide of Bangladesh, fermented rice porridge.

I’m passionate about this because food is more than just sustenance and survival for all countries in the world. It's a living memory of migration, survival, identity, and resilience. I want to connect with both my culture and others’ by honoring the creativity and labor that went into these dishes, especially in times of conflict or crisis, like during the genocide in Bangladesh.

My goal is to highlight the importance of culinary traditions in preserving history and identity. To do this, I’ll research through historical texts, cultural archives, and interviews where possible, while documenting my own process through journals and video.

In the end, my project will be a multi-sensory exploration, through academic research and hands-on experimentation, that reflects the intersection of taste, tradition, and historical empathy.