Day 67: Korai Kitchen, Jersey City, New Jersey
📌APIA Every Day (67) - Korai Kitchen, located in Jersey City, New Jersey, is the first Bangladeshi restaurant in the area, having opened its doors in February 2018. Owned and operated by Nur-E Gulshan Rahman and her daughter, Nur-E Farhana Rahman, the mother-daughter duo aimed to showcase authentic Bangladeshi home cooking. Despite their lack of prior restaurant experience, Nur-E Gulshan Rahman, who relocated to Jersey City from Dhaka in 1986 and had a background in jewelry design before managing her husband's convenience store, partnered with her daughter Nur-E Farhana, born and raised in Jersey City and working in management consulting. Together, their goal was to introduce distinct Bangladeshi dishes, setting them apart from those in the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal.
For context, the violent partition of India in 1947 split British India into present-day India, West Pakistan, and East Pakistan. The renaming of East Pakistan into Bangladesh occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. As neighbors, West Bengal and Bangladesh share common culinary traits, often including fish in their dishes. In the 1970s, many Bangladeshi immigrants arrived in New York and, assuming that Americans were more familiar with India, opened restaurants under Indian names. This decision inadvertently led to the widespread perception of Bangladeshi cuisine as Indian, as many New Yorkers came to know Indian food rather than recognizing the distinct flavors of Bangladeshi cuisine. Korai Kitchen bridges that gap by proudly showcasing that the restaurant solely serves Bangladeshi food for the local communities in Jersey City.
Operating as a small restaurant, Korai Kitchen offers a buffet of 12 dishes for lunch and dinner, with the menu changing twice a day. Despite its size, the restaurant consistently draws crowds, meeting the unmet demand for authentic Bangladeshi food within the large South Asian communities in Jersey City. Its popularity has extended beyond the local area, attracting customers from New York City, Long Island, and Connecticut. In recognition of its success, Korai Kitchen received a James Beard Award nomination in late January of this year, attributing to its mission of making Bangladeshi cuisine distinct in the restaurant industry.
LEARN MORE:
NY Times: Bangladeshi Food is a Rarity Around New York. This Place Helps Fill the Void
Eater: Here Are the 2024 James Beard Awards Restaurant and Chef Semifinalists
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