On Saturday, January 3rd Susan and I found ourselves eating dinner at
Panahar Bangladeshi Cuisine restaurant on Buford Highway in Atlanta. Panahar has a reputation for serving really good Bangladeshi cuisine. Susan and I were just two members at Panahar of what was most likely the best attended Hoochie Map Dancers group dinner to date. The Hoochie Map Dancers name was derived from Chatta "Hoochee", as in the Chattahoochee River, and "Map Dancers" for the group's aim to enjoy cuisine from around the world at restaurants around Atlanta. Our group formed from The Hoochies which was a similar group that included many of the same members we dined with on Saturday. That group faded after many years and was primarily a group of foodie friends who hosted dinners at their homes. The hosting member(s) would rotate throughout the group. In the two or three years we've been meeting our group has enjoyed
Korean, Chinese, French,
American,
Greek,
Indian,
Uraguayan, Mexican, Portuguese, Persian, Russian, and now Bangladeshi cuisine.
We arrived early on a rainy day in Atlanta. Parking was plentiful. There was no valet. That is not often the case in Atlanta. I prefer to park my own car - thank you!
The restaurant's facade is clean and simple.
The interior of the restaurant is equally understated.
During most Map Dancer dinners we'll have some sort of activity related to the history or culture of the country whose cuisine we'll be eating. It might be a trivia contest or a spelling bee. "Spell the word
bouillabaisse" is an example from a previous dinner. In this instance, McDonough attorney Richard Shrade gave an extended history of Bangladesh and it's relationship with Pakistan and India. Richard took seriously the task assigned to him by our group's de facto leader Jim Macie, also an attorney. Instead of referencing Bangladesh's Wikipedia page as any normal person might do Richard bought (and read) the book "
A History of Bangladesh" by Willem Van Shendel before the big day.
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| Richard expounds on the history of Bangladesh |
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| Jim addressing the group |
I tried to go over the online menu to identify what we ate after the fact however, you might find that I I've made a few errors. The pictures were all taken with my Samsung Gallaxy S5 cellphone so they're not as good as I would have liked. Hopefully they're clear enough for readers to get a good idea of what each item looked like on the plate.
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| Appetizer (name unknown) |
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| Vegetable Shingaara Pastry |
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| Poori Shrimp |
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| Naan (bread) |
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| Tandoori Lamb (Lamb with potatoes) |
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| Chicken (name unknown) |
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| Fish Popiazza (Tilapia with onions) |
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| Channa Moshol-la (chickpeas) |
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| Raita (yogurt sauce) |
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| Yogurt dessert (name unknown) |
The food was good and plentiful.
Thanks for reading.
You can see a few other images that were taken
here. Some of these images were taken with a new camera so, they're not as good as one might like.
