15/10/2025
Shared Bangladeshi flavors with the Sumaoka’s Family
(my Japanese host family) 🇧🇩🇯🇵
They always wanted to try Bangladeshi food , especially Sumaoka Masaaki-san (my host father), who was supppperr excited for biriyani! I really wanted to give them not just the taste, but the experience—showing the spices, ingredients, and cooking process.
Though I brought some Bangladeshi spices with me, we also went to a Nepali shop to find a few more needed ingredients. The rest we got from the supermarket. It was honestly hard to collect everything, but I’m so lucky to have such a wonderful host family. Both my host parents helped me every step of the way.
Lowkey, I had never cooked these dishes before (Ami to jibone bhaat o ranna kori nai bhai 😭), but I took it as a challenge and decided to just enjoy the process.
Here’s what we made:
Beef Biriyani
Morog Polao
Fuchka
Borhani (they started calling it “spicy smoothie” 😂)
Raita as salad
Three kinds of sweets – Gulab Jamun, Roshogollah,
and Khir Malai
Chingri Mach-er Balachao Bhorta with Shada Polao
You know what? We started at early morning around 8 AM and finished around 10 PM at night ! After that, we wore Bangladeshi traditionals and had dinner at 11:20 PM.
WHAT A DAY IT WAS!!
A huge thanks to Yuki Sumaoka, my host mother, who stayed with me every second—watching, helping, enjoying every process with me, observing deeply, cleaning up my burnt pans, and fixing my little kitchen mistakes. Maybe I just knew the recipes, but we cooked together. Without them, this wouldn’t have been possible.
We also shared the food with their friends and neighbors, and hearing them say “Mecchaa oishii!” (so delicious!)
made it all worth it. My efforts truly paid off.
Must say , I just fulfilled one of my wishes as an exchange student from Bangladesh to Japan.