Mahadu; [Chef]

Rohingya recipes

Gastronomy (GAS)

Cooking

Modu means honey and baat means rice in the Rohingya language. Although honey is not an ingredient used to prepare this dish, the word is used to name the dish because it is very sweet. Rohingya families make this dish mostly in the summer while some farmers make it during the rainy season, to eat after a hard day’s work in the field.

While the preparation of the dish is simple, it takes a long time to concoct a key ingredient which is rice flour. Two kilograms of rice needs to be soaked in the water first, then stored in a bag and kept in a dry place to drain the water. After every 8 hours, it needs to be soaked in the water and then drained again. This process is repeated for two days, after which the rice is dried under sunlight for at least six hours. The dried rice is then grinded to make rice flour which is used to prepare modu baat.