English
বাংলা
The story
Most of the world eats pepper as a berry. In southwest Bangladesh the prized part of one pepper plant is the woody vine itself. Chui jhal is Piper chaba, a climber in the same family as black pepper and betel, with leaves that look a lot like paan. Farmers train it up mango, jackfruit, coconut or betel-nut trees, or plant cuttings on raised ground near the homestead, and cut the stems once the vine is a year or two old. Growers say a vine twining around a sajna (drumstick) tree gives a stronger flavour, though that is local belief rather than measured fact.
The spice is grown across Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Narail and Jashore. Agriculture officials in Khulna have put the area under the crop at around 130 hectares in four districts, worked by more than four thousand farmers, and the vine has become a useful extra income for homestead growers because it needs little land and keeps producing for years. The root and the thick lower stem fetch the highest price, the thinner stems less.
What made chui jhal famous outside the region is the dish: chui jhal mutton or beef, slow-cooked with chunks of the stem until the meat is tender and the gravy carries a sharp, slightly numbing heat quite unlike chilli. Restaurants in Khulna built their names on it, travellers began carrying the spice home, and it now turns up on menus in Dhaka as a southwest speciality.
How to spot the real Khulna chui jhal
Fresh chui jhal is sold as pieces of greyish-brown, knotty stem or root, roughly finger to wrist thick, sometimes still with a little green. Cut a piece and the inside is pale cream to greenish with a fibrous core and a strong, clean, peppery smell that hits the nose. Chew a sliver and the heat builds slowly and lingers. Thin, dry twigs with little smell, or pieces that are hollow, rotten or mouldy at the cut ends, are poor value. Some sellers mix cheaper upper stems into a bag sold as root, so look at the thickness: root and base pieces are thick, gnarled and heavy for their size. Dried, chopped chui and chui powder exist too; they are convenient but lose much of the aroma.
Buying tips
Decide what you are paying for: root, thick lower stem or thin stem, because the price gap between them is large and a mixed bag should cost less. Ask the seller where it was grown, when it was cut, whether the pieces are root or stem, and how it will be packed; fresh pieces travel well wrapped in paper inside a carton, but should not sit sealed in plastic for days in the heat. Ask for a photo of the cut ends before you pay.
Each Midmart shop sets and charges its own delivery, so if you also order sweets or fish from another shop, expect separate parcels and separate fees. Midmart does not take your money or arrange the courier; you and the seller agree the payment method and delivery between yourselves. Midmart cannot vouch that a listing comes from Khulna, so the questions above are your best check.
Keeping it fresh
Keep fresh chui jhal in a paper bag or loosely wrapped in newspaper in the vegetable drawer of the fridge, where it keeps for a few weeks. For longer storage, chop it into the chunks you will cook with and freeze them in a sealed bag, or sun-dry thin slices and store them airtight. Discard pieces that turn soft, slimy or mouldy.
Find Khulna chui jhal on Midmart
Search Midmart for “chui jhal”
Shops from where it is made
No shop from Khulna is on Midmart yet.
Every shop on Midmart collects payment its own way and arranges its own delivery — Midmart never handles your money or your parcel. Delivery is charged per shop: order from three shops and you pay three delivery charges.
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