Clay-stove duck curry from a village to Dhaka, with corporate offices as buyers within six months

During Covid, Dhaka Tribune Bangla featured two new online food entrepreneurs. One of them is a 50-year-old woman who, with her daughter's encouragement and help, began cooking at her home in a village in Rupganj, Narayanganj, and selling the food in Dhaka. She badly needed a source of income of her own for the household.

Most of their buyers came from a large Facebook group for women entrepreneurs; according to the mother and daughter, joining the group also made it easier to organise the business. The most popular dish is duck — brought from the market, cooked straight away on a clay stove and sent to the buyer. They also make nakshi pitha, hand-roasted puffed rice (muri), and local chicken and beef bhuna on the clay stove. Within just six months they got a good response; some buyers buy regularly, and besides households, several large corporate offices have also become buyers.

At first delivery was the biggest struggle, because the food has to be sent from the village home to all parts of Dhaka. When the delivery man cannot do it, the daughter, who has a master's degree, delivers the order herself. In the early days they also had to put up with a lot of snide remarks.