Black garlic and the metro’s shopping trail

I love exotic spices and use them in my culinary experiments. Sometimes the result is brilliant, while other times it’s a disaster. Still, I continue my witch’s brew with whatever herbs or spices I can get my hands on.

Collecting them has become a fascination in itself. From the alleys of Tongi’s kacha bazaar to Turkey’s spice market, every souk draws me in with its colours, aromas, and stories.

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And then, quite unexpectedly, I made a grand discovery at the Dhaka University metro station -- black garlic. I had no idea that ordinary garlic could be aged under controlled heat and humidity until the cloves turned black, soft, and sweet. The transformation creates a milder, richer flavour, with the cloves stored neatly in jars and prized for their taste and health benefits.

I spotted a posh-looking store, Ghore’r Bazar, at the concourse and was awestruck by its organic finds. The catch, of course, is that prices lean towards the higher side. Black garlic is still niche in Dhaka, but stumbling upon it in our metro station somehow stirred a quiet sense of pride in me. It felt like a small but symbolic step towards a city that is learning to embrace global flavours while offering them in a distinctly local setting.

In other international cities, metro concourse shops are no novelty. Yet here, these small but impactful changes in Dhaka’s metro stations add another layer of public service, slowly nudging us towards a more cosmopolitan rhythm. The metro is no longer just about trains and timetables -- it is about lifestyle, convenience, and the subtle pleasure of finding something unexpected on your daily route.

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PHOTOS: PRABIR DAS

Dhaka Metro Rail, designed to make commuting easier, has quietly evolved into more than just a transport system. Across 16 stations, commuters now walk through concourses that double as shopping stops.

Superstores and food outlets -- Fresh Super Mart, Unimart Express, Tasty Treat, Indulge, Ghore’r Bazar, and Khaas Food -- line the route, offering groceries, snacks, beverages, and household essentials right inside the stations.

Travellers are already enjoying this convenience, picking up daily essentials on their way to work or home without making extra detours, making the metro part of their everyday rhythm.

The outlets are busiest during peak hours, and some even offer discounts, such as Ghore’r Bazar’s 5 percent concession for students with ID. In total, 31 shops have already been leased, with more expected as demand grows.

At Uttara North, Fresh Super Mart has two outlets, while Ghore’r Bazar adds organic charm with imported honey and herbal powders. Uttara Centre hosts a smaller Fresh Super Mart, while Uttara South remains quiet. Pallabi feels like a mini-mall, with Fresh Super Mart, Unimart Express, and Indulge buzzing with shoppers. Shewrapara and Kazipara are snack stops, home to Tasty Treat. Mirpur-10 and Mirpur-11 feature larger Fresh Super Mart outlets serving the dense residential areas.

Agargaon caters to government offices, Dhaka University to students, Bangladesh Secretariat to office-goers, and Motijheel to the city’s commercial crowd. Threaded through these stations is Khaas Food, with its first physical outlets offering organic and lifestyle products.

Together, these 31 shops have turned the metro into a shopping trail -- groceries at Uttara, snacks at Kazipara, full baskets at Pallabi, and organic finds at Ghore’r Bazar. While fresh meat and fish are not sold, the curated essentials make the metro a surprisingly convenient marketplace.

Travellers now treat their commute as a chance to shop, and the stations hum with a new kind of energy -- part transport, part bazaar, part lifestyle hub.

So how cool is it to find a jar of black garlic -- gentler on the stomach, free of a strong aftertaste, and packed with antioxidants -- while running errands at Chawkbazar, knowing you can reach the Dhaka University station from Uttara in just 20 minutes on the metro?

It’s a small discovery, but one that reflects how Dhaka is slowly reshaping itself into a city where everyday convenience meets cosmopolitan flair. The metro, with its trains and shops, has become a symbol of this shift: practical, modern, and quietly transformative.