The aluminium kettles clang against steel pots as Dhaka stirs awake. At Raju Bhai’s decades-old stall near Nilkhet, the morning ritual is sacred: Kneading dough, dicing potatoes, and heating vats of oil until the first batch of shingaras achieves that perfect golden crisp. For generations, his family has sold these spiced pyramids at Tk5apiece -- until one morning in 2023, when the handwritten price tag read Tk7.
“Ei je!” protested a university student, holding up a shingara as if inspecting counterfeit currency. “This used to be paanch taka!”
Raju Bhai wiped his forehead with a flour-dusted hand, “Bhai, Russia-Ukrainer juddho, dollar shortage, Meghna Bridge traffic jam -- everything is in this Shingara now.”
He wasn’t joking. The humble shingara --Bangladesh’s answer to the samosa -- had become a deep-fried barometer of global chaos.
The flour bomb: How wheat went to war
The crisis begins with flour, the shingara’s architectural soul. Bangladesh produces just 10% of its wheat (World Bank, 2023). The rest comes sailing in from:
- Russia & Ukraine (35% of global wheat exports pre-war)
- India (until its 2022 export ban)
- Australia & Canada (pricier due to shipping costs)
When the Ukraine conflict escalated into war, global wheat prices spiked 45% (FAO). But the real shock came via currency:
- The taka depreciated 25% against the dollar (Bangladesh Bank, 2023)
- Flour import costs ballooned 60% (BSTI data)
“We used to buy 50kg flour sacks for Tk1,800,”says Mohammad Ali, a wholesale supplier in Kawran Bazar. “Now? 2,600 -- if you can find it. Some vendors mix maida (refined flour), but purists notice the texture’s softer.”
Oil and spice: The geopolitics of a perfect crust
A shingara’s crispness depends on two oils:
1. Dough oil (traditionally soybean)
- Argentina’s drought (world’s top soybean exporter) cut supplies
- Local soybean oil prices rose 74% (Trading Economics, 2022)
2. Frying Oil (usually palm)
- Indonesia’s export ban sent global palm oil prices soaring 70%
- Street vendors began recycling oil two or three times longer (Dhaka City Corporation survey)
“Before, I changed oil every three days,” admits Shahnaz Begum, who fries shingaras near Dhaka University. “Now I strain it for a week. Customers complain of the oily smell, but what choice do we have?”
The filling: Climate change and potato politics
The potato-pea filling hides its own drama:
- Floods in Rangpur destroyed 30% of 2022’s winter crop (DAE)
- Trucking costs doubled after diesel price hikes
- Result: Potato prices up 22% (BBS)
- Cumin prices rose 18% due to India’s export taxes
- Coriander became 15% costlier as local farmers switched to higher-value crops
“We’ve reduced garlic in the filling,” confesses a vendor in Gulistan (requesting anonymity). “Customers say, “Achar-e koshondo nai!” (The chutney lacks punch!). But garlic costs Tk300 per kg now!"
The street vendor’s calculus
At Tantibajar -- Dhaka’s shingara epicentre -- the new economics are brutal:
“Profit?” laughs Abdul Kader, a third-generation shingara-wala. “After rent, bribes, and mastaanfees, I make less than before. But if I charge Tk8, students will protest.”
The bigger picture: Bangladesh’s food security paradox
The shingara’s inflation reveals uncomfortable truths:
“We’re a bhaat-based culture that developed a ruti appetite,” says a food historian. “When global wheat prices convulse, our street food trembles.”
Last crumbs
Next time you bite into a shingara, pause. That crunch echoes with:
- Russian tank movements in Donbas
- Argentine soybean fields cracking under drought
- Indonesian palm oil executives debating export quotas
- A Bangladeshi trucker stuck in Meghna Bridge traffic, his potatoes spoiling in the heat
The true recipe for shingara? One part flour, twoparts oil, three parts potato -- and a pinch of global chaos.
Zakir Kibria is a writer and nicotine fugitive (once successfully smuggled a lighter through 3 continents). Entrepreneur | Chronicler of Entropy | Cognitive Dissident. Chasing next caffeine fix, immersive auditory haze, free falls. Collector of glances. "Some desires defy gravity."Email: [email protected].
