A taste of Bangladesh in Footscray

Last week I wrote about Vue de Monde, where it's easy to spend $300 on dinner. This week, it's Rizq, where a whole restaurant full of diners would find it hard to rack up $300 between them.

But passion isn't about money. Chef and owner Tanjil Ahmed at Rizq is enthusiastic about showcasing little-known Bangladeshi cuisine and can rhapsodise about bony fish and mutton cooking techniques with the same heart-swelling pride that a fine dining chef might reserve for marron or truffles.

Rizq didn't impress with its trappings and trimmings. A supermarket trolley sat inside the dining room, possibly to bring produce from Footscray Market across the road. The front door didn't close properly and the draft was bitter, but the waiter dealt with this by locking the restaurant shut. There were no menus, as such, just takeaway leaflets, and it took quite some time for anyone to acknowledge our presence.

Yet as soon as the food started coming, I warmed to my Rizq-y journey. The fuchka are a street snack: chickpea flour pastry is fried to a crisp, puffy casing that's filled with chana dal (a yellow lentil), egg, cucumber and tamarind sauce. Chotpoti is a wetter lentil stew served with lots of green chilli.

Mutton is marinated in yoghurt and a fragrant, almost floral, secret spice mix. It's then placed in a pot with onion, and slow-braised on the stovetop for five or six hours. The lid of the pot is sealed with a flour dough mortar to lock in flavour. When the dough is hard, the dish is done, the meat tender and the gravy rich and reduced.

Hilsa fish curry is the national dish of river-threaded Bangladesh. Ahmed imports the fish because he's never seen a local equivalent. Small and bony with slightly salty flesh, it's cooked quickly in mustard oil with mustard powder and turmeric. The boniness is seen as a positive: "that's the flavour".

Cutlery isn't traditional in Bangladesh – it's said that the first "taste" is via the fingers. Mutton is eaten with soft paratha bread, and the fish is eaten with rice that's balled in the fingers then swiped through the curry. I made a mess but loved the tactility. They'll bring forks but Bangladeshis strongly believe the food won't taste right without the hand-to-mouth nexus.

Tanjil Ahmed is proud of his Dhaka-style biryani, and they'll deliver catering size portions with delight. The biryani is cooked for four hours, also in a sealed pot, so the flavours of the meat, potatoes, rice and spice mingle and meld.

The halal and alcohol-free restaurant is not flash or cosy but for flavour and cultural connection, Rizq is rich indeed.

Rating: Three stars (out of five)