Karachi’s Many specialities

Karachi is famous for many DESI delicacies that are always... ahheemm.. "enhanced" by the flies, and so on.. Yet every desi who lived abroad craves them and often dont care if they get sick..

This picture is dedicated to making desi's abroad drool.

The sights and sounds of Karachi may have changed, people might seem strange or even dangerous at times but the resounding chow culture of the metropolis remains unchanged.

The crowds around the food establishments, be they swank restaurants or dirty dhabas, endorse that people living here find a great solace and joy in eating out. It is one of the few recreation options that is still legal, affordable, and has a ten out of ten feel good factor.

Outlets serving local, foreign and fusion options mushroom all the time but the next time you go round, they may have been replaced by a mobile phone shop or a boutique. But a few places in Karachi have survived over decades, where the quality, quantity, taste and service remain unchanged. Going there is like meeting a friend after a long time — someone you have shared many good times with.

Tucked away in Gali number 2, off Burns Road, Waheed Kabab House offers fried dhagay wallay kebab and nihari. Apart from changing to a sponsored signboard, the place has barely altered its signature Irani restaurant style interior over the decades, with tables and chairs cramped together on the ground floor below the modest and fairly filthy mezzanine for ‘family’ seating. Tables are occupied as soon as they are vacated.

Whether it’s the bearable December temperatures or the humid heat of mid-year, people want their nihari and fry kebabs, come what may. The gravy is perfectly spiced, the meat succulent and the naan hot and fluffy. The service is quick, straight up, no fuss and no frills and in about 30 minutes max, you’re done, satiated with nihari or kebab that has remained ditto over more than 30 years.

The same goes for Café Lazeez which is just across the road but is open only for dinner. You may have to sit for quite some time in your car as humongous buses go past, but their speciality, maghaz masala and chaanp, is worth the wait. The buttery maghaz is sautéed to perfection while the mutton chops are tender, spicy and spiked with fresh ginger and garlic to go with the soft rumali roti, raita and sliced onion with lemon and pepper.

Not too far away in Saddar, on Dr Daudpota Road, opposite Tit Bits Bookstall and the Parsi Temple is the Sailani Bhelpuri and Chaat Shop which has been around for 54 years or so. Abdur Rehman proudly creates his magic mix of crunchy, tangy bhelpuri day in and day out with the same flawless perfection. The flavours are always balanced, the finely chopped onions always fresh, the bhel crunchy, the sweet and sour sauces teasing your palate with tangy tamarind, green chilli, sonth and the rich sweetness of dates.

For those who are forever on mission-club-sandwich — as even this seemingly simple treat is so easily messed with — there is the Beach Luxury Hotel. Their spacious, open air lounge, with its low-hung fans whirring over your head and a delightful old-world ambience has, for the past 40 years or so, been serving up the most sumptuous and authentic club sandwich among other delicious snacks. Nowhere else would you get roast chicken and roast beef in your sandwich that tastes this good, with the bread slightly toasted and buttered and clubbed with fresh crunchy vegetables.

On the sweeter side, there is Peshawari Ice-cream on Preedy Street in Saddar; monstrous traffic to deal with during the day but at night, it is quite a delight. Selling bucket-ice-cream since 1948, they are the pioneers of Peshawari ice-cream in Karachi. Starting off with just a couple of flavours, they now offer a long list to choose from. The little joint is ensconced between a Chinese dentist and the Edulji Dinshaw Dispensary (1882), so while the mouthful of chaunsa mango ice-cream, a seasonal speciality at Peshawari Ice-cream melts in your mouth, a little corner of old Karachi looks back at you.

For those who like it sweet and sinful, there is a very desi and comforting treat of doodh jalebi at a tea dhaba cum milk shop called Super United right next to United Bakery on Daudpota Road in Saddar. While United Bakery still does perhaps the best chicken sandwich in town (real shredded chicken, salt, pepper and butter in soft, fresh bread), Super United next door does these warm china bowls of doodh jalebi, with a modest sprinkling of dry fruit including chhuaray. Comfort food after a tiring day.

A hard-core Karachiite is like iron at a blacksmith — forged, drawn, shrunk, bent, punched, welded and made ever stronger; but as long as one can revisit the flavours of the Karachi that was, the city will be loved for all that it has to offer. Cafés may come and go, this manna remains unaltered.