In a recent survey conducted by Gallup & Gilani Pakistan, people across the country were asked about their favorite type of meat. The survey revealed the following preferences: • 41 percent of respondents chose goat meat as their favorite. • 25 percent favored beef. • 23 percent preferred chicken. • 11 percent either didn’t know or didn’t answer.
Gallup & Gilani Pakistan conducted the survey to gather information about people’s food preferences. Understanding what people like helps businesses and policymakers make decisions.
We agree that nothing beats a good mutton karahi. Or a good mutton pulao. Or a good mutton haandi. Or paai.
With Eid-ul-Azha tomorrow, Muslims all around the globe will be sacrificing animals to remember the practice of Prophet Ibrahim (A.S). Meat lovers usually crave meat but on Eid-ul-Azha, seeing meat all around diminishes the craving and sometimes, develops an urge to eat vegetarian food. Moreover, vegetarians also wonder what to eat on Eid. In this article, we will go over easy and delicious vegan food that you can make on this Eid.
1- Bhindi Pyaz (Okra or Ladyfinger)
Pakistani star vegan food, bhindi, can be prepared by stir-frying bhindi with onion, garlic, tomatoes and a few other everyday masala. Quantities of masala may vary depending on your taste in food. It is best served with chapati. You can also fry bhindi filled with chat masala and serve it to guests as an alternative to crispy meat.
2- Lobia ka Salan
Lobia ka salan is another Pakistani traditional food that is famous because of its fulfilling taste. It is prepared with Lobia in onion tomato gravy base and can be served in a bowl with chapati. It tastes equally well with boiled rice, which is a cherry on top.
3- Matar Pulao
Matar pulao is yet another famous dish among Pakistanis. It is prepared with rice, green peas and blend of other spices. It is usually served with sliced cucumber salad to add to its flavour. It is one of the best vegan food that could be served to vegetarian guests visiting your place.
4- Alo Kabab
When it comes to vegetarian food, it will not be fair to not mention aaloo kababs. Mashed potato mixed with sliced cauliflower, green capsicum and masala depending on your taste serves as best and quick dish that you can have at Eid. Its appetising smell and circular crispy shape can bring water to anyone’s mouth.
5- Mixed vegetables
Last but not the least, another vegetarian and gluten-free dish that you can eat during this meaty Eid is mixed sabzi. If you are a veggie lover, then it is a must try. It can give you plenty of vegetables in one dish. You can even purchase frozen mixed vegetable packs from any super market. There is no need to spend time on slicing different vegetables. All you need is to follow the instructions given on the pack and you are good to go.
Just a few weeks before COVID-19 forced a lockdown across the country, noted actor and producer Yasir Nawaz opened a new restaurant TheForest in the heart of Clifton, Karachi. Though I was unable to visit the place when it first opened its doors, post-lockdown I decided to check it out after hearing some rave reviews about it from friends and colleagues.
The first thing that strikes you when you enter the restaurant is the huge mural of a lion on one wall. The painting instantly brightens up the mood. There are huge trees all around, which give the place a very rustic look and give the impression of a campsite in the middle of a forest. The outdoor and open-air setting of the restaurant is great in these COVID times and I can see myself spending winter nights with my family here. Once the weather is better, it’ll be a fantastic place for a night out or just to simply hang out.
Though Yasir, in one of his interviews said that the menu will mostly focus on desi cuisine, there is something for everybody. From karahis and BBQ to Chinese and burgers, TheForest’s menu has it all. In fact, I have to add here that it is a bit of a task to choose the dishes given the variety.
From the starters, we ordered The Forest Platter and it was simply yum. The platter included stuffed chicken, wings, pakora bites and two dips. Everything in the platter was brilliant and cooked to perfection.
The Forest Platter
For our main course, we decided to go desi and ordered a BBQ Platter, Mutton Handi and Chicken Handi. Out of them, the chicken handi was definitely my favourite. The chicken was very tender and the dish had the perfect blend of spices. The Mutton Handi was also good and spicy but the Chicken Handi won my tastebuds.
On the other hand, the BBQ Platter took my breath away with its size. The platter was huge and was good enough for six to seven people. It included grilled fish, chicken malai boti, seekh kabab, BBQ Prawns as well as rice and naan among other things. Each item on this platter was succulent and well-cooked, with just the right amount of spices and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
BBQ Platter
We ended our meal with a creamy and very satisfying kulfi which hit all the right spots for the perfect sweet ending.
Yasir told me that he took six months to set up the restaurant and I have to say that his hard work shone through. From the ambience to the food, everything was well-thought-out and polished till it was perfect. The hosts were very graceful towards their guests and ensured that no one left dissatisfied, which was probably another reason why I thoroughly enjoyed my visit. If you’re looking to spend a nice, relaxed evening with your family or friends, I’d highly recommend TheForest.
The coronavirus induced lockdown has brought out our inner chef and we’ve all turned to the kitchen for some food and comfort. Wasim Akram is the latest celebrity to take to the kitchen to satisfy his cravings, specifically his pizza cravings.
Wasim’s wife, Shaniera shared pictures of the former cricketer making pizza from scratch, including the dough. Wasim topped his pizza with some mushrooms, rocket leaves and olives.
Shaniera also shared that Wasim did not clean up after his cooking experiment but that ‘men who cook are hot’.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-ymhaIDM7W/
Shaniera has been regularly sharing updates of her family spending time together in quarantine.
Hidden in the heart of Defence, Lahore is a quaint little cafe, Amavi. The restaurant’s owner Maira has been in the food business for a while now, working for other cafes and restaurants, before taking the leap and opening up her own little space. Maira’s expertise lies in desserts and she has trained herself professionally in the department.
The patisserie’s interior is beautifully done with a lot of attention paid to detail. The chairs are done with deep green velvet upholstery while there are small artsy details on the tables. There is marble flooring and touches of gold, pink and black here and there. It’s almost like entering a painting. Amavi is the sort of place you’d want to dress up and go.
When I went there, the place was buzzing with people. Initially, Amavi was a small space with about two to three tables but given the phenomenal success, the owners had to expand it to entertain more visitors.
Now onto the food. The food was a bit different from the usual palettes, for example, their Za’Atar and Burrata Pizza – Za’Atar is a spice while Burrata is fresh Italian cow milk cheese made from mozzarella and cream. I’ve had Burrata Salad in Karachi but I haven’t come across anything like this before and I was fairly impressed with this dish. It was actually pretty yummy.
Za’Atar and Burrata Pizza
Their Salt Beef Toastie with Gouda Cheese and Caramelised Onions was another one of my favourites. Apart from that their Fish and Chips were good too and I also tried their bestselling Buttermilk Chicken Burger which was an absolute treat. The chicken was soft, tender and full of flavour.
Salt Beef Toastie
Buttermilk Chicken Burger
Fish and Chips
The only thing I did not like was the French Onion Soup.
I didn’t really try the desserts so I can’t comment on that but a lot of people there were mostly having desserts and coffee, which by the way was also good.
I will definitely be going to Amavi again to try the dishes I didn’t, especially the desserts. For me, the patisserie is a cute and different addition to the Lahore food scene.
Islamabad’s mushrooming restaurant scene comes in small areas. The market at E-7 is home to a few different restaurants: a burger joint, steaks, the food of Hunza and Mithas, a restaurant that serves pretty much everything.
As The Current’s food reviewer, when they came to Islamabad to interview me, it made sense to do it over food. We walked around, checking out a few restaurants, and settled on trying out the breakfast menu of Islamabad’s Mithas.
Mithas is an Italian restaurant but like most restaurants in Pakistan, it has a mixed menu of different cuisines.
We sat outside the rather large space, on a sunny Islamabad afternoon. Even though the table was shaky, which can be rather annoying, as if you’re eating at sea, the server was friendly and helpful. We ordered the eggs and a Chicken Tarragon.
Spinach Feta omelette
It is incredibly difficult to get a souffle omelette right. Mithas came incredibly close with their Spinach and Feta souffle omelette. It was baked to perfection but the cheese was decidedly feta but most likely a mozzarella. Even though it looked perfect, it tasted a little dry. But getting this is one is so tricky that it was a good attempt.
The hash browns and sausage could’ve easily been taken off the plate. The hash browns were tasteless and the sausage was overcooked and chewy and five pieces of white bread were too much.
Scrambled eggs on toast
The scrambled eggs were a strong creamy blend of ease and the toast they were served on was a perfect compliment. I wondered if they were making their own bread but this one in excellent option.
I was a little confused with the Chicken Tarragon. Fresh tarragon is incredibly difficult to find in Pakistan and this was made using a dried form of the herb, which is why the taste didn’t really come through. The sauce was thick – a little too much – but it covered the chicken nicely. A good option at the restaurant but not the best.
Chicken Tarragon
Mithas is a good addition to Islamabad’s food scene and we sat there for a few hours nursing our coffee and having a good chat in true Islamabad feel.
It’s not like any of us needs an excuse to eat hearty and heavy, but if you do, cooking for your loved one(s) on V day is a good one.
Here are three tried and tested recipes that taste amazing and are at an intermediate level of cooking. They are a mix of different recipes: A Paula Deen and Yossy Arefi mix of a decadent and super easy lava cake, a Mark Bittman and Tyler Florence potato gratin (fancy name for potatoes with cream) and a variation of Melissa Clark’s Chicken Parmesan with Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce (All of these chefs are brilliant but need a bit of a variation to meet Pakistani palette standards.
Chocolate Lava Cake
250 grams of cooking chocolate (Dairy Milk and others work too but don’t put in too much sugar then)
10 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup icing sugar
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Heat oven to 220 degrees C.
Grease Four baking/ custard cups with butter (Muffin tins also work).
Melt the chocolates and butter in the microwave/double boiler/low heat stove top. If you choose to microwave, don’t micro them in one go but stir it after every 30-40 seconds. Add the flour and sugar to chocolate mixture. Stir in the eggs and yolks until smooth and stir in the vanilla extract. Divide the batter evenly among the cup and place them in the oven and bake for 14 minutes. The edges should be firm but the center will be runny. Don’t be worried about taking it out too early. It tastes so good, it wouldn’t matter if it has ‘too much lava’. But definitely don’t take it out too late. It’s not a lava at all if it takes too long in the oven. Let it cool slightly and then run a knife around the edges to loosen and take out, upside down, onto plates.
Potato Gratin
8 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced paper-thin
4 tablespoons butter semi melted
2 cups heavy cream
15 garlic cloves, split in half
Italian herbs seasoning
3 tablespoons chopped green onions, plus more for garnish
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (if you cant find this, try a mix of mozzarella and cheddar)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat the oven to 195 degrees C. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients, and toss around to make sure all are coated. Season with salt and pepper. Put the potato mixture into a baking dish, flatten it out with a spatula, and bake for 40 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the gratin is bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with spring onions.
Chicken Parmesan
1 kg boneless chicken cut into strips
1/2 cup flour
3 eggs
3 cups Panko breadcrumbs
12 large tomatoes
5 tablespoons tomato paste
6 tablespoons of butter
One large onion
12 garlic cloves (peeled)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (if you cant find this, try a mix of mozzarella and cheddar)
Salt and pepper
Oil for frying
Directions
Heat oven to 204 degrees.
First make the tomato sauce. Cut the tomatoes into four pieces and cut the big onion in two halves. Place the tomatoes and onion and garlic on a deep frying pan with the butter. Add the tomato paste and let it cook on very low heat for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper
Place flour, eggs and panko into three wide, shallow bowls. Season meat generously with salt and pepper. Dip a piece in flour, then eggs, then coat with panko. Repeat until all the meat is coated.
Fill a large frying pan with oil Place over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, fry cutlets in batches, turning halfway through, until golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
Spoon a thin layer of sauce over the bottom of a baking pan. Sprinkle one-third of the cheese over sauce. Place half of the cutlets over the cheese. Top with half the remaining sauce and repeat the process. The final top layer should be of the cheese.
Transfer pan to oven and bake until cheese is golden which is about 40 minutes. Let cool a few minutes before serving.
Everyone has heard. Karachiites find it difficult to settle in Lahore. 20 years, 10 years, five years, the hole in their heart is never filled. It’s not a superiority thing, which Lahoris believe it is. It’s because they don’t fit in even if they try to. Some succeed and become unrecognizable to their childhood friends. Most live their lives in Lahore, yearning for aloos in their biryani.
For Karachiites, biryani isn’t just about comfort food. It’s the smell of home on Sundays, it is the big silver daigs being brought into every mayyun, mehndi, and shaadi, the big plate with your favourite piece of meat, two aloos or more, rice with heaps of masala, raita, a good movie, eaten and watched in bed after a really long day. It’s home.
Food is synonymous with home. No matter where we live, when we are homesick we turn to food that makes us relive the place, and the memories we miss. If you live in hostels, or work abroad, you will ultimately call your mother to ask how to make daal chawal, and if you feel courageous enough to try, biryani. It won’t taste just like home but it might come close.
Five years on, I have yet to find the perfect biryani in Lahore. And I’ve tried almost all of them, in search for a piece of home. Two have come close, but perhaps it’s because I forced them to in my mind. But that was also more than enough for a few minutes.
I tried Karachi Naseeb Biryani at least 10-15 times. They have aloo, I was proudly told. The name suits the biryani. It is in your naseeb if you will find biryani that comes close to Karachi’s. And also one branch.
I’m told the oldest branch of Karachi Naseeb Biryani is the one that between McDonalds and Main Market in Gulberg. And that’s the one to try. The first few times I had the biryani from other branches and it was mostly the happy color yellow, mixed with white rice, aloo and chicken. The biryani looked glum, painted happy, depressed inside, lonely pieces floating around and never coming together. Then came the night when the right box arrived from the right branch. Yellow mixed with masala, aloo bukharas two aloos and masala stuck in between the nooks and crannies of the seena piece. Yes, please. It wasn’t Karachi but it was so painfully close. Eaten too fast, the moment was over too soon.
Karachi Kanteen came to Lahore with a bang. We were all talking about it. Anda Shami, chicken rolls and what, Sindhi biryani? Life was going to be complete, I just knew it.
The first time I had Karachi Kanteen, I went to heaven. I was home, I was at a wedding, I was at a friend’s house, I was everywhere I yearned to be. The biryani was perfect. The masala, the sticky aloo bokharas, those elaichis that add so much flavour but are quickly caught and pushed aside, it tasted like the heart of Sindh. It was one of my happiest nights in Lahore because life was about to change.
It didn’t really change though. The biryani was ordered four, five times, eaten at food festivals, tried over and over again. It was never the same. It was almost as if it had given up and blended into the Lahori palao biryani. Or it liked to fit in and decided it had taken a different route in life. Whatever the reason, it was never the same again. It made me angry, I’ll admit. It wasn’t supposed to do that.
There were many that came and went. Happy spoons going in, leaving dejected and hopeless. Some came with kababs, put on top of the rice like a pity crown, as if the kababs were a consolation prize for something that just wasn’t going to do it.
A worthy mention is a home-based company whose owner I met at a restaurant as I told my tale of sorrow for the umpteenth time. He said his family made biryani for delivery and he would send me some. I accepted his offer, not thinking that he would. He did and it came in a big container with green chutney. Rakh Rakhao’s biryani came on a day I needed it the most. I opened the box which revealed biryani that wasn’t just coloured yellow but had streaks of orange as well. I examined the rice and found it to be full of masala. The aloos seemed perfectly cooked, the chicken, glad to be stuck to the rice. My interest was further piqued by the presence of lemon slices, which very few people do. I dove in and it was good. I nimbled it with my fork, broke away the chicken pieces and mixed it with green raita, when my heart really wanted the white wala. The biryani was good but tasted mostly of lemon and the masala wasn’t perfect. But there was masala, which made it more biryani than others.
I came home, with my biryani box in tow forvsome time alone. I was hungry, I opened the box and took out the biryani, heated it up and made some white raita. Discarding the spoon, I started eating it with my hands, watching a movie on Netflix. And for a few moments, the biryani raised the bar and started to come home. It wasn’t perfect but then life for a Karachiite in Lahore hardly is. But it came close and that, is good enough.
A woman died while taking part in a cake-eating competition to celebrate Australia Day.
Paramedics were called to a pub in the state of Queensland on Sunday afternoon after a woman was involved in a “medical incident”.
Public broadcaster ABC reported the 60-year-old had a seizure after she “shovelled a lamington into her mouth”.
Lamingtons, a traditional Australian dessert, are cube-shaped sponge cakes dipped in chocolate and covered in grated coconut.
The woman was rushed to hospital in the coastal town of Hervey Bay but couldn’t survive.
She was a contestant in the Beach House Hotel’s annual Australia Day lamington and meat pie eating contest.
In a post on Facebook, management and staff offered their “deepest condolences” to the woman’s friends and family.
“We acknowledge and thank our supportive patrons, staff, and the Queensland Ambulance Service for their prompt and professional response while this tragic incident was unfolding,” the post said.
“The hotel staff have been offered professional support while our thoughts firmly remain with the family at this challenging time.”
Police said the death was not suspicious and a report would be prepared for the coroner.
Winters and brunches go hand in hand. And nothing better than French Toast for the perfect sweet ending to a satisfying, or not so satisfying brunch. While, most cafes in Lahore have french toasts on their menu, finding the perfect French toast in town was quite a feat and I had a go through a couple to find the one.
Read on for a comparison of French Toasts available in Lahore.
Urban Kitchen
Urban Kitchen has French Toast available only on Sunday as part of their Sunday brunch which is a pity because they truly are delightful. The bread is delicious and I’d honestly just go back for that. And the fact that the toppings do not include Nutella is the cherry on top.
Thanda Garam
Thanda Garam knows how to do their french toast because the french toast they had were divine – the best out of the lot. They were crispy from the outside and fluffy from the inside. The cream that accompanied was so delectable that I had to stop myself from licking clean the plate. The only downside was that there was too much Nutella – but then again those who love Nutella will absolutely love this. I’d request the restaurant to make Nutella optional and add a jam option as well – Strawberry or Apple Jam with these french toast would be delightful.
Jade
As far as Nutella French Toast are concerned, Jade was the pioneer of these in the city. But over the years, I feel that Jade’s french toast have become boring as well as oily. They are often too crispy on the outside and not as well cooked from the inside. The bread is also pretty thick which is why I’ve stopped having french toast from Jade.
Chaaye Khana
Just like Jade, Chaaye Khana also used to do good french toast. But after trying Thanda Garam and Urban Kitchen, Chaaye Khana’s french toast began to taste mediocre – there is tooo much bread and nothing with it. No cream, jam or maple syrup which makes the french toast dry and boring.
Sasha’s
The first time I went to Sasha’s, I quite enjoyed their french toasts. But the successive visit wasn’t as good. The bread was extra caramelized which made it difficult to chew – it was like eating burnt toffee. Add to that, maple syrup and nutella. The end result wasn’t very pleasing and I never went back to Sasha’s.
In short, Urban Kitchen and Thanda Garam do the best french toast in town.
