The Ever Famous Street Food of Karachi!

You are not a true Karachiite if you haven’t tried our city’s traditional and addictive specialty – The ever famous “Bun Kabab”. When low on cash or at a distant place where there are no decent options available to consume, the Bun kabab is always there to rescue you from your hunger pangs. Bun Kabab has always made me nostalgic. Those school memories come rushing back when Bun Kabab would be the hot favorite of most of the kids and the most selling item of the school canteen. 

 

Let it be school canteen or the street vendors, Bun Kabab is just everywhere! It is a desi sandwich made up of homemade patty of Shami Kabab (ground lentils, spices, an egg batter and chicken or beef, then shallow fried) with chutney or raita and onions. Served between lightly oil tossed buns and wrapped in the newspaper! - The Pakistani Way. I love it because of its spicy and tangy taste. The taste of chutney, onions and kabab does wonder on the tongue! 

You find a lot of Bun Kebab vendors scattered all across Karachi, the most famous ones being on Pakistan Chowk, Burns Road, Bahadurabad and Gizri. Bun Kebabs serves as one of Karachi’s major roadside attractions, providing its people a delicious snack to relish on amid the hustle and bustle of the city life. The sight of a Bun Kebab makes one’s mouth water and stomach growl. None of the multinational fast food chains can provide a substitute for the local Bun Kebabs. Nothing can beat them; they have a unique spicy taste and are a favorite snack of locals belonging to any class.

Having Bun Kebabs is an entire experience in itself. It involves not just eating, but also watching the vendor make it front of you: frying the patty, toasting the buns, adding the delicious mint chutney, the sliced onions and then closing it – your mouth waters, and you want to bite into it as soon as the ‘waiter’ holds it out for you! It’s a must-eat item for anyone who visits Karachi. In Lahore, Bun Kebabs are more commonly known as Shami burgers but they are not even close to the ones you get in Karachi!

There is a whole variety of Bun Kebabs. Daal anday ka (egg & lentils) bun kebab, seekh kebab ka, aloo ka bun kebab (with a potato patty), and chapli kebab ka (with a meat patty). Each of the following has its own unique and delicious taste, making it an unavoidable snack. So if unfortunately you haven’t tried one till now, go grab yours today!

Food Diaries - Pulao

The intriguing aroma of various herbs, crushed coriander seeds with onions fried in mutton stock when mixed with ordinary white rice transform it into an extraordinary dish, Pulao. This dish is a universal cuisine that has originated from various ancient recipes from across the globe.

According to the ancient history, the nomadic shepherds contributed in making Pulao popular world wide. Initially, this dish was prepared as the first course food item, before the main course meal in Persian kitchens, but later on its fame increased as a main dish as it travelled from the tables of the nomadic shepherds and entered into the zones of Caliphs.

The cooks of ancient times used to soak rice in salted water for a couple of hours and then would cook them entirely in the boiling meat stock. The texture of cooked rice was never compromised, as for a perfect Pulao it was essential for each grain of rice to be properly cooked and separable. In case the rice was overcooked or became sticky, the ancient cooks would reject and discard their cooked dish right away, as for them the entire recipe was ruined.

Pulao is one of those recipes that earned a lot of fame across the globe due to its sheer elegance. From Persia, it rapidly made room in the hearts of the people of the Muslim world. Later on, Spanish cooks made some innovations in the recipe of this exquisite dish by the infusion of seafood with rice and within a short period this tantalizing recipe became a part of Spanish as well as Italian cuisines. During Babur’s period, Pulao’s popularity escalated because he himself was a great fan of the meat based diet that nomadic shepherds used to have. During Babur’s period, a lot of scrumptious Pulao based recipes were created and this was the era when the most legendary form of Pulao, Biryani came into being. The cultural combination of Persia, India followed by South Asia, lead to the birth of Biryani. According to history, the details regarding Pilaf, another form of Pulao, was found in the transcripts regarding the era of Alexander the great. This reveals that Pilaf had its origin during Alexander’s period and later by penetrating into the cultures of other countries it became highly famous.

Pulao as the main course dish, apart from being cooked during random days, is usually made on special Islamic occasions in the Muslim world, such as on Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha.