I'm not exactly a food lover, I believe in eating less and living long but my mom finds this rather disappointing and believes in eating all you want and then working out to lose it. My schedule hardly allows for working out a lot ( did I mention I've managed to work out for 20 mins for 1 month straight ? * read achievement*) I choose to control the calorie intake and hear my mom scold me about how growing children need more nutrients ! YES growing child ! thats what she always says, I mean for God sake mom I'm almost 23, I'm no more a growing child , I am an aging adult, for crying out loud , she then smiles and says oh you still need it any way. Yeah, that's the kind of logic moms use for their kids.
So anyways , I still do like food and there are some foods I'd rather not think twice about eating, here they are
Chicken Handi - The traditional clay utensil used for cooking food as seen in the above pic is called a handi. The chicken is cooked it in it with tomato and onion sauce.
Haleem - Its a cooked mixture of all kinds of lentils, wheat and cereals with meat and spices. Its eaten with a lot of garnishings
Biryani - Now you could almost call this particular dish our national food, since I dont think there exists any Pakistani who hasn't had it or doesn't like it. Its rice cooked with meat and gravy ( and of course spices !)
Chana Chaat - This a favourite for all those who like sour and savoury food. Its boiled chick peas with a lot of tamarind paste, lemon, green chillies, mint, coriander, potatoes, onions and tomatoes.
Naan - Its flat bread that's eaten along with curries and its less classy version, roti/chappati is a staple diet for Pakistanis. I love naan so much I could eat naan all day without actually bothering for the main dish.
Chicken Karhai - This meat dish is sauted with a lot of tomatoes and onions in a big wok
Chapli Kebabs - The one in the pic is a tad overcooked and doesnt look as tasty as it is in real life. Its a patty of meat and spices that is fried with added herbs. The northern areas of Pakistan make the best variety.
Matar Pulao - Its rice cooked with cumin seeds, and green peas
Koftey - Who hasn't heard of meatballs ? This is exactly it, which is cooked in various forms of traditional gravy
Daal - Lentils - I love both the soupy and the dry cooked versions. The soupy one is usually eaten with rice while the dry one with naan or chapaati
Ras Malai - This is a sweet dish. Its basically a dough of milk and eggs, cooked in milk and sugar
I've spent almost two weeks at home and classes dont start till the 17th ! Our result which should've been out and forgotten by now is still a well awaited surprise ( for the good or the bad). Uzma ( my bestie, if you guys dont already know her by now) had her birthday on the 2nd of Jan..I spent that day at her place, we ate, talked,ate, talked and then talked all over again..The party was scheduled for 5th and it was a combined birthday party for Aniqa, Sidra, Anum and Uzma, excluding Uzma all of them had their birthday during exams and couldn't be celebrated so we decided to have them all together...
The governor of Punjab got killed by his own guard day before yesterday, some extremist guy, but Thank God the killer was arrested immediately
Other than that Karachi has been really cold since last week, and I'm enjoying the winters as much as I can, hot coffee, blankies, warm sweaters and dry fruits are the merry joys of winter for me :)
Our garden looks very pretty these days with so many fruits hanging on the trees. We have papaya trees, custard apple trees, banana trees, limes and cheekoos ( I dont know what they're called in english) in our garden, and excluding the limes and bananas all of them are in full bloom, here are some pics...
The custard apples and the cheekus , fresh from the garden !
Our papaya tree, the plastic bag's there to protect the ripe papayas from being eaten by birds, or otherwise they'd be gnawed like one of the papayas visible in the pic (the orange one)
Lime
The cheeku tree, the cheekus aren't very visible in this picture though :(
So I promised a post on Iftaar items and here it is. For clarification Iftaar is the name for the food that's eaten at the breaking of fast. It could be anything, your usual dinner, salads, drinks etc but its Sunnah (practice of prophet pbuh) to open the fast with water and dates and thats what most muslims do. At our household, my we usually prepare various snack items and drinks. Here are some pictures of what we usually eat,
Pakoras - Its basically a gram flour preparation that's fried. Its high in calories so we restrict the amount we consume, but its really tasty. Its also a special favourite in the rainy season.
Black chick peas, cooked in spices and onions
These are lentils that are usually mixed with the black chick peas .
Dahi Baras - These are fried and boiled baras, made out of lentils, and then mixed with yoghurt. Spices are sprinkled on the top
A banana, pineapple and peach smoothie !
Samosas
Kidney beans
Fruit chaat (Fruit Salad)
Egg halwa ( Its basically egg cooked in sugar and oil)
A little bit of everything
This is Rooh Afza - Its a herbal drink that's often favoured in iftaar.I got this picture from the net because I'm usually so thirsty that I gulp the entire glass down before I can actually take a pic :)
These are just some of the items that are usually prepared for Iftaar in a typical Pakistani household.
PS - These pics were taken on various occasions. Its not that we eat all that in one day, the max we have is 5 - 6 items per day :)
I'm not a restaurant reviewer but I really wanted all my non-Karachite blog readers to know about this place. Its one of my favourite theme restaurants in Karachi. Lal Qila - Translated as Red Fort is located in almost the centre of the city with an easy approach from just about everywhere in Karachi. What I like best about it is the ambience and the environment. It has been designed to look like a fort back from the mughal times, the exterior just gives you a slight idea of what you can expect inside, a guard dressed like a Mughal soldier is there to welcome you at the gate. Once you step inside, the exquiste decoration, architecture and the waiters all dressed like Moghal fortmen will take you back to the 1600s. Just to give you a brief flashback of history, the Mughal emperors who hailed from Central Asia ruled the sub continent from the 16th to the mid 19th century and that period was one of the most culturally and architecturally gifted periods that the sub continent has seen. The remanescents of their glory still stand majestically and include the Taj Mahal, Lahore fort, the Badshahi mosque etc.
The buffet with live cooking...Did I mention it's out in the open air ?
Coming back to Lal qila, I would suggest that every foreigner who comes to Karachi and likes eating out should make a visit. All my relatives from abroad have been there, loved it and have a special request to be taken there everytime they come to Karachi. The food there is excellent, I love the Mughlai cusine, and my dad is a special fan of the quails that are served there.The only glitch I find it to have is that it serves a a few Chinese dishes also which really doesnt go with the theme of the restaurant and I think should be replaced with more of the Mughlai dishes.
The interior
And ofcourse , if you wish to throw a birthday party there, that too would be in the true Mughal fashion as around six waiters dressed like soldiers with fake swords and a cake in between will make a small parade to your table and then announce the emperor's order out loud to have you cut the cake ! Sounds interesting right ?
Something that I really look forward to is meeting the dressed up character of Shahzaada (Prince) Saleem ! He roams around and visits people on their tables, reciting duets in the love of Anarkali. The story of Prince Saleem ,son of Emperor Akbar, and Anarkali is probably a tale that every person from the subcontinent knows. In short Anarkali was a dancer who used to dance in the court of emperor Akbar for the entertainment of the courts men. Prince Saleem , the son of Emperor Akbar fell in love with her and wanted to marry her, Emperor Akbar found this bond unacceptable and ordered Anarkali to be burried alive. Many contoversies suuround this story, some say she was provided a secret passage to Afghanistan , others say she was put behind a wall and bricks were laid thus hiding her from the world's view forever. Whatever the story behind it, Prince Saleem and Anarkali have been a subject of great fascination and this restaurant makes good use of it.
The dressed up Prince Saleem
Here's a song which shows the story of Anarkali and Prince Saleem. The conversation that you'll hear in the start and in between of the song is in Persian, the official language of the Moghal courts. I'm sorry I couldn't find a subbed version of this song, but I think you'll understand the nevertheless. This song has been sung from Anarkali's point of view who cries and sings for her love.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The hangout with Shirin and Rubab yesterday was fun and a relief .Fun because its always good to be with friends and relief because all our past attempts to hang out ended up being cancelled for some reason or another.Shirin had lost hope to the point that she declared that all four of us were jinxed,rather cursed to repel each other !..But gladly we broke the 'curse' yesterday and it all turned out well :) .We went to a restaurant that has recently opened in Karachi, its a UK franchise which makes chicken, its called 'Chicken Cottage'.It was okay for some casual dine out as long as you're not in a hurry since they took too long to prepare the food.I tried their grilled chicken wrap which tasted good to me but okay to Shirin. The chicken in it was pretty tender and the filling tasted good too..Okay so I'm no food critic and have no intentions of turning my blog into a restaurant review page, so I'd rather let go of the food and move on !
Our BBQ party was a quite a party too, all the barbecued stuff we made were scrumptiously tasty,just rightly done, plus the salads and side dishes were all finger lickin good ! I so wanted to eat more but decided against it, I knew my stomach was full, it was just the greed that was n't satisfied I guess :)
God I've talked so much about food in this post ! I think its because I've skipped lunch and all my hunger is making me think of, is food..So before I get carried of once again dwelling on the subject of food , I better go and grab something real to eat :)
