A Taste for Pakistan

I have a good friend from Europe who writes, from time to time, under the pen name of Sale Pragnjevic. I will not disclose details about him here, other than to say that, like many Europeans, he has a passion for football, as in soccer, and food.

Sale spent much of this past winter in Pakistan, during the days before and after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. His work in the country took him into the realms of local politics, so a recent email from Sale began with many paragraphs about the cultural and political history of Multan, a city of some two million people in southern Punjab.

Sale recounted the landowner connections to the popular party, the PPP, and a local fear of bombings leading up to the election. A general sense among locals of disenchantment with Pervez Musharraf, and other serious things.

The dispatch took a lighter turn in paragraph six: "Cricket is the national sport here." And then, at the beginning of paragraph seven, I knew that this Sale was indeed my old friend:

"It is really attractive to snoop in the narrow maze of the Old Town or in other small streets: almost at every corner there are interesting shops, where people cook intriguing specialties. Sometimes you cannot avoid stomach problems (diarrhea or such), but it would be such a pity not to taste all wonderful dainties you can find around."

BEEF KARAHI

Sale continued:

"Of course it is not for everybody. There are very few foreigners here, and the normal thing would be to eat at fancy restaurants or at the international hotel, Ramada.

"Ok, there is not an unlimited choice of dishes, and for obvious reasons there is not pork around (which is one of my most beloved kinds of meat), but food is quite good, always served with warm naan bread and/or rice and accompanied by lassi (a mix of milk and yoghurt) or fresh juice.

LASSI

"Everywhere people are cooking ... more traditional rice dishes such as dal (a smashed lentils dish), chicken, beef, or mutton karahi (cooked with onions, peppers, garlic, and other spices), of course barbecue as at my favorite "Darbari" BBQ - again, a place where they cook on the street, where they appreciate very much our visits. We have an "exclusive contract" with them, so when other neighbors try to convince us to taste also their food we just say that we are sorry.

DAL

"Maybe the most unexpected one is the "taka taka": on a cooking surface they mince mutton brain, liver, testicles and some meat provoking the "taka taka" sound. Later they mix the result obtained with tomato ... a real delight!"