At Karachi food festival, an eatery from rival Lahore relishes visitors' taste buds

KARACHI: While the response to this year's Karachi Eat was eminent, one particular food stall offering 'tawa chicken' remained the most favorite of foodies at the country’s biggest, three-day food festival. More importantly, the stall was set up by a famous eatery from the eastern city of Lahore, which has an age-old food rivalry with the southern port city.  

Karachi Eat is an annual food festival that has been taking place in the 'City of Lights' every year in January since 2014. The three-day festival features hundreds of eateries and offers a variety of cuisines to visitors. 

Zedan Baig, manager of the Lahore-based Arif Chatkhara House, said the eatery was offering scrumptious food to customers in Lahore for the last fifty years and received a huge response when they participated in Karachi Eat last year. 

“You’ll see more people at this stall than any other,” Abdullah Arif, a student standing in a queue in front of the Arif Chatkhara House stall, told Arab News.  

"Karachiites say that Karachi food is scrumptious, but it looks like the entire Karachi has come to this stall." 

Asma Waqar Ali, another visitor, believed the addition of green chilies gave a "very unique taste" to 'tawa chicken.'  

"And it was not overly spicy so you could taste all ingredients, they should open in Karachi," she told Arab News. 

When the festival was first launched almost a decade ago, most of the participants were restaurants, cafes and food joints from Karachi, which is known for its cultural and food diversity.  

This year, some of around 128 stalls offered few unique cuisines, such as a fisherwoman offering seafood at Mahigeer, Arabi’s Middle Eastern cuisines, while others boasting ‘chapli kebab’ and some South Indian delicacies.  

Arif Chatkhara House, however, had long queues of food lovers in front of it.  

“We have got customers with a background from Lahore, but majority are Karachiites and they like it,” Baig told Arab News. 

Uzma Abid, a foodie from Karachi, said the quality of food offered by the Lahore eatery attracted her.  

“Extremely juicy, tender with the right kind of flavorful spices that are not overwhelming,” she said as she finished her meal.  

"Would love to have it in Karachi." 

Sunil Kumar, a believer of Karachi’s supremacy in food, said he came to the stall after seeing long queues of visitors.  

“We are trying it for the first time. Let’s see if they satisfy our taste,” he said.  

Ahmer Naqvi, a culture and food writer, said the absence of local cuisines at the festival was offering a chance to food outlets from across the country to create a space for them.  

“Karachi Eat is a really unique festival because it celebrates what is good about Karachi, which is food, but it also creates a space for all these kinds of different new places to make a name for themselves,” he said.  

"Even places from other parts of the country are doing well because they are offering the kind of desi food, which some of the vendors may not be offering."