Pakistani cuisine

When I joke with my Pakistani friends, I reefer to LASSI (Basically milk from which curds and butterfat have been removed) as Pakistani wine.

Off course it has nothing to do with wine but considered one of the basic food items around the country.
Anyway, I found the following information interesting:

Pakistani cooking today consists of staple food, which is cheap and abundant. Wheat and other flour products are the mainstay of the diet, one familiar form being CHAPATI (bread). Vegetables and fruits, usually seasonal, are commonly used. Cook with GHEE, which is clarified butter, instead of vegetable oil. And the heavy use of spices, herbs, seeds, and flavorings and seasonings are among the main features of any Pakistani or Indian dish.

A major influence in the development of Pakistani cookery was the establishment of the Moghul Empire starting in 1526. A style of cookery called Moghlai' evolved at the Moghul court and even today it remains centered in Lahore. Some latter-day and widely known survivors of court cookery are, for example, chicken tandoori, a dish in which chicken is cooked at low temperatures in special ovens called TANDOORS, and murgh musallum' in which the whole chickens are roasted with special spices and ingredients. SHAHI TUKRA, a dessert of sliced bread, milk, cream, sugar and saffron, is another left-over from the days of the Moghuls.

Perhaps the ultimate Moghul cuisine was reached when the imperial chefs perfected the recipes for desserts made from ginger and garlic. Ginger and garlic puddings are still made in some homes for truly special occasions.

Cookery in Pakistan has always had a regional character, with each of the four provinces offering special dishes. In the Punjab, for example, the Moghlai' cuisine using tandoor ovens and elaborate preparations is important. In Baluchistan, cooks use the SAJJI method of barbecuing whole lambs and stick bread in a deep pit. While Cooking in the Northwest Frontier Province is a great deal plainer and involves the heavy use of lamb.

[Ingrid]

Is Pakistani food alike with Indian one?
How tandoor ovens look like, I'm just curious.

[kilo oscar]

Indian and Pakistani food is almost similar, except for some Middle Eastern touch in the later.

Tandoor ovens are traditionally clay ovens fuelled by charcoal in the bottom. Today, they are a little more high-tech, and can be fuelled by charcoal, gas or electricity. It is probably the heat generated in the Tandoor that give Tandoori dishes their unique taste, rather than the particular fuel used to fire them.

please follow the link if you like to see a modern tandoor oven:

http://www.woodstone-corp.com/products_tandoor_3636.htm

[Nick]

what are Pakistani special drinks?

[kilo oscar]

LASSI, SHARBAT and Fruit drinks from pomegranates, melons, mangoes and apples are on the top of the list.

You will also find a good collection of different alcoholic drinks http://www.murreebrewery.com/, such as the popular Muree Beer. http://www.murreebeer.com/ , served in any 4 or 5 stars hotel.

[Hebah]

hw did ya find out so much abt pakistani food?? r u a pakistani?....nywyz am a pakistani...itz true we hv a mid' eastern touch in our food dats cuz of our religion....but yea one thing tht is so diff in our food n mid' eastern food is tht we add in chunks of spices/herbs in our dishes..do dey hv an extremely strong taste...n yea most of da ppl end up hvin acidity...lolz....but den we hv medicines namely "carmena" n "hajmola" to prevent/cure indigestion....am sure most of u knw abt "shawerma" itz part of da arabian cusine...da shawerma found in k.s.a consists of chicken (bar-b-qued or simply cooked wit out seasonin), mayonise, french fries, n a bit of pickles....all of dese ingredients r rolled up in a special bread.....itz v.lite to eat...n has a v.pleasant mild taste.......but da shawerma found in pak...is completely diff!!!!!!itz so HOT!! da chicken is well marinated...da mayo' has extra spices...n den dey add cucumbers...tomatoes..carrots n oda vege' which hv been soaked in vineger..n den dey sprinkle freshly ground spices on top of da ingredients b4 rollin dem up in da bread...so da taste completely changes......N SERIOUSLY ALL PAKISTANIS 'LIVIN IN PAKISTAN' LUV IT!!!...........u're probably thinkin wht i think abt dis new pktani shawerma...seriously i don lik it...i mean if u eat da real shawerma - as we pakistanis in k.s.a call it - den da latter is so much lik eatin sum pakistani curry.....but den we hv alot of delicious dishes too...like haleem-its like pulses n chicken n spices stirred together for hrz!! den we hv chicken tikka...ummm....for breakfast we hv "halwa puri n chanay ki daal" (chanay ki daal is chic peas n gravy while halwa is dis sweet thing both of em r eaten wit puri-datz a special bread fried in oil- n deres alot more...i mean ppl of lahore (one of da big cities of pak) r mad abt food....itz lik dey live to eat...dey hv spent every lil chip dey earn on food....n dat has resulted in a renowned food street called "gawal mandi" in lahore which opens up at 6pm n is brightly lit with lights n human souls until 8am da nex dat....datz abt my country n itz savory dishes...which u ought ta try....

[kilo oscar]

Thanks for the contribution Heba.

Well I am not a Pakistani, but I am living in Pakistan since long time.

Shawerma sandwich is made with marinated pieces of meat, which have been pressed, stacked onto a rotisserie and cooked slowly. The cooked meat is then shaved off and made into a sandwich with yogurt, tomatoes and lettuce. The origin of this sandwich comes from the northern corners of the Middle East. In fact the best shawerma I ever had was in Syria. There the sandwich is light and tasty.

The Pakistani version is not as good as any Arabian version of this sandwich. Yet it is something different and worth trying.

[Hebah]

I hv aslo tried da shawerma of Turkey n ofcourse itz completely different too......i LUV Saudi Arabias Shawerma...itz da best.......where do you live in pk?? probably in Islamabad...cuz datz wher most of da foreigners live...n wht do u do?

Does any one know if the Moghlai, Persian and Middle Eastern cuisine have something similar in them. Are the barbequed chicken in the middle east same as Tandoori chicken. Just curious!

Can anyone throw some light here??

And are the cooking equipment any different for Persian and Middle Eastern cuisine?

Kahn

[Catie]

I am not sure if I can shed much light on this subject, but I always thought that tandoori chicken was the equivilent of barbeque chicken. Shesh-ka-bobs are a form of a barbeque and originally from the middle east, too.