Ramazan cuisines: No more samosay, pakoray and parathay!

Cafe Upstairs and Cosa Nostra bring innovation to the traditional Sehri and Iftar cuisines. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

Sehri

Refrain from filling yourself with heavy oily parathay at 4am, and resort to something lighter in nature. The Sehri menu at Café Upstairs is definitely worth noting. They excel in preparing continental egg dishes such as frittatas and rancheros (a Mexican dish served with baked beans and bread), adding that extra zing to your Sehri. Other interesting dishes include crispy tortillas layered with salsa and guacamole topped with a succulent egg along with thin crust pizzas, for those morning pizza-lovers. However, if you are still keen on filling your stomach up with heavy desi food, then they serve dishes such as nihari and a typical halwa puri breakfast
as well. So you can take your pick between light Mexican food or a heavy desi cuisine to keep your stomach filled throughout the day.

Iftar

Iftar served at any restaurant or in the household has remained constant and rather traditional over the years. Samosay, pakoray, dahi bhalay (similar to dahi barhay) and fruit chaat are four essential items without which, Iftar is incomplete. Cosa Nostra, an Italian restaurant, brings innovation to the usual Iftari by adding unique and unconventional food items to the menu.  Starting from appetisers such as their mouth-watering cheese sticks and fresh antipesto salad, an Iftar at Cosa Nostra will definitely succeed in tantalising your taste buds. The restaurant stays true to its Italian roots by offering traditional Italian salads with feta cheese and mangoes while maintaining chicken escalopes, beef served in pepper sauce and various pastas on their main menu. Order their fresh guava juice to wash it all down. And to end the perfect Iftar, devour their famous dark chocolate cherry bomb cake or if you still happen to be in your summer mangoes phase, gulp down a slice of their mango cheesecake.

Indulge in a different experience this Ramazan with the mouth-watering menus offered by these restaurants.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2012.