Karachi Eat 2018: The good, the bad and the delicious

An inside scoop of Karachi's favourite food festival

KARACHI: For someone who has only resided in Karachi for a measly six months, I’m pretty much aware of the plethora of food varieties this city has to offer. Good thing I’m a foodie, right?

I am one of those bothersome people though, who constantly gripes about putting on weight yet carries on trying all the new food…

So being a whining foodie, I was obviously pretty excited about this food festival. That and the fact that every Karachite I have met so far literally raves about Karachi Eat - meaning I had to go.

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The very first thing I noticed on my arrival at Benazir Bhutto Park was the extremely protracted queue, stretching all the way down the street which I was obviously not looking forward to. After overcoming that hurdle, I finally made my way into the venue but that wasn’t the end of my battles - how could I have forgotten about the dreaded ticket line?

Finally able to make it to the stalls an hour later, the first one I encountered was 2 Guys 1 Grll and I have to say, I was very impressed with my donut burger (as they called it). I think it’s safe to say my ‘journey’ kick started with a ‘bang.’

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I enthused from stall to stall tasting the different kinds of food - some old, some new, some familiar and others, not so much.

I tried a good variety of things - from breaded chicken in waffle cones to fried mac and cheetos. However, it did seem like people kind of already knew which booths not to go to as some stalls were possessed by never-ending queues whilst others fiddled their thumbs. I guess it’s both good and bad that I was with a group of people who navigated me to the ‘right’ ones.

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Speaking of navigation, I didn’t really notice any signs, which could have most definitely facilitated us – in other words, the event could’ve been more organised.

One thing I found very unusual was the fact that there were no songs playing whatsoever in the backdrop; instead, they had certain adverts on repeat. I know the main focus of the festival was food but surely some tunes would have helped build up an ambience, resultantly boosting up the general atmosphere…

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As I mentioned, the event wasn’t greatly systematised, as there was absolutely no crowd control, no methodical queues and hardly any sitting zones where one could just bask with their friends and families, and devour the abundance of delectable delights.

It was also very peculiar that one whole set of stalls had no power – I understand the power-outage issues lurking Pakistan but it would be impossible not to have preconceived conceptions of some sort of back up available at such a large-scale event.

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Although I haven’t been to Karachi Eat specifically, I have been to other food festivals around the world and usually, there are different sources of entertainment present – I’m thinking bumper cars and photo-booths. However, there was nothing of the sort last night – everyone was truly reliant on food.

The security situation seemed to be under control, in the sense that they did a pretty good job at making people feel safe enough to justly enjoy the event.

PHOTO:THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE

Overall, I’d say I had a good time, not taking into account the fact that I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it! But I guess that was bound to happen.

To sum it all up, there was an ample assortment of foods, security wasn’t bad and I left with a full belly!

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