Indian delicacies still popular in Lahore

Despite the hostile diplomatic relations, Indian sweets and food items sell like hotcakes in the provincial capital

LAHORE: Despite the dynamics of the diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan, the demand for sweets and food items associated with different Indian cities is still thriving in Pakistan and the situation has not changed for the past 72 years.

There are several food outlets in Lahore that particularly sell Indian delicacies like Amritsari hareesa, Jalandhari motichoor laddoo and the famous Bombay biryani.

Despite the general hostility between Pakistani and India, shopkeepers say that Pakistanis do not have a problem with the names of their shops which are associated with different Indian cities since they only care about flavours of the sweets and the dishes.

One of the shops in Lahore’s famous Anarkali Bazaar that sells Jalandhari motichoor laddoos is more than a hundred years old. The shop is popular for selling motipak barfi and motichoor laddoos made up of desi ghee. Liaquat Ali Khan, a salesman at the shop, said that he has been working there for the past 50 years.

“This shop belonged to Haji Abdul Karim who hailed from Jalandhar and used to deal in sweets since 1922. After his demise, his son Haji Nazeeran and later his grandson Haji Rasheed ran the shop. At present, Abdul Rehman, who is from the fourth generation of the family, is managing the business,” he said.

Khan also said that despite the on-again, off-again Indo-Pak relations, he never faced any problems due to the name of the shop nor did anyone suggest him to change it. “Even today, the Sikh pilgrims on their visit to Lahore from India, stop by our shop to devour motichoor items and also take them back as gifts,” he said.

Khan added that in accordance with the situation, people sometimes develop strong anti-India sentiments. Things especially became tense during the desecration of the Babri Masjid in 1992. However, Lahoris do not care about the name or origin of the food and continue to devour it.

“Our sweets are not only popular among the masses but the former chief minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif, as well as several other political and social figures, have visited the shop,” he said.

Since the sweets are made with pure ingredients, especially desi ghee, renowned wrestlers of Lahore, including Jhara Pahalwan and Bholu Pahalwan also used to visit the shop in the past to purchase the famous motichoor laddoo, which is prepared with split-chickpeas lentils, desi ghee and sugar.

Similarly, the Amritsari Hareesa shop, located at Nisbat Road, is nearly 70 years old. Muhammad Ali Attari, the manager, shared that his grandfather Muhammad Siraj migrated from Amritsar to Lahore in 1947 and started the Amritsari hareesa business here.

“The taste and quality of the hareesa have not changed since then. Desi murgh, mutton and beef hareesa are available at the shop, which is greatly liked by locals and foreign tourists alike,” he said.

Muhammad Ali Attari believes that Indo-Pak tensions have never affected his business and no one has ever objected to the name of the shop either. Similarly, the famous Bombay Biryani shop, which is situated near the Lower Mall Road, has been operating in the city for years. Speaking to The Express Tribune, the shop owner, Muhammad Anees, said that since he uses a special masala (spice mix) from Mumbai in the preparation of the biryani and also follows the authentic Indian cooking method, the shop is named Bombay Biryani.

“The name of the shop is the identity of the brand. People do not care about the name of the shop. Just like we have shops here named after Indian cities, there are several food outlets in the Indian capital of Delhi which are named after Pakistani cities too, including Lahore and Karachi. Shops in Amritsar are named after Lahore and Lyallpur (Faisalabad) and Indians don’t seem to care about the names either,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2020.