A chic business: Small kiosk in Meena Bazaar all famous for its fine-quality ‘chikki’

As winters roll in, the business touches its peak .

KARACHI:

As Munir Ahmad brought out the well-stirred mixture of groundnuts and jaggery from the frying pan, put it on the three by three feet slab and spread it all the way with a rolling pin, at least 15 people formed a queue to buy it. 

With winters rolling in, the business of two brothers, Ahmad and Arif Memon, touches its peak. They sell 'chikki' and 'pak' at their kiosk, named Bismillah Phali Pak, set up in the busy street along Karimabad's Meena Bazaar. Then and there, they prepare 'til' (sesame) pak, 'khopra' (coconut) pak, til ke laddu , roasted rice laddus and popcorn laddu . These items are cooked in melted jaggery syrup and later dried to form thin, brittle slabs.

"Just toss a handful of groundnuts in melted gurr (jaggery) and you have your phali (groundnut) pak ready," said the nephew of the owners standing in front of the kiosk.

"It is not as simple as it seems," chipped in Ahmad, while putting a block of jaggery in the pan to let it melt. "The consistency of water, jaggery and groundnuts has to be checked properly in order to get the mouth-watering taste and crunch."

According to him, chikki, also known as phali pak, and til ke laddu are the items that are sold the most during winters.

Talking about the fine quality of his paks, Ahmad said that it took a lot of energy to stir the dry fruits in melted jaggery. "Twenty minutes is the minimum it takes to prepare one round of chikki," he said. "The moment I am done cooking it, people buy it. It hardly stays on my cart for more than 20 minutes."

During this round of conversation, the huge chunk of jaggery had completely melted. Ahmad discharged around three kilogrammes of groundnuts into the bubbling jaggery.

"The same procedure is used to prepare the rest of the confectionery items," Ahmad said. "However, you have to take care of the consistency of jaggery and water that has to be changed accordingly."

When asked about the perfection of their product, Ahmad told this correspondent that the brothers had been selling these confectionary items for over 20 years. "Our father trained us and now we are carrying forward his techniques." According to Ahmad, the prices of the items are not fixed. "Khopra pak, phali pak and til ke laddu cost Rs300 per kilogramme and the popcorn and murmuray ke laddu cost Rs20 per packet, with four laddus in each packet."

Fans of the groundnut delicacy

"Just see how crunchy these chikkis are," said Muhammad Amin, while taking a bite of a piece of phalli pak. "One cannot find chikki of this quality anywhere else in Karachi." He said that he was ready to bet that after watching it being prepared no one can never resist buying it.

"The phali paks sold in big marts are usually expired, tasteless and soft," said another consumer, Salman Samad. "In contrast, the ones sold here are prepared in pure jaggery, which is both healthy and mouth-watering."

Fehmida Ibrahim, a middle-aged woman, claimed that she came all the way from Garden to buy the confectionary items.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2014.