Never underestimate the power of cheese. The day after my piece on ‘milk’s leap toward immortality’ appeared in this space (April 24, 2016), I received a message from my editor informing me that the head office of Avari International Hotels is requesting contact details. “Byram Avari wants to get in touch.” “Of course give it!” was the obvious response, and almost immediately came an email message from Mr Avari himself. In it he politely pointed out that in the said article I had referred to Gouda as a Swiss cheese whereas it actually comes from the Netherlands. He also included an invitation for a cheese-tasting session at his home. “[My wife] Goshpi and I would love to have you over,” he said.

I thanked him wholeheartedly for pointing out the error and even more for the kind invitation which I promised I would take up the next time I was in Karachi. He promptly offered a Toronto venue instead, saying “Since we’ll be there in summer.” That is when I recalled that he is the long-standing honorary consul for Canada in Karachi. I thanked Byram sahib yet again, and told him that I looked forward to meeting soon. “Please call me Byram. I’m not a sahib, I am a simple and humble man,” replied the chairman of the Avari Group, former member of the National Assembly and head of the Parsi [Zoroastrian] community in Pakistan.

Fast forward to the day of cheese-tasting. We decided to forgo the formality of the living room and instead sat around the kitchen table. It was the perfect setting to talk to Byram the foodie. He set the ball rolling with a discussion on grocery shopping and gleefully shared details of their successful maiden visit that very day to a popular brunch venue on Lakeshore. They both strongly suggested that I visit another, newly-opened Lakeshore eatery that they had enjoyed immensely (which I did and loved).

...but Chevre still smells like goat to me

Out came the cheese platter. The brie and blue cheese I was happy to see, the Boursin with cranberries was welcome too, but the dreaded goat cheese, also called chevre, not so much. Chevre (pronounced shev) is French for goat and my biggest concern is that it smells like one too. In his email Byram had promised that I would like the chevre they serve, and he laughingly repeated that promise as I gingerly scooped up a sliver. “Don’t worry, you’ll like it and if you don’t like it then we’ll just throw you out the window.” I was fairly certain that he was joking, but I still played it safe by spreading the tiny amount on a whole chunk of focaccia. Both he and Goshpi noticed and enthusiastically suggested that I would enjoy the flavour of the cheese better by taking only a small piece of bread. The Boursin, brie and blue cheese would gladly get that treatment.

“We travel now not for sightseeing but for food. And the more authentic the food, the better it is, especially if it’s off the beaten track. We really enjoy a good meal.” Speaking of authentic food, why don’t any of the Avari hotels have a restaurant featuring traditional Parsi food, especially my favourite lentils-based dish of dhansak? “Oh but we do serve dhansak once a week, it’s a regular feature on our menu and quite popular but a full-time separate restaurant can’t be justified. Do you remember the Bohri restaurant? It was quite a hit because people were excited to try their food in the traditional style that they serve it, but in the long run the numbers did not work in its favour. Our kids were invited to a Bohri wedding once and there they really enjoyed the food experience.”

“Karachi has some really good restaurants but on the whole restaurants there tend to start off well then fail to maintain the quality of their food. They are thinking of the short term only, not the long haul. But if they compromise quality then people won’t come back. At one restaurant it is so dark that it’s almost impossible to read the menu! But apparently that’s how they want it.” I laughed loudly at this because I knew exactly the place they were speaking of. I took my parents there in the first year it opened eager for them to try the brick oven pizza and fresh pasta, but they spent the entire evening wondering when someone was going to re-adjust the dimmer. They still warn their friends about “that dark overpriced restaurant.”

I shared my teenage memories of chocolate mousse at what used to be the Bake & Take café in Avari Towers, as well as more recent ones of Linzer cookies and coffee at the very serene and tastefully decorated Cinnamon cafe. They told me about the various food festivals that the hotels host regularly — French, Italian, Afghan, and the very popular Burns Road Night which has become a frequent feature. “But we need to expand these food events to more than one or two nights. Many people say it takes them that long to find out about it by word of mouth. So we’re realising that it’s important to hold them over a longer period of time.”

Byram proudly noted that Avari Lahore is the largest employer of women in the country. “How do you think we managed that? It’s because of transportation. We provide them safe and reliable transportation to and from work. We used to operate our own vans, but then a group came to me to say that the new public buses were more efficient in terms of time so they asked that instead of the vans we take care of their bus fare which we did.

This led to a discussion on the current state of affairs which eventually led to my rather blunt question: “Why do you stay there? You can live anywhere in the world so why not move out.” He looked at me as if I had grown an extra head or two. “It’s home!” Then he nodded thoughtfully and added “I have to stay. I am president of the Parsi Association as was my father before me. My community relies on me.” Just as Karachi relies on the Parsi community’s enduring relationship with the city. Lady Dufferin Hospital (1898), NED University of Engineering and Technology (1924), Dow Medical College (1941), and the Jahangir Kothari Parade (1919) are some of the gifts bequeathed by Parsi philanthropists.

After over an hour of lively conversation I bid my hosts adieu. They insisted on sending the remaining cheese — chevre included — home with me. We looked forwarded to meeting up again in Karachi. Byram walked me down to the front door where a neighbour passed by with his dog. This brought up the subject of the dog they recently purchased from a breeder in Ajman. “The poor thing was in a terrible state. That man kept her in such a horrible condition. Of course, we took her from him because we just could not let her stay with him. Now she is the sweetest creature but still afraid of strangers. That is something we really need to work on in our country, the attitude towards animals.”

The attitude towards fellow humans may also require some work, I suggested. “You know the only thing that has ever hindered me in my work is jealousy of others. But my father always advised me to keep going, every time they try to bring you down you will only go up he would say.” A wise man indeed.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, August 28th, 2016