Migrants have great expectations of their homeland, especially when it comes to food, and the fare of Lahore has a special place in their minds. With time this business evolves to new heights.

Last Tuesday when Huma and Mobi from Saudi Arabia, and yours truly and the begum from Cambridge in England, landed in an eatery in DHA-5 by the name of Napoli, the expectation of this posh place was sky high. It is considered an eatery of the Gloria Jeans Group and is considered in the ‘high end’ which for the time being is serving outside. Thank ‘Covid’ for that. But then even the outside ambience is excellent. In short it is ‘posh’.

As we easily found a place the service was polite and prompt. The expansive menu makes the normal eye goes to the prices first, and then the item up against it. Well, well … who is paying? That was a settled matter so on to the order.

The order for Huma was a Manchurian Crispy Beef in a ‘gummy’ sauce, with mushrooms and garlic rice. For the conservative Mobi came an Azerbaijani Lamb Kebab with saffron rice. The begum played safe with a Tarragon Chicken, a roasted concoction with vegetables and roast potatoes. The writer went for a safe Rivera Chicken with spaghetti, surely what can go wrong there.

Now let us discuss the food. The crispy Beef a-la-Manchurian was excellent to say the least. Normally beef tends to get chewy, but this chap snapped at the first bite and the taste buds were in high alert. The garlic rice meshed in well as the ‘gummy’ sauce helped the dish achieve excellence. Good, must try again. The Azerbaijani lamb kebabs had a unique taste which is typical of Central Asian foods, which given the saffron rice made it a perfumed experience.

The Tarragon chicken and the Rivera chicken both had a unique Italian taste, and if you love Italian foods this is a safe bet. The spaghetti was soft, yet firm, and the slightly spicy dish played its trick on the taste buds.

Now let us examine this eating out experience on our traditional scale of one to nine. For food taste it gets six out of nine - No, I’m not being strict - for presentation it gets seven, for variety this eatery gets seven, for cleanliness another six, for ambience it gets six, for service a six will do, for prices a flat five … it is pricey … and for the location and parking a four will do. So when we average out the eight variables this eatery gets 6.6 out of nine, which is very reasonable. Recommended if you are into the Italian way of enjoying life.

DAS KULCHAS: Last week while walking through the old walled city in search of Khalifas ‘khatais’, it was surprising to come across at least five shops selling Das Kulchas. Till recently it was common knowledge that only one shop existed at Chauhatta Mufti Bakir. The sale of this rare ‘kulcha’ in new shops came as a surprise.

On inquiry it transpired that the original shop now sells these ‘kulchas’ to several shops, who on their own then prepare fresh ‘luchas’ which are small ‘pakoras’ with spicy channay. The taste of these ‘kulchas’ remains unmatched. One hopes this trend spreads to faraway eateries too.

BEADON ROAD: My daughters in their school and college days insisted on ice cream from Beadon Road, which we always had sitting in the car. I had a mango scoop the other day and it was amazing, though the prices have gone up considerably. Once while having ice cream at San Francisco’s Pier 39, my daughter commented: “It’s good, but nothing to beat Beadon Road”. Her America-born son asked ‘what is Beadon Road? Snap came the answer: ‘Sonny, you will never understand’.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2021