Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar is well-known and famous for many things, and not all of them are good or healthy, or deserve a mention here. Besides the profusion of street crime and a veritable vertical urban concrete jungle teeming with apartment blocks, the food street located between Jauhar Chowrangi and Kamran Chowrangi has a different tale to tell to the unassuming, unsuspecting visitor.

Located on the parallel tracks between both chowrangis are food vendors and stalls, selling everything and anything from desi cuisine to Chinese food to fast food, and even momos and gyros.

One such vendor is Chachaji, a former Chinese food chef who left his job and set up a small food stall adjacent to Suad Sweets in the area. From his mini makeshift kitchen called A-1 Chinese Food, he serves the Pakistani version of very affordable Oriental delicacies, prepared on-the-spot from scratch with fresh ingredients.

Did I mention it is affordable and budget-friendly? Oh yes, I believe I already did!

So here is what you do: you park right on the main road, which from here on pretty much leaves you constantly looking over your shoulder and on the lookout for gun-toting muggers or mobile snatchers, only if the endless stream of crafty street beggars don’t get to you first (when it comes to Gulistan-i-Jauhar, I can swear every single beggar is equipped with a game plan, and knows the hotspots for easy pickings like the back of their outstretched hand).

The headiness of extremely budget-friendly Chinese street food in Karachi is tinged with the adrenaline rush caused by muggers and beggars

In no time at all, a helper from A-1 Chinese Food will approach you with the menu in hand, as if sensing your anxiety and nervousness, and take your order. It’s all smooth sailing from here on, as you watch the chef whip up your order of either Chicken Corn or Hot & Sour soup with deft wrist movements and the expertise of an old pro at work.

It’s almost enough to take your focus away momentarily from a very precarious situation, wherein you feel exposed like the proverbial sitting duck in a swamp full of hunters at the start of the hunting season.

With the soup done, you now have the standard choice of chowmein, dry beef or chicken with chillies, a gravy of your choice, fried rice and a few extra options for appetisers as well.

Fed and the extremely nominal bill paid, it’s finally time to pull up the car window and beat as hasty a retreat as the congested traffic will allow you, and feeling safe in the knowledge that you are one of the extremely lucky few who have managed to escape unscathed, untraumatised and untainted by the senseless and ramdom street crime plaguing all those who live or even visit Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

Be warned though, for others have not been as lucky as you (shudders)!

The writer is a member of staff.
X: faisal_quraishi

Published in Dawn, EOS, February 28th, 2024