It had been ages since I had a ‘meal-in-the-car’, and what better place than the ‘food street’ of the main market of DHA. Most food connoisseurs might not like this, but this place offers more than what the old city has on offer. Times have moved on, like it or not.

The criminal closure of the Gowalmandi ‘Food Street’ in the end turned out to be what everyone feared. The ruling clan ‘brat’ wanted his own version and closed the one started, with such flair, by the former rulers. Lahore was the loser. Now they are coming up with a new one on Fort Road. After parking in Minto Park you will have to ride through Hazuri Bagh in a two-horse buggy like the one they use in Raiwind. Imagine! This is decadence at its best. Who said the Moghals do not exist. But then good food is a separate issue and I have my genuine doubts. Fake windows do not an old city make.

But back to the DHA main market ‘food street’. My companion was my college-day friend Dr Waqar Ehsan, now on a ‘working’ visit to LUMS to assist in research into advance accounting. But we talked other matters. From an array of reasonably fine eateries we chose Karachi Bar-B-Q, which, it seems, has four branches in other parts of the city. He had not had genuine Pakistani food for years, and tucked away on his ‘remote’ American campus, what would you expect. I had to order at least three dishes to show off Lahori cuisine. It was a ‘maghaz masalla’, ‘mutton karahi’ and ‘seekh kebabs’. This proved to be too much for two persons given our ages. In our college days this amount was no bother.

I must confess the ‘maghaz’ was excellent and not broken into shreds. The mutton ‘karahi’ was exceptionally well done and the ‘masalla’ sharp, just what Waqar desired. The ‘seekh kebabs’ were fine, and given that my health-conscious friend wanted chicken kebabs, my plea for beef ones fell on deaf ears. “You have been trying to kill me since our college days”, he says. “Why would I do that, after all the gals seem to like me more in college, and I got more marks than you?” So our conversation went from bad to worse.

The ‘naans’ were excellent, though a bit on the dry side. Let me mark this ‘eating out’ experience on the Michelin Scale of one to nine. We will use the appropriate variables as this was a ‘meal-in-the-car’ experience. For food quality it gets six, for taste seven, for food quantity five, for service six, for price a whooping seven (very economical at Rs450 per head), for quality of crockery four (they could improve on that, though it was very clean) and for cleanliness five would be just fine. The ambience was a wee bit cramped, but given the conversation what better place. I have done stranger things in a car. This adds up to an Average ‘Eating Out’ score of 5.7 out of nine, which is excellent. I would recommend this as a family outing. When our girls were at home, this was a normal routine. Highly recommended.

FISH AND MORE FISH: Last week I mentioned the excellent fish I had at ‘One Potato Two Potato’ on M.M. Alam Road. A very dear friend tried it on reading the column and had nothing but negatives. The reason? You cannot enjoy fried fish and excellent chips in a cardboard box with plastic forks. I partly agree. But then a ‘take away’ place at least offers a classy packing and not the good old newspaper wrap.

In my student days in England, I always believed the newspaper wrapping tasted better than the fish. I’m still for it. I followed it with excellent fish and chips at the Gymkhana Club in a posh setting with proper crockery and good service. Mind you the cost was half of what OPTP charges. I am not surprised. I will stick to the good ‘olde’ club, warts and all.

KHEER ‘ORIGINAL’: My motor mechanic runs a milk shop on Zarar Shaheed Road, where he sells tasty yummy kheer. He suggested that I drop at the shop a bowl with almonds and other nuts. I did exactly that. My two kilogram bowl with lots of almonds and walnuts with an ‘original’ topping cost just Rs400, enough to feed ten persons. Not a bad idea if you are having guests over. Find your own milk shop and do the needy. Sweet dishes cannot come better and cheaper. — AMSHE