The Old Weblog

We drove back to the hotel changed and our host came to take us out for dinner. Our host took us for a nice drive around the newer area of the city. The Gulberg area, Liberty market etc. (We were really sleepy) and finally to the new food market. Lahorians are very fond of food and there are food markets, which are open throughout the night.

The place where we went for dinner is known as the “Village”. It was a buffet arrangement with a very large layout. For curiosity sake I tried most of the dishes leaving aside those which are available in India like the Karahi Chicken. There was fried Bater (quail), Gobi gost, Kima Kachnar, bar-be-que fish among others; the food was very delicious and I noticed that the Pakistanis put a lot of veggies in the meat. Infact for vegetarians there was hardly any dish apart from Pindi Channa. There bread seems different. It is something like the Khaboos we get in Middle East. The sweet dishes are same as in India, like Kheer, Rassagulla, Gulab Jamun etc., they don’t taste as well as the Indian counterparts. This restaurant had plenty of women and children and none of them were wearing the burkas.

Lest I forget, when we reached our hotel after the site seeing, we looked around for whisky. Pakistan is a completely dry country and even 5 Star Hotels don’t have a bar. Foreigners can drink in the hotel room through a special permit. However, since our host was not giving any hints of providing us whisky, we caught hold of the hotel waiter and he was able to organize a locally made whisky for us.

There is only one brewery in the Pakistan which is located at Murree. This is owned by a Parsi. The brand of the whisky was VAT No-1. The taste was like our Solan No.-1 and reminded me of our college days. It was just tolerable. As they say “Mazboori Ka Naam Mahatama Gandhi Hai” ; we enjoyed the same.

To be continued . . .