Street Food in Karachi, Pakistan (PART-02)

Story: Travel by Mark Wiens

Good morning, I hope you're having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens. I'm in Karachi, which is a mega city in Pakistan along the Arabian Sea. This city has some extreme food, and food in the masses. And so, today I'm meeting up with my friend Ali and Shahrooz, and they're gonna take me ona Karachi street food tour. We're gonna eat some unbelievable Pakistani food. This is going to be the ultimate street food tour of Karachi. (rhythmic music) We just arrived at the first air crowd. This place is called Javed Nihari. We're here to eat a very speciality. How are you this morning? - It's called nihari. It's like a meat stew. It's so rich, and thisis one of the best places in Karachi to eat it. There's a couple different components to the dish. So, he first scoops on the meat, then he scoops on the thick, rich stew, and then some of the redoil Desi Ghee on top.

Everything here is justmassive, and they have these, they're like podiumswhere they cook the food, where they serve the nihadi, but then also the bread production. The star of the hill is the Sheebow, which is a type of breadI've never seen before, then the really interestingpart is when he takes it out, and then I think that's justa panful of water and a brick. Just sprinkles it with water, and then this is the finished product. That's unique. We're all here. We're all ready. - This is fun.- This is the crew for the day. The Karachi street food tour, the ultimate street food tour. Let's tear into the bread first, and this is that special bread, pull, and, yeah, that's amazing. I've never seen water sprinkled on bread. Now, the nihari, this is thesignature with the bone marrow, with the meat, a little bit of ... Oh, it's just ultra tender. Oh man, and you wanna kindof balance a little bit of that stew along with that Desi Ghee. Oh, wow. Wow, you can feel the chilis in that, and then the bread, it isalmost like croissant style, like pastry dough, and thenthe nihari has almost like a cinnamony-infused taste to it.

karachi food, tourism, food, travel, travel pakistan

You gotta sprinkle itwith ginger, fresh ginger, and fresh chili. This is one of the joys of eating nihari. (rhythmic music) With the lime, that givesit that refreshing touch, and the fresh chilis. That is a generous chunk of the cow brain. Oh, look at the creaminess of that. It looks like cottage cheese. You've got creaminess, on top of richness, on top of richness, on top of creaminess. It's so creamy. This is one of the hardiest breakfasts you could possibly have in the world. (rhythmic music) That is not a dish you wanna eat every day because it's so rich, but once in a while, that will just satisfyyou like nothing else. Thank you very much. (speaking in foreign language) - One of the greatest thingsabout being a food lover in Karachi is that it's such a mega city, and it attracts people. People live here from allover every single tiny region of Pakistan, and so you'llfind food from every region of Pakistan within Karachi. (rhythmic music)

Where are we heading next? - [Ali] Burns Road. - Burns Road? Okay, and Burns Road is really known for its extreme food, right? (upbeat music) We just made it to Burns Road, and it's kind of quiettoday I think because it's a Sunday, but onething you'll notice, and one thing you'll loveabout Karachi are the buses. They kind of look likethey're on their last leg. They've been well used,but the decoration, they're so artistic. It's such a culture of the buses. It's so cool to see, andas you just drive by, you can just see somany different designs. (speaking in foreign language) Okay. (speaking in foreign language) Oh, yeah, wow, this place is just bumping. - Hey. - Hey, how are you? - How are you? Pay for travel, you'reon Google or YouTube? - This one is the Arabian Paratha, and yeah, it's similarto things you'll find all across this entire region. He flattens out thedough, he fills it with that mixture, and thenwraps it up into a pocket, and into the oil to fry. It's shallow fried. I love the one-handed eggdrop, and then he takes the spatula, and just likeflattens it into the meat. So, he just cut it in four pieces.

It's kind of like an entiremint, chicken omelette within the fry bread. Oh, it's hot. (speaking in foreign language) Thank you. We didn't have a chair before, but the kind man just brought a chair. (speaking in foreign language) - [Shahrooz] Thank you, man. Thank you very much. - Okay, convenient. - [Ali] Did you taste? - I'm getting literally like whole ... It's how they leave the cuminseeds whole, like, every now and then, you get a wholecrunch of a cumin seed. It's so good.- So interesting. This is actually quite Arabic, but it's very mild in spices. - [Mark] And he's serving tea, right? Nice.- [Shahrooz] Out of a bucket. (speaking in foreign language) (laughing) (rhythmic music) - He is performing for us. He's just moving into the road to dance. (rhythmic music) Wow, that is sweet. Thank you, man. Nice to meet you.

Thank you. - [Ali] This is Matka kulfi. - [Mark] Matka.- [Ali] Kulfi. - Matka Kulfi. Kulfi is like ice cream,but then these are unique because they're made and frozen into little clay, little cones. I think I got the pistachio part. Oh, wow, this actually is great. - [Shahrooz] Is it thecone in there again? - [Ali] Yup. - Like reduced-down, kind oflike homemade condensed cream. Let's trade, I gotta try that saffron. Oh, wow, you can really taste the saffron. It does have a reallypronounced saffron taste to it. That was really good actually, a very unique ice cream eating experience, Kulfi. The highlight is just eating it out of the little clay cups, cones. Rabri.- Rabri. - The Rabri here. okay, there's another thing inKarachi that we have to try. It's called Rabri. We're gonna order one here. It's all milk based. You can see kind of like some strands, kind of like some strands in it as well. Oh, wow. It really has like acondensed milk taste to it but, at the same time, has almost like string cheese in the middle of that like condensed milk, yogurty sweetness. - Of course, I was expecting it to be cold. It's like sweet curds. - Rabri Shireen. - Rabri Shireen. (rhythmic music) That one is kind of like a sweet yogurt with little jellies in it.

We're just walking past,and we just smelled it, and saw the giant copper pot. He's serving biryani, and we just decided to get a small plate just to try. We're all just gonna sample it, but this is such a coolplace underneath a tree. (speaking in foreign language) (rhythmic music) And he conveniently hassome tables out here too. Just try that rice first. It's such a long-grain, such fluffy rice, and what I can taste, it tastes like it has adry lemon flavor to it. What's really good to me about this is that dry lemon flavor,the aromatic foundation of this biryani. And this is just such a cool spot. I mean, you see the big, copper metal pan, people are hanging around. This is a great spot. (speaking in foreign language) Very good. (speaking in foreign language) (rhythmic music) (speaking in foreign language) Liaquatabad (speaking in foreign language) Okay, that's the name of this area. (rhythmic music) This area is so congested, and there's so much action going on. I mean, it's one of thoseareas where just everything is exciting, and something is fascinating everywhere you look, the energy, the excitement.

Their shit's called Nali biryani. Now, Nali is the bone marrow in biryani. We already actually sampledsome biryani earlier this morning, but this is Nali biryani, so it's bone marrow biryani. He just took the bones like oxen, they are beef bones and put them in spices that are boiling. It just like shatteredinto the giant pots. Wow, that smells unbelievably good. (speaking in foreign language) And now, that's just gonna simmer away until the rice is fully cooked, and everything has mingledtogether in the pot.So they are putting Bibirani on the road, but then you walk down the street here, and there you are serving him. (speaking in foreign language) As he's dishing it out, withevery spoon that he grabs, he hits the spoon on the side of the pot. He hits the side of that pan so fast, like my eye cannot even follow it. I'm like trying to film, I mean, I'm looking in myscreen filming, and I cannot actually follow him hittingthe spoon on the side. It's something to quickly mention as they dish out our biryani. There are two spots. They both have, I believe,started around the same time, but both serve the Nali biryani. The more well known spot isactually across the street here, but they happen to be closed on Sunday, but then they built thislike indoor dining room, but this place, what'sthis place called, Ali? - [Ali] Mudri Biryani. - [Mark] Mudri Biryani. - [Ali] Mudri Ali Biryani. - I think they're serving our plate. (speaking in foreign language) It's not even a plate, butthis is an entire metal saucer, but, wow, the heaviness (laughing). Before emptying the bone marrow, let's just try this fragrant, fragrant rice.

You can see it's fluffy. There's chilis in here. We saw those chilis floatingaround in the sauce. (laughing) Oh, the black pepper in there. That's the first spice that I notice. Hassam is gonna help us with the bones. Oh, there it comes. (rhythmic music) - [Shahrooz] Dude, I can'tbelieve that actually works. - I'm just amazed at howmuch marrow just came out. That just splattered all over the biryani, and they're still getting more. Just like pure, butterwhiteness just coming out of that bone, and we still got one more. Okay, I gotta try it. It's just like dripping with oil. (laughing) - It works. - Like a worm just fell out. - Gotta hit it hard, man. - Gotta hit it harder? Rice is kind of flying. I can hear pieces rattling in there. Oh, there it comes. My fist is getting sore, but I guarantee, this is one of the most fun meals you will ever have in your life. I'm kind of like justsplattered in spice and rice. - [Ali] Wow. - More is coming out. He's looking at (laughing). (speaking in foreign language) (laughing) And you can see the whole spices. There's cinnamon, and I noticed the star anise in there too, but we gotta make a marrowbite that counts next. Let's go in, guys. - [Shahrooz] Oh, hello. It's still so hot. - [Mark] It's so delicate. Marrow bite. - [Men] Cheers. - No way. (laughing) - The marrow makes butter feel tough. That's how soft and meltin your mouth it is, going from solid to liquid on your tongue. I need a marrow chunk bite on that bite. (rhythmic music) - Biryani is one of myfavorite, favorite dishes in the world. That is easily the best. It cannot be described howmuch flavor was in every bite. - [Mark] Ali, what did you think? - It was amazing, and I'mnot very regular with marrow, but I think marrow and biryani make a perfect, lethal combination. - Very best food, biryani in the league.

- It's blown me away. I have a renewed senseof energy right now. We tried to pay. They would not accept payment. They wouldn't take money fromus, so they gave it to us. Huge thank you to this spot. That is amazing biryani thatwill just blow your taste buds. Wipe the sweat and the marrowcoming out of my pores. (laughing)Oh man. That was a game changer, a biryani game changer in Karachi. (rhythmic music) (speaking in foreign language) Video. - You add this channel. - Yes, I will add it, I will add it.

Great, nice to meet you. - [Young Man] Thank you very much. Thank you very much. - We are all Pakistani,left to all 20%, all people. - [Mark] Thank you. - Very much. - [Mark] Thank you. - Okay, see you. - Awesome, really, have a great day. - Thank you. - So many friendly people, and we had to actually stop to ask around because there's so manyalleys, you can get lost. It's a maze back here, but the next dish is supposed to be somewhere around the corner that we're gonna try to find. (rhythmic music) - These are vegetable salad, and he puts masala on top of this. After having so much (speakingin foreign language), and biryani-- - [Mark] We need some vegetables. - [Ali] We need some vegetable. - And he is a master slicer. He chops up the cucumber.

It's (chopping sound). He's a machine slicer,just amazing, amazing chopping skills, and what'samazing is how he cuts the onion in like a floral blooming shape. Street Karachi vegetable salad, it felt like the right thing we should do after eating that muchbone marrow in the morning. We need some vegetables. (rhythmic music) He has some of the mostamazing knife skills I've every seen. That is what you calla hand-chopped salad. One more thing I just noticed,the vegetables are sitting here on the cart, buthe's using a wind screen. This is a car wind screen,piece of glass, a windshield to hold the choppedvegetables as the counter top. The countertop is a windshield. This is a first for me. (rhythmic music) okay, let's try some of this salad. The plate is in the cart. Quite a few people surrounding us, but let's try this salad.- It's so awesome. - I got an onion and one of the cucumbers. Spice and lime juice, and it's amazingly fresh. These carrots are almost red, so sweet. That combination of themasala and the fresh squeeze of lime, though, that's what makes it. (speaking in foreign language) Amazing. (speaking in foreign language) That was one of the, byfar, the coolest salad ever, but what a man, what skills. Actually, we didn't evenmake it to the right place.