Street Food in Islamabad Pakistan (PART-02)

Story: Travel by Mark Wiens

Welcome to Islamabad! (Pleasant music) The first place we are going to Islamabad is called Najib Spot, and they are very famous for their Afghani burgers. (Cold Drain) - Beef sausage? - [Mark] Beef sausage! - Chicken! - [Mark] Chicken Sausage! (Car horn) What is that? Spice? - [Chef] Afghan sauce. - [Mark] Afghan sauce? - [Chef] Yes. I'm adding ketchup. - [Mark] Wow. - [Chef] A group of special chicken - [Mark] He added on some masala, he added on some Afghan chutney, he added on some mayonnaise, he added on some sauces, some ketchup, then you could get different versions, you can order different versions, the chicken, the beef, the, like, there's some bologna-ish looking meat. Basically, everything is deep-fried and then stuffed within that bread with the french fries and rolled up. And from the outside, it's just a mystery which one you get. Could be the chicken, could be the beef. - [Ali] You have to come to my city to have this burger. You have to come to Islamabad. - Islamabad. - [Joel] I haven't seen anything about these things. -

The pride of Islamabad comes to food. - [Mark] Is there a strategy to eating this? It's one of those things where I don't think you should unwrap the whole thing, or you might lose things out the back end. Maybe just unwrap the top. - [Ali] Oh wow. - Oh, some extra Afghan chutney! Oh, that looks good! Oh, wow. - [Ali] It can explode at any minute. - [Mark] It's like a half a bottle of mayonnaise in here! (laughter) - Sometimes you hold it, it's about to explode, I mean. - Cheers, guys, cheers.

(appreciative groaning) - I got like an entire mouthful of mayonnaise (Laughter) Like French fries, thickened in bread.. The chutneys, the masala, that's the unique thing about it, is the masala blended with the mayonnaise. Just dip it? Just do the wipe, the wipe dip? This might be the ultimate fast food you can possibly have in the world. Everything in one! (appreciative groaning and laughing) Definitely, actually, the sauce, that Afghan chutney, that is the best thing about it. It's like vinegar-y, it's really garlic-y. I'm just gonna pour. (Laughs) After eating half of it, I still don't know if I've found chicken or beef or shish kebab, and I don't think it really matters! And that's the Afghani burger. It's not something I would eat on a daily basis, but definitely at twoA.M.

when you're hungry and need something kinda greasy, kinda oily. That is exactly what you would want to be eating, and also it's just fun to see them make it, that's just like all the things deep-fried, wrapped up and mayonnaise-y. (fans whirr) Ali was explaining to me that Islamabad is known for their burgers, so people from Islamabad, they love, throughout Pakistan, from Karachi to Lahore, Islamabad is known for being burger lovers. And so, we're in a place called Burger Fest. Smoke billows, I really like their slogan: Come meat!! - [Ali] The Beef Binda. - [Mark] Which looks like, I don't even know what that centre layer is, but it just looks like cheese is just squeezing out of it. (Meat seasonings) (restaurant chirp and chill) We have a chicken, which is a beef burger.

For the beef, he grills the beef, I like it, they use hot, flaming charcoals. Yeah Al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like Burger ain't for me either.. This one is the Beef Binda burger. That is a beautiful looking burger. I love the sesame seeds on top. Dude! (excited chuckling) Oh, that's beautiful! (appreciative groaning) Aala! - (mumbling) Aala! - Oh wow, by the way, that's how you say oh wow in Urdu, right? This is a very good burger, meat, meat freshness and amazing thing, it tastes like a Pakistani burger because you taste the taste of cooking this spice. Beef is bad. Cheese, you taste the chilli powder. You can taste the chilli powder there! - Chilli powder and awful pepper, awful pepper. - [Mark] Cumin, the cumin! A mayonnaise foul. - It's time for some burger swap. - You wanna burger swap? - Yeah. - Okay, Ali's working on the chicken here. How's that chicken, Ali?

- Chicken's pretty good. - The Islamabad swap, the must-needed one. (laughs) Wow, that chicken is so tender. And again, the smokiness of the grill flavour. We stood around and ate that burger and met so many people just standing around in that area. One of the guys that we met, he's like, oh yeah, welcome to Burger-bad! Islamabad is known for their burgers. That was a really good burger, and we've got one more place to go to Islamabad. It's that time of the day. Ali is in the position. - Caught blue-handed! - Caught blue-handed. - Caught blue-handed. - It's the time of the day when we're all getting sleepy, it's been a long day, but we're coming to one more restaurant, we're gonna order them, we're gonna order some beef, and I know they're famous here for the fries, which Ali said he comes to eat sometimes. Reach in with the mayo. - [Ali] If you want to eat, eat Islamabad way. - [Mark] The proper Islamabad way? (laughs) (chiming music) There's that cheese. - I just wanna eat my own fries, end of the world right now. - You guys really don't know how to eat fries. Come on, you're in Islamabad, man, this is not how you eat fries.

- [Mark] So, Islamabad is known for being very proper, right? - Pakistan, this is how you eat fries. - [Mark] Next up for the crazy panini, and the crazy panini is one of their specialities here. Looks like it's filled with, is that chicken? Yeah, that is pretty good. The melted cheese in there, the chicken almost has kind of a chicken curry flavour to it, but that melty, oozy cheese is what's holding it together. That's making it really good. And that wraps up this trip to Islamabad. Let's go to Lahore! (exciting music) Made it back to the beautiful energy of Lahore!

I love this city! We are the first to come here to eat Lahore Broast, and Broast, I know it is chicken. Broast, to me, sounds kind of like a combination of broiled and roasted. I have no idea what it is. Oh yeah, step inside, and you could immediately smell deep-friend-ness. It appears that a breast is not broiled or roasted, but it's fried, and then he put the lid down, and it's like pressure cooked! He stuck the lid down, he cranked it tight. That's gonna simmer away in the oil. So that's like pressure deep-fried. Is it rice? - [Cook] Steam, steam. - [Mark] Oh, steam, oh nice. - [Cook] Are you ready? - [Mark] Yes! So, how long did that boil for, ten minutes? Wow! (oil popping) They put the breast, they roasted it, for ten minutes, and then he just popped that cover. You could hear the pressure being released. Our broast is ready! Broast is just a fun word to say! They put a handful of fries right on top, and then we also got the steamed version, another awesome thing that they serve at this fast-food restaurants a mutton joint. (skin crunching) Wow, that is incredibly crunchy, though!

Oh, oh that's hot! - [Ali] Yeah, the bite is good. - It's so crunchy, too, it's so crunchy, it's so crispy! My first time ever to broast! (crunching) (laughter) - I know you just burned your tongue. - That's hot! (crunching) You have a broast strategy? - Don't expect any reaction, I'm having for the millionth time. (laughter) - [Mark] Oh, so you come here often! - I've grown up here, eating these.