When Maryam Jillani was growing up in Islamabad, the last day of Ramadan was about more than breaking a month-long fast with extended family.
A joyous occasion, the Eid Al-Fitr holiday also was marked with visits to the market to get new bangles, wearing her best new clothes and getting hennaed. Not to mention the little envelopes with cash gifts from the adults.
“But, of course, food,” said Jillani, a food writer and author of the new cookbook “Pakistan.” “Food is a big part of Eid.”
At the center of her grandmother Kulsoom’s table was always mutton pulao, a delicately spiced rice dish in which the broth that results from cooking bone-in meat is then used to cook the rice. Her uncle would make mutton karahi, diced meat simmered in tomato sauce spiked with ginger and chilies.
Cutlets, kebabs, lentil fritters and more rounded out the meal, while dollops of pungent garlic chutney and a cooling chutney with cilantro and mint cut through all the meat. For dessert were bowls of chopped fruit and seviyan, or semolina vermicelli noodles that are fried then simmered in cardamom-spiced milk.
The vegetable sides were the one thing that changed. Since Ramadan follows the lunar Islamic calendar, it can fall any time of year.
These dishes, and many of the associated memories, make it into Jillani’s book, but she would be the first to acknowledge they represent just a sliver of the nation’s varied cuisine.
Her father, who worked in international development, used to take the family to different parts of the country. Later, she did her own development fieldwork in education across rural Pakistan.
Along the way, she found striking differences between the tangier, punchier flavors in the east, toward India and China, and the milder but still flavorful cuisine in the west, toward Afghanistan.
“I knew our cuisine was a lot more than what we were finding on the Internet,” she said.
After moving to Washington, D.C. as a graduate student, she started the blog Pakistan Eats in 2008 to highlight dishes that were lesser known to Western cooks. Research on the book began 15 years later, and she visited 40 kitchens in homes across Pakistan.
“Even though I hadn’t lived in Pakistan for over 10 years, each kitchen felt like home,” she writes in the book’s introduction.
She includes what she calls “superstars” of the cuisine, such as chicken karahi, one of the first dishes Pakistanis learn to make when overseas to get a taste of home. The meat is seared in a karahi (skillet) and then braised in a tomato sauce spiced with cumin, coriander, ginger, garlic and chilies before a dollop of yogurt is stirred into the pot.
Other recipes reflect the diverse nature of Pakistan’s migrant communities, such as kabuli pulao, an Afghan rice dish made with beef, garam masala, chilies, sweetened carrots and raisins.
“The idea behind the cookbook is to try to play my small part in carving out a space for Pakistani food on the global culinary table,” she said.
And of course, honoring her grandmother’s mutton pulao.
Jillani is hosting Eid this year at her home, now in Manila, Philippines, and she plans to make it, as well as an Afghan-style eggplant, shami kebabs, and the cilantro and mint chutney.
“If I’m feeling especially ambitious that day, I might make a second mutton dish,” she said. “I’ve been a bit homesick.”

ISLAMABAD: Russia’s Ambassador to Pakistan Albert P. Khorev on Tuesday dismissed reports about Islamabad supplying weapons to Ukraine in the war against Russia, saying that “no evidence” had been found in this regard so far.
Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan’s was visiting Russian in Feb. 2022, when Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
During the war, reports emerged in the British, United States and Indian media that suggested that Pakistan had sold arms worth millions of dollars to Ukraine in the war against Russia.
“We heard of such reports, such information, but we still haven’t got any evidence so far,” Ambassador Khorev told Arab News in an exclusive interview. “No evidence as of now. So, at this stage, I would prefer to not comment until we have any.”
The ambassador praised Islamabad for maintaining neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine conflict despite “pressure from the Western camp.”
“We are grateful for the Pakistani government for its neutral position in this conflict around Ukraine despite the pressure from the Western camp, previous US administration and European leaders,” he added.
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has killed more than 250,000 people, and the US, Russia and Ukraine are currently holding talks in Saudi Arabia to implement a ceasefire that may eventually lead to an end to the conflict.
MEDIATION BETWEEN PAKISTAN AND INDIA
Asked if Russia could mediate between Pakistan and India on outstanding issues, Khorev said Moscow would “consider” the idea if the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors deemed it appropriate.
Relations between India and Pakistan have been fraught for years with the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir being a flashpoint between Pakistan and India since their independence from the British rule in 1947. Both Pakistan and India rule parts of the Himalayan territory, but claim it in full and have fought three wars over the disputed region. Both countries also often accuse each other of fanning militancy.
The idea could be supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new Eurasian security concept, according to the Russian envoy. Eurasia refers to the combined landmass of Europe and Asia including countries like Russia, China, Pakistan India and those in Central Asia, which are of significant geopolitical and strategic importance.
“The Eurasian security concept’s main principle was that Eurasian conflicts should be solved through Eurasian actors which means without influence from abroad, different continents and parts of the world,” Ambassador Khorev said.