Pakistan’s changing culinary culture
https://arab.news/562gk
What is authentic Pakistani cuisine? This is one of the routine questions I raise in the class of freshmen I teach at university. For well over a decade, I have been getting the same shocking answer from my students—'barbeque.' But I will no longer be surprised if I hear them saying it is burger, pizza and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
When I left the United States after graduating four decades ago, I ate many pieces of all varieties of pizzas, burgers, and dunkin doughnuts, not sure when I would be revisiting the land of ‘opportunity’ at the other end of the world. Many years later, on another visit, I remember getting a large pizza packed in New York and taking a bottle of mustard back with me to make burgers in Pakistan. As students, we loved American junk food-- it was around the corner, ever ready, and cheap. On Sundays, I would never miss multi-layered pancakes with a freshly brewed percolated cup of black, steaming coffee. I also remember occasionally bringing back pancake mix and pure maple syrup to maintain a flavor of American food habits once home.
We never thought the world would change so quickly with the globalization of markets, technologies, communications and intermixing of world cultures. Theoretically, the whole world is open for competition but what is actually sold and bought in the food industry has followed the familiar patterns of global domination. The power and influence of American popular culture, which besides music, film and sports, is reflected in fast-food chains, symbolizes hegemony. It means consumers have accepted everything of their own free will. There is a very broad body of people from every class and walk of life all over the world that wear jeans, t-shirts, and stand in queues to get a slice of pizza or a burger at outlets replicating American design, American colors and uniforms behind the counters.
Pakistan’s national cuisine is as varied as in any country, representing many regional, local and traditional dishes. However, the effects of commercialization and food chain culture can also be seen in the opening of specific food outlets in different cities. I believe it is one of the positive gains of global food chains opening up here. The other is the employment of young women as waiters and cash-register workers in at least three major cities—Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
In small and major cities, there are hundreds of local fast-food outlets that offer cheaper, affordable alternatives to expensive foreign brands. In every market of Pakistan, a one-man burger cart will hit you in the face displaying the colorful photograph of an American style burger.
Rasul Bakhsh Rais
Interestingly, local food businesses have very quickly adapted to the changing tastes of Pakistanis by offering their own brands of pizza, burgers and fried chicken. In small and major cities, there are hundreds of local fast-food outlets that offer cheaper, affordable alternatives to expensive foreign brands. In every market of Pakistan, a one man burger cart will hit you in the face displaying the colorful photograph of an American style burger.
Like in other countries, culinary cultures fall along economic and social class lines in Pakistan. While the lower classes go to the cheap Pakistani restaurants and khokhas—roadside eateries, serving oily, spicy dishes, the middle and upper classes dine at more fashionable, pricey and exclusive places. The elite prefers a variety of Chinese, Thai, Italian, Mediterranean and American type high quality grill and steak houses. Major cities in Pakistan have very rapidly embraced a globalized, cosmopolitan food culture, offering a rich variety of cuisines.
Another remarkable shift is reflected in the opening up of coffee houses in major cities. Pakistan is still largely a tea-drinking country with a special taste for doodh-patti—tea brewed in milk and sugar. Many decades back, only the elite would have coffee on their breakfast tables or academics in the offices. It is now becoming a popular hot drink, thanks to motorways and the common belief that high doses of caffeine keep you awake behind the wheel.
Present day urban elite food culture is transforming itself to exclusive clubs on the front yards of shopping centers, on rooftops, and in the special dining rooms of five-star hotels. It is the prohibitive cost of having a cup of coffee or a piece of pastry on a porcelain plate that keeps the common man away--not unusual in elite cultures and elite-driven economies like that of Pakistan.
– Rasul Bakhsh Rais is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS, Lahore. His latest book is “Islam, Ethnicity and Power Politics: Constructing Pakistan’s National Identity” (Oxford University Press, 2017).
Twitter: @RasulRais
