Pakistani Seviyan for Eid

Eid-al-Fitr is the festival marking the end of the Holy month of Ramadan. I remember this time of the year distinctly. Back when I was in the UAE, the streets would wake up after the evening prays, when the Roza (fast) was broken. Attractive sales, bright lights, festivities around every corner, Iftar parties with their oodles of biryani and haleem were everywhere! And the best part…schools and offices worked half days….it-was-awesome!

Iftar is the meal eaten to break the fast at sunset everyday during Ramadan. Often done as a community, food is served in long platters, welcoming everybody to the most elaborate spread of food I have seen. Dates, cut fruits, keema samosas, pakoras, chai, grilled meat, kebabs, biryanis, tea, sweets like phirni, kheer, seviyan, bakhlavas and it goes on.

When Eid came we enjoyed a long break from school and also the influx of biryani and sweets from our friends and neighbors. I have celebrated many Eids in Khorfakkan with my cousins, where the four of us would relentlessly ask for Eidis once or twice to every adult we’d meet. Out of all our friends we would love to visit Masuda aunty because her mutton biryani was totally out of the world.

This year I visited Mosque road in Bangalore to taste street food made for Iftar. It was just how I imagined it to be. Clouds of smoke floated in air as people barbequed lamb, chicken, prawns and fish, there were also camps selling homemade food out of casseroles. The food was incredibly fast moving, you could see people carry huge pots of biryanis and long skewers of kebabs in and out all the time. Nobody went home hungry, the seekh kebabs I ate there were probably the best bargain of the century and tasted just how they should, tender, smokey, meaty with the right amount of piquancy . The whole visit to Mosque Road was a hit and very memorable.

Remembering Istanbul and Lamb Kebabs

In the middle of 2010, my mom and I packed our bags and took off to Istanbul. My sister joined us there later from another corner of the world. Istanbul was an ideal holiday location for the 3 of us. Upon our arrival in Istanbul we did a lot of touristy things: stay in a hotel on Istiklal Caddesi, visit Palaces and Churches, take a cruise on the Bosphorus, and go to the Grand Bazaar. But the most appealing part of Istanbul, to me, was the food.

After touring the Topkapi palace on our 1^st day, we walked down Istiklal Caddesi and stumbled upon a restaurant called Konak. As we entered, we witnessed ornate decorations on the wall and ceiling, waiters waltzing around in Turkish attire, and a lovely stone oven at one corner. We were thrilled to bits! None of us had done any research on the food and restaurants in Istanbul. We flipped through the menu and saw some mouthwatering kebabs along with their striking names. My sister and I were instantly attracted to the minced lamb kebab. My mother went for a bowl of lentil soup, which might sound meek in front of the mighty kebabs, but oh lord the Turks do know how to make lentil soup.