Foods of Lahore pt. 2 - Halwa Puri

Let’s talk about breakfasts, Lahori breakfasts. Whenever I leave Pakistan to a different country, I miss local Desi food. Foreign travellers often ask us ‘why every dish so oily in Pakistan?’ Yes!!! It’s not healthy for your body but it’s delicious and we Lahori absolutely don’t care if it’s oily or unhealthy... let’s fill our tummies twice in a row. Time is changing, Lahori people now like to eat junk and western foods in fancy restaurants. They take pictures of their food and post it on Facebook. I don’t know why but somehow I’m not like everyone else in that regard. I still love local Desi dishes. If we talk about Lahori people’s favourite breakfasts, the dishes that come first to mind are; Halwa Puri, Naan Chaney, Siri Paye, and Nihari. Halwa Puri: This dish is characterised by chickpea stew along with fried dough. They really slap that dough out and kind of twirl it on their fingers, then just plop it into the oil. It only needs to fry for 30 seconds or so and then you have to take it out. Once fried it looks so soft, but delicately crispy at the same time. You then use the bread to scoop up the chickpea stew, eating Halwa on the side. Halwa is a sweet component with a consistency like porridge that’s often eaten alongside meals such as this. I remember those childhood days when every Sunday I went with my dad on the motorcycle to bring Halwa Puri breakfast for my family.

In the early morning when first light shines on Lahore, breakfast shopkeepers start readying their stalls and shops for morning breakfast. Just after thirty minutes of sunrise you can find breakfast easily in commercial Lahori markets. However, this isn’t just a Lahori thing. It’s happening in every part of Pakistan. Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Multan. Different cultures have their own style of breakfast and dishes. If you're travelling on the Grand Trunk road, which connects Lahore to Peshawar via Islamabad, after every 100 kilometres the accent of the Punjabi language changes. In the same way, you can notice the change in the style of food. Everywhere you go in Pakistan there are different cultural breakfasts that everyone, both Pakistani and foreigner, enjoy. So, you could say that Pakistan is heaven for food lovers.