The last few days of my trip to Pakistan coincided with the first half of
Eid ul-Azha (also known as the Feast of Sacrifice in English, Eid ul-Adha in Pakistan or Kurban Bayrami in Turkish).
Previously I have spent this feast in
Sivasli/Antalya,
Aleppo and
Pamukkale/Selcuk/Izmir. In 2003 I just missed out on spending the feast in Egypt.
Just like in Turkey, the most obvious signs of the of the holiday were livestock (mainly goats, sheep and cattle) in unusual places. I even saw two goats in the centre of Lahore dressed in jackets with their legs sticking through the sleaves!
Livestock feed markets for animals prior to their sacrifice, on the side of a Karachi road
A soon-to-be sacrificed Brahman cow in Lahore's old city
Goats in Lahore
A large livestock market on the outskirts of Lahore. Because of this market and the cars surrounding it my already late bus to Islamabad was delayed further.
I arrived back to Karachi too late to witness Hani's family sacrifice a cow and a sheep, but, of course, there was still plenty of food left over from the barbecue.-------------------
Labels: food, food photos, karachi, lahore, religious holidays
As I wrote
previously, Pakistani food is dominated by meat and not as spicy as I anticipated. Here are some some food photos from my trip:
Clockwise from the top-left: lentils, sandwich, a fried sweet, a curry and a plate containing lemon wedges, fried onion and fresh coriander. 
Chicken curry
The salad bar at the first wedding reception
The first wedding reception's main dishes: bread, fish, biryani, chicken, lamb and beef(?)
A type a pakistani pancake in the foreground and the wedding cake in the background
"Thick, Fatty & Naughty Special". A funny menu heading at the Cafe Zouk's Karachi restaurant
The BBQ Tonight restaurant's barbecues, Karachi
Different breads and kebabs at BBQ Tonight. Although the kebabs look very similar to Turkish kebabs, the taste varies.
A full Karachi meal with 3 or 4 different meat dishes
Biryani, lamb and bread at the second wedding reception
Sweets, including trifle, at the second wedding reception. I don't ever recall eating trifle in Turkey and seeing it here was a pleasant surprise.
A fruit and vegetable stall at the main Karachi Bazaar
Sweets, lentils and vegetable pasta on the Airblue flight from Karachi to Lahore
Chestnuts bought from the Lahore street. The chestnuts are eaten cold with salt sprinkled on them. This was the first time I'd eaten this species. On the Lahore street I drank fresh sugarcane juice, also infused with salt.
A Lahore sweet shop in the old city
Pawpaw, custard apple and chico, three fruits not found in Turkey. The custard apple in particular tasted delicious.
Efes non-alcoholic beer. I found this in a Karachi supermarket and have also seen it in Iran, but not in Turkey where it is produced.-------------------
Labels: food, food photos
