Pakoras on Hawks Bay

I must confess there was a time when I was not an outdoorsy person!

This hatred for the outdoors was mostly due to the fact that I, as a girl, lived in one of the most physically oppressive societies for women possible i.e. Saudi Arabia. Still, this never had been a deterrent for my more adventurous friends who’d still go out, hang out at malls and even go on dates. However, I developed this sort of comfort zone that existed only when I was indoors. That wasn’t to say that I was anti-social, it’s just that, for me, going outdoors meant being bundled in a few metres of black cloth, and staying as close as possible to my menfolk.

So, it was only natural that I felt the same way when I came over to Pakistan (btw, I’ve completely shaken this side of me off now and cannot just seem to get enough of visiting places, enjoying the outdoors etc. over here in the UK)

…coming back to Pakistan; it may be true that you are not at all as oppressed as a woman as you are in Saudi Arabia, but the lewdness and weird stares existed here as well (I guess men from any Islamic society are so deprived and desperate, they’re willing to resort to just staring at women to get a few minutes’ worth of… entertainment)

For me, this meant not going to practically any crowded place (which would explain my hatred for shopping in Pakistan). The only outdoor location left that all of us siblings loved would be the beach, Hawks bay to be specific. The huge stretch of sand meant you’d be nowhere near any possible taros/ badmaash. For us women it meant a chance to sit and just relax while enjoying the salty sea air and the cool calming ocean. For the boys, it meant a chance to sit and relax and not worry about any weirdo who just stood too close to you when you’d be out and about.

At one point, we got so regular, it almost became a routine. We’d all be up at 6:00 AM on Saturday, ready and loaded in the car by 6:30, and at the beach by 7:30’ish. Tea would be in a huge thermos we had, and breakfast mostly would be bread or chappatis from last night with… Pakoras. Now, I am no huge fan of fried savoury food, especially the kind that is considered tea-time snacks (samosas, pakoras etc.) in our part of the world. But these Pakoras would be simply divine!

The place where we’d get them from was just as eccentric; just at the final fork where you either turned left for Landhi or right towards Hawks bay, there was a small sea-side village (usually called goths). Right by the road side were small shanty shops selling mostly paan masalas, cold drink daalay and café food (café food in Pakistan is not what you’d normally regard as café food anywhere else in the world. Maybe someday I’ll do a post about that as well) and all clearly run by the people from the village. Among these shanties, at the very end, was a small tinned shop. Calling it a shop would be a gross overstatement, it was more like just a tin roof propped on four sticks. The only ‘furniture’ under this roof, would be a HUGE deep pan (called a Karahee) filled to the brim with bubbling oil and heated by a cylinder stove. Standing over this would be the frailest gentleman possible, his dark skin (as of the majority of the Makrani population) would be lined with signs of old age and withered by the heat of the sun and the stove over which he, no doubt, had spent the majority of his life. He’d usually be wearing the most interesting clothes; mostly once-bright but now worn down surfer T-shirts, with a pair of rolled up crops.  The actual pakora batter would be in a greasy blue container, probably made overnight by the ladies of the house. Standing over the karahee, he’d casually flick little blobs of the batter in to the oil, and then scoop them up with this huge frying spoon made of some fine netting and cast iron. He’d then pop the pakoras into a newspaper bag, and add little pouches of some home-mixed spice.

These pakoras tasted heavenly. I guess it was partly due to the fact that he made them out of a mixture of flour and gram flour, rather than wholly out of gram flour. Plus, it would be loaded with all kinds of proper vegetables; spinach leaves, potatoes, onions, coriander leaves and chillies. Super crunchy on the outside, and all soft on the inside, I swear we could have lived on these pieces of utter deliciousness. And if you wanted to up the kick, just empty one of the spice sachets in to the bag. Chatpatta heaven in an instant!