Oldest PAKISTANI STREET FOOD Market in ISLAMABAD!! Butt Karahi & Aabpara Market | Pakistan

So good Good evening everyone. I hope you're all doing well. This is David Hoffman from David's been here coming at you from beautiful Islamabad of Pakistan the capital of the country in partnership my friends at Manaki tonight I'm gonna take you to explore the Apara market an incredible market lots of vendors a lot of street food stands And then after this we're going to the f10 sector so the city's divided in sectors and there we're gonna have some delicious Dinner and first off follow me. It says I'm Bonnie booty called guppa Let's do it, okay, so it's a little different here right they give you the Bonnie in a bowl and you dip it yourself, right I'm very start that man. Yeah, you know how one No, no, I am you good. Yeah, don't let me have another one delicious love potatoes Nice chutney some dahi right you put some dahi as well. I love it first night in the capital Starting off with some Bonnie booty my favorite gold guppa They open up my appetite right Let's do the market now sugar. Yeah The market is on the sidewalk obviously not on the street so guys Assalamu alaikum, everything good Hello. Hello. Whoa, I think fine fine. It's awesome. So the first thing we're seeing Lots of vendors right right here. We have a little bit of a livestock market with some butchers We have some guys selling some clothing and then here we have Jollibee and gulab jamun Whoo, all very fatty sweets. Can I try one? Yeah It's so good Oh Mmm, nice and hot. Yeah, nice and hot shooting sweep obviously is sitting in sugar syrup, right the whole thing Oh, it's a little different too. They're not like completely balls like they are next door in India This is a little different, right? So it's more like a a little more like an egg, right? That's why one of these Little bit Mmm-hmm. So sweet. Oh, man So, what's that what do you have there? So it's like a biscuit, right? Can I try one tiny one just tiny piece? I really don't want a big piece smallest piece Biscuit Fried dough Oh, man, that's fun Yeah, no, that's it the butcher right there I'm not going in there I'm gonna keep eating sweet I Love it this with some chai All the best green tea with green tea with chai. You can take it in. You know, you're good So you have the chickens they come you they buy you kill it. Yeah Thank you Assalamu alaikum Everything good. What do you have here fruits? So dried fruits nuts dates, honey. Oh Man, so it's almonds you got nuts. Yeah. All right some nuts There's raisins in there. Nice. Good mix. Nice blend. Mmm, delicious. This is called apricot seed dried fruits Shukriya, shukriya. So what is that? The locally it's called gori. Yeah, it's gori. It's the mixture of brown sugar almond and Walnut kaju and kaju. Wow a big ball of everything. It's very tasty. It's one good Good. Oh Let's try Mmm sweet Right, it's brown sugar Yeah, the sweetest ball ever tried ball of sweetness and nutty That's it And then ate the all dry foods and they're dry deeper into the market Just more nuts More different vendors. This guy's also doing the sugarcane, but he's like cutting it, right? There's like four or five different ways to go here. So you can go this way this way this way that way You go this this way and explore this area. Assalamu alaikum. Walaikum salam So what are you doing here? This is basically stuff for gardening, right? I make some gardening things. You got knives saws Go off so he's fixing like To cut a machine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, my friend nice So machine repairing shop, then they also have you know Stuff for gardening You can really hurt somebody with that though for this Take a mini axe The next alley is basically all electronics Laptops phones actually lots of phones even have a little kiosk outside with phones And then it ends right but we can turn to the left and they go this way another street This next part of the market is all food over here We have some guy doing some potato fritters kinds of cucumber got some samosas tons the most is over here Lots of vendors lots of vendors and you have also have like sitting outside obviously COVID times where to sit outside That's it, right? Yeah, you have to wear the mask now, I mean these are hard times man Scary times. Oh, yeah. Awesome. Chai, chai Yes, okay, okay chai chai chai Mmm special chai, huh? Nice. Oh Super hot Gotta cool down for a bit. Give it like five minutes. I waited one not enough time Like it milky love the cardamom That chai was really nice. Nice. Pick me up a little bit of caffeine Everybody nice to it more food. Lots of seeker bugs. Let's think about it's a big mix of food You know over here we have it's a variety of stuff, right? Similar to the most markets who's it been to but obviously always different. This is a different spot. It's a Like three four levels, right? Not three levels Most the area different lanes and you always find fruits and vegetables on the side Food on the outside in the corners and then you know markets inside, right? Yeah clothing nuts Dry fruits that type of stuff, right? So now we're gonna walk over to a different market nearby Too many drive later. We're here at the food street. That's it quick So, what's the name of it? This is Melody food street. Melody food street So we're gonna see a lot of vendors outside and also restaurants, right? Just a ballet The people I love it. I love it. I love all the chats so many chats some so little time Such little stomach for chat and this is Melody food street on the right in the left never-ending restaurants right here Our first vendor he has samosas. He has some rolls and some pakora. There's a vegetable pakora tiny piece Love it nice and crunchy. Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah As-salamu alaykum And this vendor has fish and this fish is from Karachi This is all from Karachi Smells great. Love it with some masalas. Mmm. And what do you do? You fry it, right? There's all fried Spicy super spicy. I'm sure smells incredible though So that right there was chicken karai the best and this kid right here is awesome. Hey, you're so nice. Thank you so much So the market's pretty empty today because it's Wednesday usually it's the weekend this place is packed, right? So you have a few vendors selling fish. They also have chicken karai, lots of chicken stands Obviously Wednesday beef is taboo. So no beef is allowed on Tuesday and Wednesdays and on the right There's some fruit stands so you can get some like fruit fresh fruits, you know Juices and over here. This guy is doing pan. This is incredible. So this is the world's biggest and beautiful pandan Right pandan Rana by Shahi Pandana Wali and the way he does it he puts it all together and then he puts shoves in Your mouth, right? And he throws the all the pedals, right? incredible Thank you so much, I've read that you should Korea Yeah, I can't come here and not try a pan from this guy. This guy's awesome. I love his like outfit It's so sick and behind he has pictures with some celebrities and also with the Prime Minister, right? How they said the world's biggest pandana he has chocolate pan coconut pan strawberry pan. I like cheese special pan dry fruit pan I have no idea what he's gonna make for me, but I'm excited. Here we go Sweet So sweet Incredible Thank you Wow, the pan just gives you straight-up energy. It's a different type of feeling. It's not caffeine. It's not tea That was the regular one. I can't tell you what it has a lot of different like massage and stuff Whoa, who I feel great. Hey guys, so nice. He called me. He said no. No nice of your money. You're my guest So guys everything good So guys and I thought it was over to keep going and going and going more shops more cut eyes You know more kebabs and up here next level It's like a big seating area like easy like I don't know 200 tables on the other side You have a few butchers and that's it. Lots of food. Lots of restaurants Similar stuff though always got I'm always kebabs, right man. I'm electric right now electric Let's get in the car and it's gonna have 10. It's time for dinner. I'm super hungry Hopefully we eat some more. Could I? F10 Wow. Oh man, it's chicken right in front. Look at this. Love it. Whoo Barbecue chicken, there's no restaurant which we'll have our dinner. So it's called haji restaurant It's best for also and chicken tikka cry barbecue And yeah again, it is Wednesday only chicken available, you know chicken right here chicken right here. What's the name of this one? We have Scott yoga. I haven't tried it yet Today we will try I love it because they're barbecuing chicken vertical chicken. There's the whole chicken. It's incredible You have the man here he going through taking it off cutting it up and serving it very easy Wow This man is Pakistan after Islamabad, okay And this is it's a specialty in Lahore, but they also do it here so he's doing it Basically on tomato, right? He's chopping up Brain They're doing But if it's frozen it's fine, so that's why you can actually buy mud and right now here This is my friend Salman from Manaki, she's the one that brought me here. Thank you so much Really happy that David To see the videos that he's gonna put up very soon awesome Okay, so this is F 10 markers and F 10 markers was developed pretty much in the past 10-15 years It's been around for quite a bit But it was developed in the past 10-15 years and as I was telling you earlier David in the past three years It's become like a food hub started off with like a regular Plaza with stationary stores bakery stores and some shopping But I guess people in Pakistan are really keen to eat So as we were going to see when you walk around there's a whole lot of food to offer from here from this Plaza So the cool thing about this street is that each vendor or each restaurant is from a different city, right? This is the special water. This one's from the city. I'm going to in two days Sorry, it's hard to say these names and then another one from Lahore, right? So it's a good mix Yeah, so they bring their flavors from their cities because this was you know, basically a man-made city And 20 years ago you were saying people go to sleep at 7 p.m. And that's it Yeah, and now till 1 or 2 p.m. You go out and try to have us are still open 2 a.m. 2 a.m. Yeah It's evolved, you know, it's about people used to say oh there's nothing to do in Islamabad Well, things have really changed awesome. Well, I'm hungry. Let's go eat. Let's go eat so David we are at Bhatt Kadhai right now and Bhatt Kadhai has quite a history because if they started off from Lahore and The flavors are so incredible and people from all over Pakistan started going to eat there. So then they expanded They're doing commercially really well. They have a branch now in Karachi and they have a branch in Islamabad So we are at Bhatt Kadhai and their Kadhai It's called Bhatt Kadhai not just Bhatt restaurant. Their Kadhai is really worth having. So, how about we try some? We're also getting a few other dishes But that one looks amazing. That's like brain tomato and chicken a big mix, right? It's gonna be so good So usually when we wait for food which will take about half an hour for fresh food to come in They always put the salad and the raita which is yogurt in first in the yogurt They've added cumin also a bit of salt if I'm not mistaken, so we'll just dip it in And we'll end up eating the entire plate of salad If the food comes so then we'll order another plate of salad, that's what we do. Dipping in here Wow, I didn't know that Raita crunchy burst cucumber Fantastic. Salmeen, what do we have here tonight? Okay, so we have chicken kadhai but it's special because it's made in butter and this is the Specialty chicken kadhai that Bhatt Kadhai is known for and as I said earlier Bhatt Kadhai Became so popular that they had to expand and now they're not just in Lahore We're lucky that they're in Islamabad also So that's what we're enjoying that we have fried mutton chops and then we have a special chicken tikka breast piece For David and why is it special? We're gonna find out once you start eating it. Okay, let's start. Let's do this a couple of pieces Going on the plate and then you definitely have to try the leg piece Yeah, and then there's ginger there's freshly chopped Julienne's ginger and there's coriander right on top also and it has little gravy because it's been cooked in butter So there's thick gravy a little bit of it and there's also a big piece of red chili So be careful with that red chili. That's my name on it And that's garlic Ravnina and you can whiff the butter Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I think you should start with that. Take a straight bite. Yeah Is it good? No, it's so good. And then there's pateer. Pateer is made of Brown flour. Yeah, it's like a chapati. Exactly. So here in the city, the name that they give it is pateer Pateer. Yeah, which is chapati. Chapati is actually even thinner than this And you'll get to experience that in more restaurants because obviously your tour is not over yet. So let me grab a piece of bone right here Is it good? Oh yeah. Heavenly? Heavenly. Wow, the butter Incredible. Really? Yeah, the garlic No, actually the garlic is in here. That's ginger. Mmm. A little bit of chilies Spicy, right? Careful on that. What do you think? No No, it's hot. Pretty hot. It's not a ghost pepper, but it's hot Oh, the chicken is really good. I love his good eyes. His good eyes are like mind-blowing I was telling him yesterday like we had one it was like mind-bending, you know, like it changes the way you think about food So hearty. You can also get it with this, right? So pick up a piece You gotta be careful. There's a little bit of bones, right? Yeah. Always bones It's delicious. That's the neck actually. It's the neck. Yeah It's got its own flavor Whoa Yeah, it does. It does taste different So this restaurant is There are a few different branches, right? Now there are a few different branches all over Pakistan, but it's been around for a few decades if not more Yeah, it's that good You know what else we do? Here if you're up for it, put some onion in your plate Yeah, some raw onion and Then make a bite out of it. Then make a bite? In Urdu we call it a navala. A navala What is a navala? The bite that you're making so you're taking in gravy You're taking in a bit of onion and then take a bite. Well a bit, right? Yeah a bit. Otherwise, it will be too strong on the palate. It's like too much. Yeah. I love eating with my hands I got another chili though. Oh boy No, no, but the onion kills the heat a little bit, you know, it's good And it gives a bit of a crunch and this is pretty common in Pakistan. Just eating onion like this with food It's a common thing. I love doing that. But if I do it with my wife, she wants to kill me I'm gonna grab one of these mutton chops. Yeah, which they have done They're pretty well done. So let's see why they're so well done. There must be a reason to it Wow, yeah, and if you don't like it you let us know so that we let them know Nice and charred. I love the meat that touches the bone. So good Great. Why would you say I don't like it? I love it Just checking because it's very well charred, you know, and you have to obviously have a taste for it Yeah I'll say I haven't had one bad bite in Pakistan. Not one bad bite Actually, this is really good with meat so charred also A little bit of fat too You know, obviously with this you need less fat. So why do people in Pakistan eat with their hands? Okay, so one people who are Muslim, which is the majority here. It's part of religion It was something that was followed by the the Prophet Muhammad Which is called Sunnah anything that the Prophet did is called Sunnah and then there's a science towards, you know Behind everything that is encouraged in Islam So the science is the enzymes on the tips of your fingertips actually help break down the food and help digest better My favorite part about the karahi is getting the naan and just scraping up all this delicious gravy Sabra dust Sabra dust. Hmm. Oh Man so much flavor and here we have the chicken tikka. Oh my god, it fell apart so easily And this is the one from there no, no, this is this is not from there that was said G But this is also pretty tender. Mm-hmm super tender and Nice and moist. I like how it's a little charred not too burnt It's a different taste just like you said Love it, but we'll make it better You should pack another one for you one day you can take it, you know back to your hotel So it's not overdone just right And I'm sure it's not dry inside no, it's not dry That I all day Why are you not eating and I'm like because I'm laughing. I'm currently enjoying looking at how much you're enjoying our food My day is done because you're having such a good time I love everything with the guy. He just takes a kick every time Yeah, I like that and you get this Let's grab this non right here a little bit spice. I actually like the spice, you know So in this area also more mild, right? Yes. So if you want spicy food you go down to the scene province, right? And how to So horror gotcha spice up here more more mild so much meat Dear meter comes back a stamp My friend this food is absolutely ridiculous dinner is not done yet. We still have some chicken seekh kebabs Right off the grill and this is kalonji none kalonji none. So we get some of this and it has mustard seeds, right? a little bit Just break off a piece I love seekh kebabs to my favorites Hello, there's not sorry my bad, so it's fennel seeds But kalonji and this is not myth But our ancestors tell us that kalonji is supposed to be like if you eat it regularly in food It's got a it's very hard In terms of its consistency, so you can't take too much of it But it is supposed meant to be the cure for almost everything except death. They say it has such strong effect on your immune system But if you remove the science part of it and just just take in the smell and the flavor, isn't it awesome Yeah, the aroma is amazing. So vegetables a few spices not too spicy Perfect Incredible it's like a marriage made in heaven right there I'm good We're going for sweets later. So and that was but that I now we're going at Jameel sweets. Let's go mask on Too many drive later we are here at Jameel sweets This is another like restaurant row restaurant Plaza and she was saying the Raja Raja is Like a great place for cookies the best childhood foods on the planet are there we'll see about that later on the strip Wow, what do we have everything? Look at how beautiful the matai is over here Okay This is made out of coconut I need to try it out. You need to try that. Okay, that's my favorite all kinds of nuts It's all very good, so we have like 25 different kinds of sweets, yeah, like small cakes, right? Yes. Okay. So what do you want to try? Let's get like five things and we have to try the gulab jamun No, I've had it way too much This sweet shop started in 1964 in the city of our Bindi, which is the sister city. It's like literally like 30 minutes away So many sweets, we're gonna try a bunch. They were try like five different things. Oh, I love the sweets here in Pakistan Customer here also he and I didn't have enough change because we go on card and I would have gotten to the ATM But he's saying no, he's a guest from America Thank you Hey, so what we're sitting we're sitting outside Jamil sweets right now and we've chosen some of their coincidentally all shades of off-white and beige matai just a coincidence and these are some of the specialties and of course, we're going to have garam gulab jamun So, how do we start how do we start okay, we can start with the garam gulab jamun. Okay. Yeah, let's do it Oh, wow, it's so soft. I'm so sweet Okay, here we go It's actually gum Big huge, I mean I'll eat the whole thing but I gotta chop it up Oh, it's super sweet Nice and sweet, I love the inside very soft. Oh, yeah, so crumbly And you go in here you just drink Sugar syrup Really good like that. Mm-hmm It's incredible. I've never had this and in the winter months is like the best, right? It's like the best thing that you can have in winter months You just sit in your car honk. Somebody will come take your order and all you want to have is garam gulab jamun Wow, this is like the most delicious thing ever. Okay, so David, you know what gulab is? Tell me. Gulab is rose Okay in the literal translation gulab means rose. Jamun is a fruit That you get in particular parts of Pakistan only I don't know how this sweet creation was actually made or what the origin is, but it's really really good She's a book. You're like, you know so much. It's too sweet. It's too good Don't forget the sugar syrup For good measure, right So, what are we trying? We have a laddu We have barfi. We have a sweet which is made out of cashew nuts Okay, and one which is made out of coconut. What would you like to try first? I'm going with coconut You? I think I'm gonna try the one with the cashew nut because it's so beautiful It's silver foil and it's edible silver foil. It's edible, huh? Ready? Cheers! Oh, so good Where's the flavors? It's overwhelming how much flavor there is in here My favorite. Really? Mm-hmm Awesome. Oh, wow. Very crumbly, a little dense. Obviously, you shouldn't eat the whole thing that fast I just love it You're getting fat here That's not happening. I'm gonna try it. It's the same as yours, right? It's so good and it's well-balanced. It's not too sweet Best thing is it's silver foil is edible. Yeah, so you're eating silver Yeah, so lots of sugar, very dense, you know, I love these sweets though very easy, right? So they're bite-sized. Mm-hmm That's the best part that they're bite-sized I guess, why not? We have two more sweets, but I can't anymore. I'm popping. That's too decadent for me Absolutely full. So it was Appara and then it was the Melody food market And then we came to Efton Marcus to Bhat Kadhai and we came to Jameel Sweets to top it off with sweet And I think we're full up to here at least for today. Too much food. That was epic. But good food. Yes. Thank you Menaki Thank you so much for bringing me to Pakistan Guys Islamabad just started first night. I hope you enjoyed the video Please give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below. Subscribe to my channel for more awesome travel content I'm sorry for the noise. Somebody's doing some construction here All right. We'll see you tomorrow