Indians Savor Pakistani Meat Dishes
By Riaz Haq
CA
"When Delhi's Press Club organized an evening of Pakistani food and music, flying in chefs from Islamabad, the racks of richly-spiced meat on the grill quickly ran out as hundreds of Indian journalists brought their families, equipped with 'tiffin' boxes to take away extra supplies." - BBC Report, June 26 2014
The BBC story highlights the fact that vegetarian India demonstrates its deep love for the exquisite taste of Pakistan's meat dishes whenever an opportunity presents itself. To further illustrate the phenomenon, let me share with my readers how two famous Indians see meat-loving Pakistan:
Sachin Tendulkar:
The senior cricketer...said he gorged on Pakistani food and had piled on a few kilos on his debut tour there. "The first tour of Pakistan was a memorable one. I used to have a heavy breakfast which was keema paratha and then have a glass of lassi and then think of dinner. After practice sessions there was no lunch because it was heavy but also at the same time delicious. I wouldn't think of having lunch or snack in the afternoon. I was only 16 and I was growing," Tendulkar recalled. "It was a phenomenal experience, because when I got back to Mumbai and got on the weighing scale I couldn't believe myself. But whenever we have been to Pakistan, the food has been delicious. It is tasty and I have to be careful for putting on weight," he said. ( Press Trust of India November 2, 2012 )
Hindol Sengupta:
Yes, that's right. The meat. There always, always seems to be meat in every meal, everywhere in Pakistan. Everywhere you go, everyone you know is eating meat. From India, with its profusion of vegetarian food, it seems like a glimpse of the other world. The bazaars of Lahore are full of meat of every type and form and shape and size and in Karachi, I have eaten some of the tastiest rolls ever. For a Bengali committed to his non-vegetarianism, this is paradise regained. Also, the quality of meat always seems better, fresher, fatter, more succulent, more seductive, and somehow more tantalizingly carnal in Pakistan. I have a curious relationship with meat in Pakistan. It always inevitably makes me ill but I cannot seem to stop eating it. From the halim to the paya to the nihari, it is always irresistible and sends shock shivers to the body unaccustomed to such rich food. How the Pakistanis eat such food day after day is an eternal mystery but truly you have not eaten well until you have eaten in Lahore! (The Hindu August 7, 2010 )
Silicon Valley Indians:
I personally see vivid proof of how much Indians love Pakistani food every time I go to Pakistan restaurants serving chicken tikka, seekh kabab, biryani and nihari in Silicon Valley, California. Among the Pakistani restaurants most frequented by Indians are Shalimar, Pakwan and Shan. These restaurants are also very popular among white Americans and East Asians besides other ethnic groups including Afghans, Middle Easterners and South Asians.
Carnivorous Pakistanis:
A recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Nature magazine reported that Pakistanis are among the most carnivorous people in the world.
The scientists conducting the study used "trophic levels" to place people in the food chain. The trophic system puts algae which makes its own food at level 1. Rabbits that eat plants are level 2 and foxes that eat herbivores are 3. Cod, which eats other fish, is level four, and top predators, such as polar bears and orcas, are up at 5.5 - the highest on the scale.
After studying the eating habits of 176 countries, the authors found that the average human being is at 2.21 trophic level. It put Pakistanis at 2.4, the same trophic level as Europeans and Americans. China and India are at 2.1 and 2.2 respectively.
The countries with the highest trophic levels (most carnivorous people) include Mongolia, Sweden and Finland, which have levels of 2.5, and the whole of Western Europe, USA, Australia, Argentina, Sudan, Mauritania, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, which all have a level of 2.4.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) also recently published a report on the subject of meat consumption. It found that with rising incomes meat consumption in developing countries was increasing . USDA projects an average 2.4 percent annual increase in developing countries compared to 0.9 percent in developed countries. Per capita poultry meat consumption in developing countries is projected to rise 2.8 percent per year during 2013-22, much faster than that of pork (2.2 percent) and beef (1.9 percent).
Summary:
Although meat consumption in Pakistan is rising, it still remains very low by world standards. At just 18 kg per person, it's less than half of the world average of 42 kg per capita meat consumption reported by the FAO.
While Pakistanis are the most carnivorous people among South Asians, their love of meat is spreading to India with its rising middle class incomes. Being mostly vegetarian, neighboring Indians consume only 3.2 kg of meat per capita , less than one-fifth of Pakistan's 18 kg. Daal (legumes or pulses) are popular in South Asia as a protein source. Indians consume 11.68 kg of daal per capita , about twice as much as Pakistan's 6.57 kg.
With the rising incomes of their billion-plus populations India and China are expected to be the main drivers of the worldwide demand for meat and poultry in the future.
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