Thought for food

Food. Glorious, mouth-watering, irresistible food. It’s passed around on the day we are born, gifted upon our first salaries and served by the truckload on our wedding day. It’s even there after we die, served at our barsis in the form of steaming hot biryani or a delightfully oily qorma. It’s there to kickstart our morning routine, get us through the day and even keep us company after midnight. It’s a source of pride that has the power to represent different people and places while unifying the entire country at the same time. It is the metaphorical seekh that runs through our meaty, festive and flavourful culture, straight to the hearts and bellies of millions of passionate, food-loving Pakistanis.

Now, with food options becoming more cluttered day-by-day, local eateries are developing innovative ways to cook food and stand out, attracting customers and satisfying the nation’s diverse appetites in the process – many of which, mind you, do so without the help of professional ad agencies.

Restaurants are throwing caution to the wind and experimenting with bold and contrasting ingredients to create post-modern delights, many of which have become staples in restaurants and cafés across Pakistan.

With more Pakistani women joining the workforce and disposing of less time to cook for their families, home-cooked meals are becoming less of a daily tradition and more of a weekend luxury for many households. Fast food and fine-dining outlets have been quick to fill this gap, offering a variety of options with maximum convenience. Despite being a developing nation, Pakistanis spend an estimated 40% of their household income on food (that’s a lot of kabab rolls) and the food business has been quick to respond to this growing demand, becoming the second fastest growth sector in Pakistan.

Even if you were not aware of the statistics, the sheer number of eateries cropping up around every corner is proof alone that food as a business is booming. Today, customers have more to choose from than they could have ever imagined; from international and local franchises, health and junk food, to home-baked and home-grown treats. If you can dream it, you can almost certainly eat it.

As great as all this competition is for customers, it means that eateries need to work that much harder to stand out. The first step is to introduce novelty into their products and this has ushered in a slew of culturally-challenging and funkily-fused creations such as Nutella parathas, naan-wiches, strawberry samosas, and even chocolate-covered French fries.

Restaurants are throwing caution to the wind and experimenting with bold and contrasting ingredients to create post-modern delights, many of which have become staples in restaurants and cafés across Pakistan. The eateries that could not get away with mixing the un-mixable, injected ingenuity in their conventional menu in the form of multi-stacked burgers and obscenely large pizza slices. Thanks to digital, such ideas have spread like wildfire throughout online food communities, giving audiences even more reason to ditch their homemade daal chawal for a taste of something new and exotic.

Local eateries have realised that they cannot rely on taste alone to attract and retain customers. Don’t get me wrong. Taste is paramount, so if your Brazilian-imported steak doesn’t taste like it’s been flown halfway around the world, you may as well name it Pedro and send it back home. But, in addition to the food itself, Pakistani foodies also crave a superior dining experience, which can include everything from the ambience to value-added services. In my opinion, this is where restaurants have become particularly creative. Such ingenuity has given rise to a string of gimmicks, such as dancing waiters, customised meals and menus, and eateries designed to accommodate parents with overly-active kids. The surge of chai walas, for example, has shown how repackaging the classic dhaaba-style concept, with a contemporary menu can persuade even the most posh of diners to trade in their five-star standards for a bit of down-and-dirty road-style cuisine.

According to experts, Pakistan’s food industry is still very much in its infancy and as it continues to expand and evolve, eateries are only going to think of more ways to tantalise our taste buds.

Some eateries have even relied on humour and popular culture to grab attention. Some of my favourites include Sattar Buksh (a comical local play on ‘Starbucks’), Central Perk (a TV-show themed café in Peshawar based on the Friends series) and Facebhook (yes, you read that correctly), a local fast food outlet in Karachi that serve their meals on trays designed to look like Facebook posts. I also remember Gun Smoke in its heyday, when it was known for its apparently badly-mannered waiters who would politely salam me at the door and then throw the bill in my face at the end of a meal (in hindsight, a little cultural consideration could have gone a long way for them). Some recent notable mentions also include Cloud Naan, Chaiflix (based on Netflix) and Chaye Thaana – a Lahori jail-themed restaurant, complete with prison cells, barbed wire and waiters dressed as inmates. Regardless of what you may think about these outlets, their tactics or their food, you have to admit that the amount of creativity brewing in the kitchens and back offices of the local food industry is commendable – that too, in the absence of professional agency support. It is this sort of ingenious creativity that keeps the food industry in a constant state of hype, getting customers to foam at the mouth for whatever new food-related ventures may come their way.

In case you are thinking that the food industry’s creativity has reached its peak, think again. According to experts, Pakistan’s food industry is still very much in its infancy and as it continues to expand and evolve, eateries are only going to think of more ways to tantalise our taste buds and make us line up in droves to sink our teeth into the next big thing. From audiences’ points of view, there is no doubt that Pakistanis will welcome these new trends with open arms (and mouths), ready to try out any new taste or trend, no matter how niche, foreign or bizarre. With digital marketing and online food communities swiftly on the rise, the food scenario is only going to become more accessible and inviting, welcoming new types of foodies, cuisines and dining experiences to the fold. That means more eateries, more food choices, and more ingenious and inspiring marketing tactics to whet our insatiable appetites. Now if you will excuse me, I am late for my post-lunch, pre-dinner binge-fest.

Taimur Tajik is Executive Creative Director, Manhattan International.