Namaste As-salamu alaykum friends. We're here at a very special restaurant today.
This restaurant came from Amritsar in India to Lahore here in Punjab, Pakistan during partition in 1948.
This is Sidiq Halwa Puri. So we're gonna go and try some traditional Punjabi food here in Pakistan.
Let's see how this halwa puri breakfast is.
If you don't know what halwa puri is. Imma explain it all to you. Do not worry.
Now let me just take you around the food so...This is the halwa which we're gonna try in a second.
Just cooking in that ton of sweet ghee.
And then this is 'meetha pura' around here. Looks kind of like Malpua.
We call it Malpua in India anyway.
And then in here we have the chole covered in oil.
Now over here they're making Kachori. They're making Meat Kachori. (You can have mutton or chicken).
So here they're cooking up the next batch of Chole. Then we have potato curry as well.
And over here this is the bread station.
This guy is making different types of Roghni Naan and it goes into the tandoor here.
He's making the Puri right now. The deep fried bread that we're gonna eat with the Halwa.
And into the fryer.
And that's it.
That's how kinda quick the Puris are fried. Alright doston the food has come.
Now what we have here...This is the Mithi Puri (kind of like Malpua in India)
And just see how kind of yellow and golden and crispy this is.
Then next thing...This is the Halwa and we're gonna eat that with Puri.
A huge deep fried bread and this is probably the most unhealthy bread you can ever eat because you saw how it's cooked right?
Just a thin piece of bread thrown into the oil and it's super super oily.
Do not eat this more than once a week. Honestly.
And then we have a couple of plates of Chole as well. Just because I love chole and I wanna see how it compares to Amritsar. You know what I mean?
First I wanna try this. I wanna see how kind of close to India it is.
Check out inside. Wow.
This is damn damn good. I'm just trying to get the flavor.
There might be a tiny tiny bit of Kesar. Maybe.
But...It's like Malpua except in the middle it's like expanded right? It's really really tasty.
I'm gonna eat the whole thing. I'm gonna eat all of this cuz so good so far.
Now we're gonna get into the Halwa and the Puri.
I should explain to you what Halwa is, right? If you're a foreigner you have probably no idea what this gluttonous thing is.
You know it looks really wet and this is Semolina with sometimes there's a bit of Badam in there (or Almonds).
It's kind of very very light.
And it's a little bit sweet but it's not like super sweet like most Indian sweets are.
Yeah it's just right because eating a savory bread with something sweet does not really make sense for us right?
We're used to eating, like, chole with bread.
So Halwa and Puri (Oh my god it's just so crispy it's just breaking).
Let's try this. This is how you eat Halwa Puri: Scoop some halwa up in your puri and you just see the amount of oil on there or ghee?
So yum.
Man it's so good. It is, like, I never used to like this. Took me a long time to kind of enjoy this because I'm not used to having sweet with savory like this.
But now I love it. I love it.
And...let's talk about how it compares to India. But first, I just wanna try the chole.
So chole you just eat exactly the same. Scoop some chole up.
Oh wow.
Yum.
Chole in Pakistan is amazing. They dump in a ton of black pepper which I love.
Now so if we're gonna compare it to India. Like the Halwa Puri is exactly the same.
There's no difference. This came from Amritsar to Pakistan and they have kept the recipe the same.
And they've kept this business the same for like 4 generations of Pakistanis, so.
That's why I am here.
This tastes exactly like India so if you wanna come and try like a traditional Punjabi breakfast, this is the place to do it. Honestly.
I wanted to come here because like the food reminds us of the similarities between the countries right?
There's a lot more similarities than just the food. Like the hospitality, the language, clothing.
There are so many similarities that connect India to Pakistan and this Halwa Puri is definitely one of them.