Pakistan Street Food

Smoke from charcoal grills and the smell of frying dough define Pakistan's night bazaars from Karachi to Peshawar.

5 street food dishes from Pakistan — what each one is, why it's made that way, and what to expect when you order it.

Signature street foods of Pakistan

Ramadan Icon · Rose Sharbat Rooh Afza A drink invented in 1906 as a heatstroke remedy is now handed out free by the cupful outside mosques every Ramadan evening. Rooh Afza is a ruby-red syrup of rose, kewra (screw pine), fruit and herb extracts, diluted with cold milk or water and poured over ice. It's a fixture of iftar tables and street stalls… Grilled · Skewered Minced Meat Seekh Kebab The name comes from the skewer itself — "seekh" simply means skewer, and the meat is molded straight onto the metal before it ever touches heat. Spiced minced beef, mutton, or chicken is hand-pressed onto long metal skewers and grilled over charcoal until charred outside and juicy within. Karachi's outdoor markets and BBQ streets… Fried · Savory Pastry Samosa During Ramadan, samosa sales in Pakistan spike so dramatically that some fryers barely turn off their oil from iftar to suhoor. A pastry shell is filled with spiced potatoes, peas, or minced meat, folded, and deep-fried until golden and crackling-crisp. Street vendors fry them in huge batches and sell them by the… Street Food · Karachi Classic Bun Kebab Karachi's favorite handheld meal was born outside a movie theater in the 1950s — decades before any Western burger chain reached Pakistan. A spiced lentil-and-meat patty is fried on a flat griddle alongside a cracked egg, then stacked into a soft bun with tamarind-mint chutney, onions and tomato. Wheeled carts sell it on… Sweet Stand · Layered Cold Dessert Falooda Falooda's noodles started life as a Persian dish called faloodeh, made with frozen vermicelli long before ice cream existed. Falooda is a tall glass dessert built in layers: sweet vermicelli noodles and basil or sabja seeds sit at the bottom, topped with rose syrup, milk, chunks of jelly, and a scoop of kulfi or…

More street food in Asia

• Mongolia
• Thailand
• Vietnam
• India
• Japan
• Indonesia
• South Korea
• China
• Philippines
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• Cambodia
• Laos
• Myanmar
• Sri Lanka
• Bangladesh
• Nepal
• Bhutan
• Saudi Arabia
• United Arab Emirates
• Lebanon
• Israel
• Jordan
• Iran
• Kazakhstan
• Uzbekistan
• Maldives
• Brunei