Español
  Français

Food, eating habits and cusine of Pakistan

You are here: Countries / Pakistan

They say that part of understanding how a country works is to know what its people eat; this is so since the staples and their supply would dictate the economic productivity of its people and a hungry person is an unproductive person. Pakistani cuisine is marked by its richness and flavour given its blend of Afghan, Indian, Iranian, Central Asian, and Middle Eastern influences. This blending of flavours is dependent upon the region from which the food comes from; for example, the food in Eastern Pakistan is characterized by being very hot and/or spicy as is common to the South Asian flavour.

The dominant type of food favoured by Pakistanis is meat with the exception of pork, since it would be an obvious fact given that Pakistan is a Muslim dominated country. The common meats that the Pakistanis consume are goat, beef, lamb and chicken; seafood is also enjoyed but only to some areas of the country. The inexorable advancement of globalization has however pervaded the Pakistani kitchen, most especially in urban areas. International cuisine and fast food has increased in popularity in major city centres and has led to the mixing of local recipes with foreign ones, this is called “fusion food.” Pakistanis generally eat three times a day wherein they have tea after dinner with baked/fried goods from the bakery or homemade. The increase in pervasiveness of the Western culture has led to many Pakistani trying new (foreign) and modern foods which has dramatically changed the Pakistani diet.