Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
Sorry to hijack this thread but could you list some “authentic” pakistani restaurant in Canada ? I live in GTA and so far, I haven’t found any restaurant which is close to what a pakistani food would taste like. Over the years, they have started to make food similar to indians ..
The only restaurant that i love is Cafe De Khan in Mississauga .. Gerrard street is full of crap ..
Looking forward to your recommendations.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
Who is labeling? Just like you claimed Indian food to be smelly and lacking in richness, queer, myself or any other Indian has the right to refute that sentiment because honestly it is nonsensical.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
does not compute.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
omg…went to an “Indian Buffet” last weekend and this was the exact complaint that we all had about the food there.
what really baffles my mind is that most of the dishes that are popular as “Pakistani” really have their origins in regions that were and are still, India. (e.g. Qorma, Nihari, Shaami Kababs, Biryani, etc.)
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
Cafe de Khan is amazing! Love it.
While I can’t say that Bar B Q Tonight is authentic Pakistani, if you enjoy the food at Cafe de Khan then you will enjoy Bar B Q Tonight as well. They are located just west of Hwy 10 on the north side of Dundas.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
When you compare Pakistani food with Indian, you can pretty much only compare it with North Indian cuisine. Even within Pakistani cuisine, there are significant differences between traditional tribal Pakhtoon, Baloch cuisine and culinary culture and what you see in rest of Pakistan. I know Indian food is all very diverse but from whatever I have tried, I feel they pretty much all have the same spice mix for all dishes, hence the similar taste and really strong aroma. The strong flavours of mustard seeds, fenugreek, cumin and curry/bay leaves is hard to miss. Plus the sharp, pungent and distinctive smell of hing or asafetida is definitely an acquired taste.
Even as a Pakistani, I come from a family where we literally only use salt, chilli and turmeric for most of our dishes and my mother is renowned for her cooking. Sometimes you just need to let the main ingredients give out their natural flavours without killing them by adding whole lot of spices.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
My family usually orders from Biryani King (at Rexdale, not brampton) for catering or takeout. The owner is from Lahore and we like pretty much everything we have tried on the menu.
My best friend loves karachi kitchen but I prefer lahori food over karachi food.
Lahore tikka house used to be good back in the day. I don’t know what happened.
Others you can try: zauq, tandoori time (at albion) and cafe de khan. There is one small takeout shop in a mall in Thorncliffe. I can’t remember what it’s called or if they even have a name. I really like their food as well. It tastes similar to my mom’s cooking.
Check out zabihah.com for more.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
in my experience the dishes i love and find only on pakistani menus are dishes that cook meat and vegetables together as one dish. like chukandar gosht, qeema karela, bhindi gosht, chana daal gosht. indians, even down in the south or way east tend to cook meat separate from vegetables.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
Indians are HOT [because India is South of Pakistan] while Pakistanis are COLD [because Pakistan is North of India] 
use of Heeng [Asafoetida] is the difference. 
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
Sehrysh, do not comment or you will get infraction points
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
I quite agree with you that there are distinct differences between the cuisine of the various regions of Pakistan. However, I think that even regional Pakistan cuisine has a distinctly Pakistani influence. For example, you mentioned Pashtun and Baloch cuisine. I’ve noticed that Pakistani Pashtun cuisine is different from ours and has a distinctly Pakistani note in that it sometimes uses garam masala, which isn’t used in our cuisine. Use of turmeric is also much more common than in our cooking.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
Well most Indian restaurants are run by people from Bangladesh - use of excessive amount of turmeric and same kind of spices in each and every thing.
From India - the cuisine of Delhi, Awad and Rohail Khund are missing from the restaurant scenario - as people from these areas are not entrepreneurial in nature (at least in the food sector) and I see hardly any restaurants from Hyderabad (there are many in UAE) but not here.
Just for example - Gujrati vegetarian restaurants here on the Tooting High Street have succumbed to Pakistani food shops over the last 10 years! (Even my Gujrati friend goes with his son to Pakistani restaurants for having some kebabs etc as they cant have it at home due to the mom(not even Egg)!
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
pakistani food: average dish
chilli, salt, turmeric
Indian food: average dish
bay leaves, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, hing, nimbo(juice), fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, kasuri methi, salt, higher quantity of red chili, how can you forget the curry leaves.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
would love to see some of these chili and turmeric only two-spice pakistani recipes people are talking about. no coriander? no cumin? wow, i’m surprised. in india that would just make the simplest karhai or khichdi or pulao.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
Indian? Pakistani? forget that…have u guys tried Bengali food?
OK I really haven’t except for biryani and I love their biryani.. but I love all kinds of biryani. 
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
Do it! The infraction points will be worth it!
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
That’s probably true, being almost vegetarian (meaning I only eat meat when I have no other choice) I haven’t tried many Afghan and Pastun dishes as they’re predominately non vegetarian. But the urban and what we may also refer to as mainstream Pashtun cuisine in Pakistan is slightly different from what you would normally get from nomadic tribal areas of FATA and Afghanistan. The latter still sticks to minimum ingredients based dishes with simple and unrefined cooking methods, while the former incorporates different local flavours, ingredients and culinary skills into their cooking.
I’d be fascinating to note the evolution of Afghan cuisine in Pakistan, since we have a large group of Afghan settlers living there. It’d be interesting to see the extent of influence of local culinary traditions on Afghan food.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
We do put fresh coriander (and fresh green chillies) which is a must in Pakistani food. Just simply adding two spices is the best way to enhance and enjoy the natural flavours of your fresh meat and vegetables. You do the normal golden frying of onions, ginger and garlic in few table spoons of oil, add tomatoes followed by salt, chilli and turmeric as per taste, cook it for few minutes. Add your vegetables, stir them in, put the lid and let the vegetables cook in their own steam. Viola. Super simple, easy and supremely tasty clean dish is ready.
If you ask my grandmother, she’ll say this how everybody cooked their food in Jhalandhar and Amritsar back in the day.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
I thought the main difference was the haldi. Indians use tht a lot.
Re: Difference between Pakistani and Indian cooking?
may be not for u