ive noticed, EVERY family here in the uk, makes a FEAST whenever you go to their homes for dinner, therel be 4 different salans, rice, naan, side dishes, etc etc…and of course fizzy drinks…
when i went to pak, EVERY family there made hardly anything, almost as if the whole idea of making more than 1 or 2 dishes didnt make any sense…
i remember i wanted to make 2 salans at least, for iftari, in pak. my MIL was like koi nahi kayga itney boot cheezy,i understand this, but you dont make just 1 salaan and the exact amount of rotis for gods sake…
is this a culture thing, or are we jsut too greedy here. or expect more. or want to show off more.
sounds silly, but when we went to pak, the day we arrived all that was made was 1 salan and rice…is this bad of me to suggest maybe they shoudve done more..esp since they have guests coming after 6 yrs from abroad…
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
IMO it should be the opposite. :)
In our families at least in Pak we too always have a grand feast at least 3 saalans and 2/3 salads raita naan and the rest of the stuff. don't know about rest of the people.
Other than I think if someone in UK is unable to make more than 2 saalans and a lot of dishes, it makes sense, as all women there are managing the entire dinner business alone whereas here in Pak, we also have a myriad of servants/maids and people to help you. It's quite easier to prepare a good dinner here with so many helping hands! :)
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
Ummm... its the same in our family in Pakistan or here in USA. If its a daawat, we make sure there are at least 2 saalans, one veggie dish, chicken or aalloo kababs and biryani/pulaao naan/raita, etc. plus drinks.... same in Pakistan.
But when its regular food at home, we make one saalan and eat with rice or naan...... But yeah, in daawats or when we have guests over we do have more than 2 dishes for sure.
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
Usually we make:
3 salaans, rice, naan/roti, salad, dahi pallay, chicken tikka, kabobs and pasta…given all the options people will still opt for seconds for the one dish we think we might not have made enough of
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
personally i don't like being attacked with too many choice, and wish people would keep their dawats more simple. The last dawat we had 2 salans, pulau, kabob, raita, and salad plus dessert and i thought that was quite a lot. there's this lady in our neighborhood who makes like 5 diff salans, chinese stir fry, kabob, roast chicken, fries, egg rolls....it's really quite confusing!
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
I think it's upto what everyone likes and are comfortable making. I like simple dawats and find it wrong when people just spoon 2-3 salans and kababs on top of each other in a plate and eat it like a khichdi...
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
Im sorry but unless the family is strict vegetarian or have unfortunate circumstances, just one salan for guests that u know are coming is just really cheap.
Most of the davats I've been to and the ones my parents hosted, had at least 1 rice dish, 1 meat and 1 veg dish and some appetizers.
In my own family we always had dawats of several items like salan , rices , kebabs , raita , salad and offcourse nans plus 2 deserts.
Now when I got married I was shocked to see that they would just do 1 dish davat. Salan and roti thats it or rices and that too of their daughter and their husbands . No raita , no salad , no kebab not even soda drink. The quantity of salan or rice used to be surprisingly small.
I think the dawat should have atleast 1 salan item , 1 rice item , salad (raw & mayo wala) , raita , kebab and juice / soda drink.
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
For aftari, one salan sounds right. We have the tradition of stuffing ourselves with the starters. Otherwise my mom happens to be a great host. She would make a lot of salans etc.
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
btw this heavily depends on WHO is invited. For example for friends sometimes its even like ... o yaar aatey howey BUN aur SALAAAAAD laitey aana, aaaj burgers bana rahey hain hum but on the other hand if someone more formal is coming (like my hum-zulf TO BE), then there is biryanis, kababas, one veg, etc are must.
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
i think there r more than 1 aspects reagarding this topic....also true dat some family in pak depend on maids cooks ect(only rich families) so its easy to them to make so many dishes n even they dont hv to cook themselves bcuz their cooks do all....second point is this wen some families in pak serve very few dishes then mayb its their financial matter...here we cannt think n realize abut it bcuz here almost every1 can afford n serve better(3 or 4 or more dishes) but in pak now adys a normal veggie is also so much xpensive...circumstances there r nt so easy n many problms so for a average family lives there DAWAT is same like 1 salan n rice or rotis...(although some ppl there do more than their affordibility just for social status to show others)...in europe not any financial problem if some 1 serves 1 or 2 dishes than mayb its hard to cook for a single lady too many dishes dats y she cannt serve...
as i am the only person to cook here so i do most of the work 1 or 2 days before but 1 proper rice dish like biryani is always a big hit at my parties...i make everything for it the same day ..i make using beef keema as its easy to wash and cooks in less time...2 salans (1 chicken and 1 meat)...1 salad like green garden salad or some healthy salad for me to start ...roast like fried wings or chicken tandoori.. i use the frozen ones all wings or all legs or all thighs or combo...raita to go with biryani...tandoori rotis...1 pasta dish for the kids...
and 1 home-made dessert...i make sure everything should be home-made..
in pak my MIL makes 5 to 6 salans for any daawut...i was surprised to see this ...and not the easy ones..she makes Karahi koftay...masala bharay tinday...fry daal...mix veg...alu keema...chicken korma..chicken pulao or matar pulao...
roast a must...and kachay keemay k kebab...
they seem hard to me:S...me and my sis-in-law do just some sort of oper k kaam..wo kuch krnay nai daiteen.....salad is made by my father in law or me...
meetha is some kheer/firni or gur walay chawal or gajrella...
i admire her for this..mashallah this mother of 5 boys is very active..
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
This wont sound like a lot of food...but I keep it simple...Biryani or some rice dish...one salan...something roasted like chicken tikka/kabob...a dessert...and the sides like naan, salad and raita...
Thats how everyone does it in our circle of friends...so they are all pretty kool with it...
My mom on the other hand, prepares a feast when she has a davat....2 salans, biryani/pulao, chicken tikka/wings, chapli kabab, two veggie dishes, dahi bhallay, nan, salad, atleast 2 deserts.....and she invites like 3-4 families at a time....I dont know how she does it!
If I'm the host - The amount I cook depends on how many people are coming, what their preferences are, the amount of time I have (sometimes, people can pop in without warning), and my budget.
If I'm the guest - I don't care what is served or how much there is. I try to eat a little of everything and finish a decent portion of it so the host will be happy. This is topped off by a "that was delicious" and "thanks for the lovely breakfast/lunch/dinner."
i think there r more than 1 aspects reagarding this topic....also true dat some family in pak depend on maids cooks ect(only rich families) so its easy to them to make so many dishes n even they dont hv to cook themselves bcuz their cooks do all....second point is this wen some families in pak serve very few dishes then mayb its their financial matter...here we cannt think n realize abut it bcuz here almost every1 can afford n serve better(3 or 4 or more dishes) but in pak now adys a normal veggie is also so much xpensive...circumstances there r nt so easy n many problms so for a average family lives there DAWAT is same like 1 salan n rice or rotis...(although some ppl there do more than their affordibility just for social status to show others)...in europe not any financial problem if some 1 serves 1 or 2 dishes than mayb its hard to cook for a single lady too many dishes dats y she cannt serve...
I agree with what horizon said about inflation.
Everything is just sooo expensive over here. Over 300 rs for a kg of mutton. It's not easy for many. Vegetables too are very very expensive.
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
Im sure its gotten really expensive over there...thats what i meant about knowing a person's circumstances ahead of time....
im not sure how bad it was back then, but last I went was in 2007 and every house we went to had decent meals. Even if there was no meat, it was still a good meal and no these were not rich people by any means but rather lower/middle class.
I have plenty of family in pakistan, including my own parents, and I have gone back often since I was a child and i can say there has NEVER been a maid who does the cooking and food prep in any of these households. food was always the responsibility of the woman of th house.
I'm all for maids and help but not when it comes to food.
Re: how much do you make when you invite people over for dinner
^ I agree !
We have maid in our house. But the only things she can help with during dawat is washing dishes , decorating and serving the food in platters. My mom does all the cooking. It's true that woman of the house does the cooking but I know some families (very rich) who have their own cooks to do the cooking for dawats and for everyday meals.
Don’t know. Mama makes everything 
The quantity of salan or rice used to be surprisingly small.