Rehree wala food

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1

following on from another topic, i was often warned to steer clear from food from rehrees in Pakistan but i figured it couldn’t be much worse than the food my Maasi cooked so i generally ignored this advice.

Is there a good reason to avoid rehree food - i ask those with more knowledge on the subject than me. take into consideration that hygiene standards are pretty crap in most Pak restaurants as well, what’s the big deal? think about it - tramps in New york live off food dumped in trash cans and yet none of them die from food poisoning. isn’t there a lesson here for those with open minds?

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Basically, the chances of getting illnesses from food are related to your usual eating habits. The body develops its own immune system over a period of time.

If your maasi cooked unhygenic food, and your body had developed anti-bodies to fight these bacteria than rehree food probably won't do you any harm either. Same is true for tramps of New York or Lahore.

As a contrast, if, e.g. an American born-and-bred boy comes to Pakistan, he may have severe illness just by drinking tap water in Karachi. His body just doesn't have the anti-bodies to protect him.

Most middle-class and upper middle class families in Pakistan have reasonably decent hygenic conditions maintained in the home kitchens. So kids are protected from these bacteria and virii which are often part of stale and uncovered food or carried around by flies, dust and other insects. Also the raw materials used by rehree walas are also highly dubious and certainly not bought from top-of-the-line grocery stores.

These families warn their kids to stay away from rehree food to avoid getting ill. On the flip-side, if you ignore this advice, and eat a lot of rehree food, then initially you may get sick, but over a period of time, you may develop an immunity in the body.

Most school kids, develop a sort of immunity by eating kulfis, imli, gola gandas, cholay, shakar-qandi and chalee (bhuttas, for some) from the rehris in front of their schools. The chalee itself is quite paak saaf, but the masala applied to it has several questionable raw materials. Same with shakar-qandi.

Be warned, though, that constantly testing your body's immune system can cause other severe medical problems. A friend of mine, who practically lived off rehree food and Lakshmi chowk kay cholay, had kidney trouble 7 years ago. Then both his kidneys failed. He went on dialysis. Got a donated kidney, but his body rejected. Six months ago his brother donated another kidney, and now he is better. He is a gold-medalist in MBA, but during this ordeal he lost his study career, lost three jobs, one after the other, and is now just a skeleton. His last three operations were made possible by donations from all his friends and former employers.

[This message has been edited by Pristine (edited April 03, 2002).]

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Pristine yaar,

my Maasi cooked amazingly healthy food - unfortunately it tasted like it as well. she was brought up in a pind before moving to the shehr and those people believe in using only freshest most pure ingredients. and yes it was mostly my family in Pakistan that warned me to stay away from rehree foods apart from one particular chacha who delighted in eating on the cheap.

can you elaborate on which raw materials were questionable? I agre that if anybody lives off junk food they will have problems in later life. IMo though, it's a good idea as a vistor to blitzkrieg your stomach in the first week to acclimatise yourself as early as possible, therefore rehree food has distinct advantages for a foreigner. what do you think?

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Rehree ala food is good for health.

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**Pristine yaar,

my Maasi cooked amazingly healthy food - unfortunately it tasted like it as well. she was brought up in a pind before moving to the shehr and those people believe in using only freshest most pure ingredients.**

Oh well.. I am sorry, I had no clue about your maasi other than your first post. :)

*can you elaborate on which raw materials were questionable? *

Anything and everything. From milk (in kulfi) to assorted masalas. Just as an example, when you go to the grocery store to buy mirch masalay, u try to buy the freshest and cleanest. Those rehree walas, when they are making those purchases, are looking for cheapest. Their main aim is to make their product as tasty as possible so that the customers come back again and again. The colors used in gola-ganda are mostly hazardous material. The chutney used in imli ki rehree is again very dangerous.

IMo though, it's a good idea as a vistor to blitzkrieg your stomach in the first week to acclimatise yourself as early as possible, therefore rehree food has distinct advantages for a foreigner. what do you think?

Well, a person who is visiting Pakistan from US/UK or anyother place, is hoping to meet his friends and family and spend enjoyable time with them. If the visit is a short one (a few weeks) then to have your time wasted by food poisoning or upset tummy or worse, is just a bad nuisance. For short-visits it makes sense to avoid questionable food and try to remain healthy and enjoy the visit as much as possible. I would advise them to stay away from dubious food, and err on the side of safety.

If, however, you are going there permanently and gotta end up having all those foods anyway, then, yes, jump right in and hope for the best.

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Pristine, it depends on the length of time you are going to be staying there. if a couple of weeks max then your advice might be sound. when i went i was able to go for a for a few months (impossible now) and sooner or later you end up with dehli belly anyway.

i didn't eat much from the rehree walas but I used to eat regularly at the local kebab house which was a dump. I had no ill effects whatsoever, in fact i felt a lot better having done so. my health improved dramtically from having to eat my maasi's chitharr-like rotis.

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During a discussion at the breakfast table, I told mum that I plan on eating from rehRee's no matter what it does to me when and if I go to pakistan, because I feel that's the real deal. My sister wrinkled her nose at me and mum declared I wasn't going to get taken if we go. :-/

Someone should invent a vaccine against tap water and rehree foods in pakistan, I could really use to build some immunity before I visit my homeland.

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Extreme yaara,

Seems like you are missing the goodies of back home; hence these posts. Most of the time, I don't think there are any ill effects from eating at places where sanitation may not be implemented at a reasonable level. Places such as tikka shops or naan/kebab corners you mentioned. I always get sick for the first couple of weeks upon arrival, and once the immune system adopts to the change, then usually I am fine.

If it's bhuttas or something which is cooked in front of my eyes, then i'd take a chance. Otherwise, there's no way of knowing how fresh the stuff is and despite of all the acclimatization can get you in real trouble.

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I think if our muncipal corpoartions seiously implement food and drug regulations in its holy spirit no one will get sick from these street vendor foods.

After all no one gets sick by eating from footpath vendors in NYC or elsewhere in states. Why///Becoz the law works here which is nonexistent in Pakistan.

I once was having glasses repair from a shop and the owner was a permanent employee of LMC,while during our wating period we have a chat and he said he will have his son a clerk in LMC once he gets Fsc/BA becoz thier is so muc much “ooper ki Kamai” in it.
Can you believe a father’s thinking towards his son future and LMC status as well.

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If you are going to Lahore & want to eat Nan-Chole then go to Main Market Gulberg & there is a nan-chole restraurant better than rehree walay nan-chole.

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What the hell came in my mind so that I am telling you to eat nan-chole. Sorry, ya do avoid eating Rehree food in Pakistan particularly if you are going for short period. If you are going for long period (somthing like six months or more) then your body will establish its immune system & that rehree wala food will not hurt u.

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Najim there is a Nan-Chole rehree in Liberty Market in Lahore. On my last day at Lahore this year, I saw someone eating those and I insisted on trying it out myself an I swear to God it was so delicious :)

From my own experience my relatives told me not to eat food from rehree walay if its not cooked before your eyes. At first they said no to me and after 2 days they took me to all the places and resturants where there was something good to eat. I can say I did not got sick but came back healthier as ever. Yes tap water was something I avoided drinking all the time.

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abdullah, yeah i’m kinda fed up not being able to go back for so long now. i could take a couple of weeks out but it hardly seems worthwhile. I need at least a month but that’s unlikely for one reason or another.

I read a travel guide written by an American who was in India and she recommended eating rehree food and claimed it was more hygeineic. anyway, i’m glad i went against advice and just went for it. the gamble paid off spectacularly and i intend to continue in the same vein next time i’m there. I guess everyone should take it on a case by case verdict though. I generally only have a couple of bad days with an upset stomach and after that i’m fine. some people i know spend their whole time there in a constant agony. Generally the one’s who are too careful about what they eat

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SADI,

I lived in that city for over three years .. I had local friends & we used to eat form rehree, thela ... etc etc ... but that restaurant I mentioned in Main Market Gulberg is actually a nan-chole & haleem restaurant & much cleaner than any rehree place. They have place to sit inside etc etc. I remember it was not inside the round about but behind the main round about on a small lane through the lane that goes to Qadafee stadim.

The other place is the Bhati gate Haleem Restaurants .. they serve really tasty food. Or there is a halim rehree in the Regal Chowk near the Sacred Heart school.

Actually you will see rehree in every other corner. There is a shop next to Feroze sons as well & half of the wapda house eat lunch from there, they make daal kebab & Aaloo tikkiya.

Oh God the the film roll is spinning in my mind for the time I lived in Lahore. They were good old days ... even Lahore is not the same Lahore ... everything seem to be changed there now.

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Here is your definitive guide to Naan-Chole in Lahore.

The best of them, and I mean the VERY BEST of them, are no where but Shahi Murgh-Cholay in the heart of Lakshmi chowk. The second best is Ghulam Rasool kay cholay in Anarkali at Nila Gumbad.

Right next to Shahi Murgh-Cholay is Nishat Restaurant which serves some mean chanpaiN with tallay huay naan (Deep fried naan - and don't count the calories, ok).

A little up of Shahi is Tabaq, the original and definitively some of the best tikkay and kabab place in Lahore. Speaking of tikkay, u can get some good ones from Punjab Tikka in Main Market and if u want some great kabab then don't forget bhaiyya kay kabab in Model Town.

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The fact is there was a time I did not like going back to pakistan especially because of hygenic & traffic reasons, but now I care less about it, but quite enjoy it. Pakistan wouldn’t be pakistan without all the Hangama. Mr Xtreme, if you are careful with choosing the places where to eat, I think it does not matter that much, we desis are really qutie immune to all the germs over there but some caution is still necessary. I have one colleague whose parents visit India regulary and he told me they allways eat such stuff from the streets. So if Goohras can so can we.

Oh Gosh!! Pristine has a whole gide of naan-chole in lahore. Well I will try to check them out when in pakistan hopefully this year again.

Najim: I haven’t been to Lahore before that but I think things are pretty much the same but with time all things tend to change to some extend, even here. I wouldn’t see changes as bad infact they spice up life.

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you really need to take risk but its not that bad if you or any of your mate really know that rahree place well, because if you know who is good or bad, then i think one should be ok.

I always enjoyed rahree/cornor food when I was in pak. but there are many worst in taste and in hygine so you have to go only to trust sites

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thats the only vac available i m afraid
the only thing that worried me all the time its not food but the plates and glass , they dont wash properly.. so I avoid using them instead of glass take a coke or pepsi.

End is Begining!

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oye. ur from toronto. so you can really build up a defence to rehree foods by frequent visits to gerrard street

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but i warn you, do walk yourself down the hygeine ladder one step at a time.

an extremely hygenic family i knew in karachi went on a tour to our village once and had some corn bobs there. they were in bed for the next 3 weeks!!

just for nostalgia’s sake, this is the rehree stuff i had from grade 1 to 12:

chaat, cholay, mirchi walay chanay, mirchi aloo, pani puri, kachoree, meethi poori, bhel poori, patties, samosay, kulfi, gola-ganda, makkai, shakar-kandi hubbbbbaaaa hubbbaaaaaaa God bless all those germs that cultivated in my body all these years.. mmmm mMMMMMMMmmmm

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I once bought a beef burger from a rehree wala and guess what???

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…there was a biggggggg cockroach sandwitched in there, covered in ketchup ‘n’ everything… ewwwww

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I threw the cockroach out ‘n’ offered the burger 2 a friend who had no idea about the cockroack ‘n’ he eat it…

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Pakistan Zindabad!

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yeh, sure. and i heard stories about a dead lizard frozen inside a kulfi. i think this is all propaganda against the poor rehree walas by the big fishes in the business. like people with 50+ rehrees around the city.

actually i used to play a similar cruel joke on my friend malik in karachi. he was always very hungry and would never turn down any food offered to him. so a coupla times we picked up a discarded slice of pizza from the ground, cleaned it up a bit and offered it to malik. then we’d all laugh while he’d gulp down the whole thing without even noticing us laughing! hehe

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