KARACHI: While sweets and desserts steal the spotlight during Eid Al-Fitr around the world, on Eid Al-Adha the focus shifts to savory delights, especially dishes prepared with the mutton and beef of animals sacrificed to mark the annual religious holiday. 

Things are no different in Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial and culinary center, where restaurants on the iconic Burns Road and other food streets start preparing meat specials for Eid. 

“People don’t realize it’s Eid-Al-Adha if they don’t get spicy dishes,” said Agha Owais, the owner of Agha Sajji, a restaurant that specializes in slow cooked meats in various forms as well as spicy biryani rice. 

After the Eid sacrifice, Owais said, his restaurant got busy preparing hundreds of orders from people who brought over sacrificial meat to the eatery for special dishes to be prepared using it.

“The women at home are often tired during Eid so they prefer to entertain guests by opting for good, spicy, and clean food from reputable places with high-quality ingredients,” Owais said. 

A resident of Karachi civil lines, Sadiq Abubakar, said he preferred to have biryani and dried meat dishes prepared at home on Eid but ordered BBQ specials from restaurants. 

Among favorites are malai boti, melt-in-the-mouth chunks of boneless chicken, lamb or beef marinated in a mildly flavored cream sauce made with fresh herbs, seekh kebabs made with spiced minced or ground meat formed into cylinders on skewers and grilled, and dhaga kebabs, made without a binding agent like eggs, chickpea or maize flour, but in which a dhaga, or thread, is wrapped around the kebab to hold it better over the grill while cooking.

“Sometimes we give a goat’s leg to a restaurant and get karahi made out of it,” Abubakar said.

“IT’S THE TASTE”

S.M. Iqbal, the owner of New Delhi Gola Kebab House, said his restaurant was closed for Eid dining in order to complete takeaway orders, especially made using people’s own sacrificial meat.

“People also invite us [for catering] to their homes, but we don’t go very often because our outdoor work is at a large scale,” Iqbal said. “We can’t go for 10-15 kgs [of meat], we only go if there’s an order for at least 100 people.”

He said most customers got dhaga and fried kebabs made, which were a specialty at his restaurant.

“It’s the taste that pushes people to bring sacrificial meat to our restaurants,” Iqbal said. “Allah has given us the taste that attracts people.”

Customer Mustafa Tahir said offering guests a mix of homemade dishes and food prepared by restaurants created a good balance during Eid. 

“Have them [restaurants] prepare dishes too, they’ll make good food,” he said. “Combine three or four flavours, invite guests at home, and truly enjoy Eid-Al-Adha as it should be enjoyed.”

ISLAMABAD: Ashraf Khan picked up a colorful anklet and showed it to a customer from a range of collars, beads, bells and other ornaments at his stall of animal accessories at the Sangjani cattle market on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

The 33-year-old, who sets up a makeshift stall at the market every year, said the demand for animal accessories went up just as the demand for animals and their prices surged ahead of the major Islamic festival, marked by devout Muslims by slaughtering animals and sharing the meat with family and the poor.

Khan, who has been selling animal accessories for the last several years, said his clients not only included members of the public, but also traders who wanted to adorn their cows, sheep and bulls before putting them up for sale in order to better attract customers and fetch higher prices.

“We receive goats, lambs and bulls [at our decoration stall],” Ashraf said. “It takes Rs1,000 to Rs1,500 ($3-5) to decorate a goat with different types of materials. Decorating bulls ranges from Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 ($7-8).”

The 33-year-old sources ornaments from Islamabad’s twin city of Rawalpindi and sets up his stall in the Sangjani capital market a week before Eid.

“The price tag depends on the number and quality of items,” Khan said. 

Naik Muhammad, who brought 50 lambs to sell at Sangjani market, said a lamb cost him around Rs25,000 ($90) this year and he was looking to sell it for between Rs85,000 to Rs95,000 ($305-$341).

“The purpose of decoration is that customers like them more and the rates get better,” Muhammad said. “When customers like the animal then we can ask rates of our choice.”

Alamgir Khan, a fruit vendor in Islamabad, purchased a lamb for Rs77,500 ($278) after haggling with sellers for around three hours and brought it to Khan’s stall to buy accessories for decoration.

“We have spent some money on its decoration to make it look beautiful and then the children at home will see it and be happy, and that is a rewarding thing,” Alamgir told Arab News. “This is an animal for sacrifice, it should be adorned.”