Mian Rehan's Blog

Sana Mir: 15 Years of Cricket Excellence When Sana Mir announced in early April that she would take a break from the Pakistan’s female cricket team, the country erupted into shock and paid tribute a successful career that has spanned over 15 years. Seldom players elicit such deep respect from the public. Her career is a shining example of how sports can be an arena of female empowerment, which can inspire young girls to take up professional cricket, and reduce the stigma of women playing cricket in Pakistan. Born in 1986 in Abbotabad to an Army family, Mir traveled the country, from Gilgit to Karachi. Her love of cricket began at the age of 5, playing street cricket with the neighborhood children. However, she played her first match at the age of 19, at a time when domestic cricket in Pakistan had not yet developed. Although a Pakistani women’s cricket team was established in 1996, it was not very successful in international tournaments. It was not until 2005 that the Pakistan

Food Review: PATAKA BOTI While some restaurants in Lahore wish to put out unique and unfamiliar dishes, others have chosen to reflect and experiment with food which Pakistanis have grown up eating and appreciating. One such restaurant is  Pataka Boti , which celebrates the local cuisine found at barbecue pits and local eateries all over the country. The restaurant has a tough job to bring something fresh and exciting to dishes that are beloved and have been perfected in many parts of Lahore. Pataka Boti surely promises not only great local food, but also a welcoming environment, and extremely helpful staff. The first thing that caught my eye when I visited Pataka Boti in Phase 1, DHA was its distinctly vibrant and traditional aesthetic. There is plenty of sitting space for friends and family. The chairs are traditional, with jute strings, while the walls are covered with colorful, traditional decorations. Perhaps, the most notable features were the outdoor tandoor, and the stai

Last week, a cancelled class freed me and my friend up for an off-campus meal. It was 12 in the afternoon, and we were still trying to find a place that would be open at that hour, when we suddenly found ourselves in front of a small pizzeria in Y block. I am not a huge fan of pizza (shameful, I know), but my compatriot insisted that we give it a shot, as he had heard of the place before and had been meaning to try it out. For those of you who live near or around Model Town, you have probably already heard of  Delish Pizza Bar , but their DHA outlet opened up just a few months back. So we walked through the bright green doors into a small shop. Rather unassuming, there were three benches attached to the walls and the room had a maximum capacity of 12 people. In all honesty, I did not expect much other than the same run-of-the-mill  pizza  offered by a host of cafés and eateries in  Lahore . We were greeted by a man behind the glass counter who handed us a paper menu, at which po

'The Lahore Social': The Finest among Lahore’s Latest Eateries Located at 37 A-2 Gulberg III, Mian Mehmood Kasuri Road,  The Lahore Social  is an embodiment of excellence, from its quality food to its colonial ambience. The restaurant is positioned directly under the famous independent bookstore,  The Last Word , which is a hub of art, literary activities and talks in  Lahore . The food at most literary events here is served by  The Lahore Social , providing an ideal combination of food and literature, all at one place. The restaurant is relatively new on the city’s food front. The building has a colonial feel to it, with low lights and an abundance of wooden and wicker chairs. The seating area is relatively small, with the outdoor dining space having a capacity of about 15 to 20 people. However, the inner seating area has been utilized in a rather crafty way so that it can accommodate more than 50 people on the busiest days. A few days back, along with a couple of

'Lahore Eat' and the 'Lahore Food Bazaar': The Real Foodie's Paradise Four parallel queues of vehicles, blocking the road up until gate no. 2 of the colossal Race Course Park, marked the beginning of one of the biggest food festivals of  Lahore  –  Lahore  Eat 2016. This three-day festival, put together for the people of every taste – took place on 26 th , 27 th  and 28 th  of February 2016. Hoards of people, belonging to almost all areas of Lahore (and Punjab, for that matter), visited the festival to satisfy their taste buds. The place harbored more than 50 food stalls, a playing area for kids, and an enormous stage for musical performances. Almost all the stalls belonged to the most famous eateries of the city.  A jolly guy at the Espresso stall distributed free Espresso cups to almost everyone who would converse with him and buy something as meager as fries from his stall. As we were about to leave, he bid us farewell and shouted in a hilariously rehears

Food Street - A Calling to the Lahori Heart “ Kinna sohna tenu Rab nay banayaa , Dil karay dekhda rawaan Kinna sohna tenu Rab nay banayaa, Dil murda nahin lakh samjhayaa Dil karay dekhda rawaan, Kinna sohna tenu Rab nay banayaa ...” Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s melodies fill the air, adding to the magic of the sight before you: a restless ocean of people moving from stall to stall, entranced by the sights and smells of what is arguably one of  Lahore’s most popular destinations . With the Lahore Fort looming in the background and the  Minar-e-Pakistan  standing tall further afield, this is truly a hub of  culture and heritage . It is said that  Lahoris  love food. You would know just how true that is if you’ve ever had the fortune of knowing a true  Lahori  (or are one yourself?) Food is to a Lahori heart, what paint is to an artist, and what the guitar or piano is to a musician. No funny business when it comes to food, mind you, or you won’t make it very far along the road to soc

Bismah's Bakeshop: A Mother-Daughter Duo Bakery in Lahore Popularly known as the “carrot cake girl”, Bismah Azhar recently completed her bachelors from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), and decided to take her food venture forward with her mother by her side. During an interview, Bismah said that she developed her interest in baking after watching her mother, a College of Tourism &Hotel Management (COTHM) alum, prepare different recipes every other day.  Bismah's banana bread According to Bismah, she was solely in charge of dealing with the management of her fresh home-baked desserts during her time at LUMS. She added that as there were not any home-made sweet items available on campus, soshe decided to share her most popular desserts with her fellow students and teachers.  The Political Science graduate described how she gained fame in only a few months with her two most popular dessert items on the menu: Banana Bread and Carrot Cake. Both pric

Food Review: The Hungry Toad The tiny, blooming commercial market in V block, Phase 2, DHA mostly houses small emerging fast food restaurants. A new entrant into this market is The Hungry Toad, with a small, pop-up shop after several successful reviews at food festivals like Lahore Eat and Coke Music and Food Festival. Their menu, at the moment, comprises only of three core items: an appetizer and two classic burgers. I was intrigued to visit the place after hearing about their appetizer, called the Mozzetto, which is their unique take on Mozzarella sticks. Their signature quality, which sets them apart from any ordinary Lahori mozzarella sticks, is their coating. As opposed to bread crumbs, the rich, gooey cheese is breaded with crushed Flaming Hot Cheetos. My friends and I ordered everything on the menu, and were served hot, freshly made food after only a short wait. The appetizer consisted of three mozzarella sticks served with a honey mustard dip. The first bite delivered

Street Biryani: The Pocket Sized Restaurant That Packs a Punch Situated along Bhitai Road in F-7 Markaz, along a line of other eateries and cafés, Street Biryani caught my attention with its modernist exterior. It was a quaint looking restaurant with a palette of royal blue, hunter green, and mustard yellow. The lack of parking space proved to be an issue, since there were too many restaurants and no specified parking for each designated restaurant. But once my friend and I found a spot, we unknowingly headed inside to what would become one of the best biryani experiences of my life in Islamabad. Street Biryani does not have a lot of seating, with a total of four tables inside and two outside. We had to wait 5 to 10 minutes before an internal table cleared up, and we could be shifted into the air conditioned area. The waiter passed us their booklet of a menu, which had snacks, starters, drinks. The main courses were three types of biryani, in chicken, beef, and mutton. We wan

Mirchi 360 Biryani: A Medley of Taste in a Matka (Earthen Pot) My first instinctive reaction was, “Who serves biryani in a matka (earthen pot), traditionally used for curries?” I was at Mirchi 360, an unassuming small eatery in F-10 sector that has been gathering a lot of steam lately, for its taste and quality. But delicious Biryani is welcome no matter how it is served. Allow the writer to indulge the reader on the origins of Biryani before the review of Mirchi 360. Undeclared but almost unanimously accepted as one of the national dishes of Pakistan, Biryani landed in the subcontinent with the Mughals. One theory states that the word Biryani actually originated from ‘birinj’, the Persian word for rice. Another claims that it comes from ‘biryan’ which means "to fry" or "to roast" in Persian. Regardless of its history and origin, Biryani has evolved into a dish devoured with equal zeal by the rich and poor, in the north or the south, made with chicken or b