Peshawari Ramazan Specialty of Paye Is Not To Be Missed

News Desk

Peshawar: Struggling to wade through a rush of people gathered outside an eatery in the Ghanj area in the interior city, Mujeeb, a middle-aged man, is seen frantically trying to reach out to purchase a bowl of Peshawari Paye, a special dish of cow or buffalo trotters cooked in oil and spices within a deep earthen cauldron.

“Foodies have a special liking for Paye, also called Panchey in the local Hindko language of KP. But in the holy month of Ramazan, its desire becomes irresistible, forcing us to spare time and get a meat bowl after a long struggle,” Mujeeb explains about the hard work he is doing to get his favorite dish for breaking the fast.

“The taste and aroma of trotters being sold in Peshawar have no match and can be presented as a special dish reflecting culinary dexterity of chefs of our region,” claimed Mujeeb.

“Peshawari paye is a traditional dish and the majority of people associated with its cooking have inherited this skill from their ancestors,” informs Habib, an owner of a trotter shop in Yakatoot area of Peshawar.

Habib, the owner of the outlet, explained that he is the third generation having inherited the business set up by his grandfather in 1920.  For the last one century, we have been cooking paye on a daily basis. This has become our trademark much desired and loved by our customers.

People do  cook trotters at home but are unable to achieve  the taste  of paye prepared commercially at shops like ours, explained Habib

He added that In the holy month of Ramazan when people fast from dawn to dusk, demand for paye increases manifold because the faithfuls enjoy eating their favorite dish after breaking fast.

Usually, Habib continued, trotters are sold in the morning as a breakfast dish but in Ramazan it is offered to customers from afternoon till evening.

“Denizens of Peshawar have a special liking for trotters who enjoy it on every happy occasion and during gatherings of relatives and friends,” observed Saeed Ahmad, an octogenarian local resident of Peshawar.

People invite their relatives and friends for lunches and dinners with an enticing offer of trotters as part of the menu, said Ahmad.  ”Being a senior citizen, eating such a gelatinous food having high-level cholesterol is not suitable for my health, but I cannot resist when an offer comes my way from a friend or a relative.

However, after taking such a heavy meal we drink a couple of cups of Pesahwari Qehwa (green tea with ground cardamom) for digestion, he added.

The secret behind popularity 

In Peshawar, there are more than 25 shops of trotter dish sellers supplying special dishes to lovers of traditional food, informed Yaseen, another seller of Peshawar paye.

Yaseen is also the third generation of his family,  continuing with the tradition. He explained that the paye dish properly cooked takes around 10 to 12 hours.

First, we purchase trotters from the abattoir and then boil them to remove hairs using a sharp knife.

The cleaned trotters are put in an earthen cauldron and cooking starts at night till morning on low flame.  About the recipe, Yaseen says it is very simple, consisting of turmeric, salt, pepper both red and black, cumin and cooking oil.  He said the main reason behind the unique taste of trotters prepared at shops is that it is bulk cooking on low heat.

Yaseen said that he usually cooks around 15 to 20trotters on a daily basis and sells a bowl at a price of Rs350 which is enough for a single person. However, in Ramazan the number of trotters increased 25 to 35 trotters on a daily basis due to high demand from the paye lovers..

He admitted that the price of cooked trotters has increased manifold and is getting out of the range of poor people, blaming the high price of ingredients, especially gas charges, shop rents, enhanced price of cooking oil etc.

“Most of our patients admit that advice of avoiding oily meals, especially trotters is ignored by them” shared Dr Muhammad Shehzad, a general physician practicing in the city area. Dr Shehzad said some of our people have a special penchant for trotters and they cannot resist eating even knowing the fact that its intake is injurious to their health.

Realizing the popularity of Peshawari Paye through the use of social media, foreign tourists and famous Food bloggers also taste trotters during their visit to Peshawar.

A number of international bloggers visited our shop and made videos while enjoying our hospitality and taste of special trotters, Yaseen claims.

The feature has been published on APP (a government-run website) and it has been reproduced.