KARACHI: In L. Frank Baum`s famous book The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was brought from Kansas to Oz by a tornado. And here the guests were brought to Movenpick poolside by an invitation that offered them `A Taste of History Passed Down Through Generations`.

Paghair Raghlay! (Welcome!) Just entering the Khyber Pass replica, one had a feeling that one was not in Karachi anymore. One was at Peshawar`s famous Qissa Khwani Bazaar.

`Qissa Khuwani`, the three-day food festival here, had much more to offer than just food. Live instrumentalmusicplayedthefamousPashtun song `Zama Janana Mar Ba Me Ke`on the rubab. Several carts offered traditional metal jewellery, decoration pieces, mirrors, shawls, ladies suits, Peshawari chappal, etc.

There were also food and drink carts offering kahwah, roasted corn on the cob, sweet potato and jalebi.

A life-size statue of a Pakhtun woman in traditional attire cooking something in a pot over burningwood shielded by bricks, a cut-out of a goods truck with its travel route superimposed on top, boasting of stopovers at Swat, Kohat, Bannu, Mansehra and Mardan and the many wooden takhats covered with durree and carpets with bolster cushions added to the ambiance.

The uncharacteristic chill in theKarachi air and the aroma of the food also helped.

The food, mostly meat dishes, was all being cooked right there before you in the open air. Instead of the barbecue being prepared in an angeethi or over a grill, it was being done on a coal fire started between rows of bricks. The Kabuli pulao andother items cooked on slow heat were allowed to absorb all flavours within them before being served.

Though it comprised meat dishes mostly, the menu was extensive.

There was chicken pakhni to warm the soul. Minced meat was being mixed with herbs, spices, egg and tomato and shaped into chaplikababs before being gently pushed into the hot oil in a huge flat pan, boti tikka with pieces of fat in between melted in the mouth just like the mutton shanks and ribs used for cooking namkeen gosht, the mutton dampukht, spicy lamb leg, lamb chops, chicken sajji and barbecue fish all tasted great with thecooked to perfection Kabuli pulao with carrots and raisins.

For those who were not really meat eaters, there was also sarso (mustard) ka saag, fried daal mash, makai roti (corn bread), etc. There was also a big salad bar for the health conscious and a desserts bar for satisfying the sweet tooth to then wash it all down with steaming kahwah.

Speaking to Dawn, Movenpick`s Executive Chef Zahid H. Salamat said that for the Qissa Khuwani Food Festival they specially flew in the cooks and chefs along with the meat and ingredients such as the spices from Peshawar`s Qissa Khuwani Bazaar. `They also brought here with them their own cooking methods and the traditional taste of Qissa Khuwani,` he explained.

`Most dishes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are maximum meat dishes as the people there are meat lovers so we had to get the entire kitchen crew from there in order to replicate the original flavours of the area,` Food and Beverages director at Movenpick Abdul Manan also added.

The Qissa Khuwani food festival concludes on Sunday (today).