RAWA LPINDI: A s temperatures fall, hot coffee or tea and an array of snacks are a great way to enjoy the cold evenings. Among these snacks is the chicken puff pastry, enjoyed by people of all ages.

Particularly when it comes to evening tea, chicken puff pastries are among the top 10 in the long list of snacks available at bakeries in the garrison city.

To meet the demand, nearly all bakeries now sell these pastries, but few serve the fresh chicken pastries, or patties, offered in Saddar, Commercial Market and Murree Road.

A bakery owner in Saddar, Mohammad Shaukat, said: `Although there are many items available in the bakery to serve with tea, most people prefer chicken patties as these are easy to digest and the best alternative to heavy samosas and pakoras.

He said the recipe for the pastries is simple, but showcases the expertise of the chefs who bake them.

`We do not add any red chillies or garam masala to the patties we just add chicken, black pepper, salt and some cream for the filling,` he explained.He said the creamy texture of the chicken filling is what attracts people to this teatime snack, which can be eaten both in the evening and in the morning, and added that making the filling too spicy would ruin the snack.

But not everyone agrees. In Raja Bazaar bakeries offer spicier pastries because that is what customers prefer.

Mohammad Akbar, a bakery owner on Iqbal Road, said: `In our area, most people buy chicken patties for tea parties and they want aspicy item, so we add red chillies as well as garam masala.

He said in downtown Rawalpindi the chicken patties are served with chutney, similar to samosas and pakoras. He said there is a tradition of serving sweet and spicy items for small tea parties.

`I usually bring chicken patties for tea or to serve to taste. The minced chicken filling and the round pastry makes them the best thing to have with tea or coffee in the evenings,said Mujahid Ali, a Peshawar Road resident.

Another popular teatime snack is the chicken roll, which sell like hot cases among local Rawalpindi residents.

The crisp, golden roll is stuf fed with minced chicken and served with a sweet and sour chutney that gives the flavour an exotic touch.

`We make rolls from morning to night, to meet the increasing demand, Raja Abid, the owner of a sweet shop onMurree Road, said.

Calling samosas a dish of the past, he said people now prefer rolls filled with chicken and vegetables.

He said the shop prepares the filling every day to keep the rolls f resh, as otherwise people would not visit the shop.

Mr Abid said the secret recipe for chicken rolls is cleanliness and good quality flour, spices and oil, and claimed that in the last 10 years not a single person had complained to them about rot-ten stuf fing or bad smelling oil.

Ali Raza, a Bhabara Bazaar resident, said most people have set up stalls of traditional foods because that is what people prefer to buy to serve to guests at teatime.

He said it was easy to serve guests healthier and good quality dishes rather than going to bakeries and buying snacks that had been prepared two or three days earlier, adding that most people prefer to buy fresh food items.