KARACHI: The bakery is located in a narrow lane in Saddar. Still everyone knows where to find it, especially those who have booked their orders for hot cross buns ahead of Good Friday.

The historic J.C. Misquita Bakery takes orders for their famous hot cross buns on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which they fulfil and keep packed in their kitchen until the customers arrive to claim their orders from all over the city.

Then on Holy Thursday and Good Friday they have a token system where the customers need to get their token from the bakery counter and line up for their turn. There are long unending queues outside the bakery that extend to both ends of the lane. But the strange thing about these queues is that no one gets upset about waiting. After all they will all have their great prize after the wait ... those big brown bags of the hot cross buns.

1,200-dozen buns daily

Young Syed Ahmed Abbas, the third generation of the owners of the J.C. Misquita Bakery, is happy to inform that they bake some 1,200-dozen buns daily around the conclusion of the Lent season.

“My grandfather Syed Mohammed Asif Abbas Zaidi, who had bought this bakery from its original Christian owner more than 50 years ago is himself over 70 years old now. But he comes here during these high seasonal sales time every day. He arrives in the bakery kitchen around 3am when he starts measuring and mixing the ingredients for the buns. You should see him at work. He cleans each and every raisin that goes into the buns with his own hands,” the grandson shares with pride.

Hot cross buns are a famous Good Friday tradition

Hot cross buns are a famous Good Friday tradition. They are baked in many Christian homes. Several bakeries, especially those located in Saddar where many Christians reside, also sell them by the dozens though they are also a popular delicacy with Muslims as they are only available around this time.

The hot cross buns from the J.C. Misquita have a sweet taste unlike the others which carry a strong cinnamon taste. Also the cross over the bun is usually marzipan but Misquita’s cross is made of sweet biscuit.

‘A big secret’

Ahmed says that their recipe is a big secret.

“Only my grandfather knows the entire recipe. Even my father Syed Haider Abbas doesn’t know what exactly and in what quantity are the ingredients,” he says.

The same is the case with their equally popular plum cake that sells very well during Christmas time.

Ahmed says that J.C. Misquita stands for Joseph Christopher Misquita. “He was the original owner of this bakery. But after he died, his widow sold his bakery to my grandfather. The Misquita family then moved to Canada.

“At the time there used to be three popular bakeries in Saddar — Laurence Bakery, Pareira Bakery and the J.C. Misquita Bakery located at the ‘Tram Patta’. My family bought this bakery from the Misquitas and then we kept their name alive despite shifting to this part of Saddar later on. Meanwhile, as time passed, the other two bakeries closed down business,” he says.

When asked why they didn’t change the bakery’s name after buying it and even moving from its original location, Ahmed says his grandfather wanted to keep the name alive as he also believed that it was a popular bakery and changing the name would not be a good idea.

“Changing its name would have been like starting a fresh business. But he had bought a running business that was known by its name,” he explains.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2022