KARACHI: While you hear ‘baa ... baas’, bleating and ‘moos’ almost anywhere you go around Eidul Azha as you are running into sacrificial animals in grounds, inside parks and on sidewalks, when it comes to the tools of qurbani (sacrifice), there may be a little extra work expected of you.

That extra work means heading to places where all knives, cleavers, chopping blocks, skewers, hand grills, barbecue grills or angeethi, straw mats or chattai, etc., are available.

In Karachi, they are available at various markets, especially set up around the Eid. These include Bohrapir, UP Mor New Karachi, Liaquatabad, Nazimabad, Burns Road, Bhimpura, Pan Market, etc.

At Bhimpura this year, there is an Eid-i-Qurban tool and apparatus galore. You don’t only find the tools mentioned above, but meat mincers, and other mincing machines, too. These are not the manual meat mincing machines, they are big, powerful electrical ones, the industrial kind.

A variety of knives, grills, mincers and skewers, etc, are available in market for a perfect barbecue party

The pots and pans everyone has already but not every home would have a barbecue angeethi. Usually, when you don’t have something not used that often at home, depending on your relations, you can borrow it from your neighbours. But asking to borrow your neighbour’s grill may become awkward when everyone in every home has barbecued meat chunks or boti, kabab or liver on the menu for Eid.

It is better to have your own, and especially when there is a huge variety of different sizes available, too.

Hopefully, if you kept the skewers well greased after previous use, they won’t have rusted and may be used again. If not, then they are also available in round shape for the boti or square and flat for seekh kebabs. It’s also a good idea to get a mesh grill for easier handling.

The same goes for the big knives and cleavers. They also need to be greased to avoid rusting. You can head out to Pan Market if your old knives need to be sharpened for which there are many knife sharpening experts with sharpening tools such as wheels with sparks flying as they make your knives razor sharp. The same market also sells a huge variety of knives in case you need new ones.

Many of the places mentioned also offer chopping blocks made from Kikar tree trunks. There are also chattai (mats) to spread out in your lawn or verandah during the cutting and carving of the meat after the sacrifice.

It is also a good idea to clean your ovens, both gas oven and microwave before cooking.

Also check your pantry or store in case you need to buy or restock coal.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2023