It might surprise many a reader that the initial Mughal rulers of Lahore had never seen a red ‘chilli’, or even a ‘potato’ for that matter, let alone a tomato. Given that Lahore and Calcutta – now known as Kolkata, were the culinary capitals of western and eastern Indian sub-continent, this might sound surprising.

My dear old city friend ‘Khalidi’ alias Khalid Mahmood is a virtual encyclopaedia of old Lahore. Our old ‘walled city walking group’ includes ‘Sheero’ alias Ghazanfar and Pir Sahib. Recently they seem obsessed with food tastes before hot red spices landed on our shores.

So, this piece is about the spices of Lahore. Just to clarify that the very first red-hot chilly market of Pakistan was, and remains, Kunri in Sindh. This market exports very hot chillies all over the world. The world’s largest chilli market is in the Guntar district Andhra Pradesh in India.

Just for the record the hottest chilli is the ‘Pepper X’ which has 2.69 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which has overtaken the Carolina Reaper at 1.64 million SHU. In an earlier piece one had mentioned this variety as growing in a greenhouse in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden – which set up Lahore’s GC botanic garden - where even touching the plant is strictly banned and remains so. Only six persons have tried the variety, of them five died within a day. Just imagine what would happen if they tried Pepper X!!

It is no wonder that red chillies came to Lahore just 400 plus years ago in the middle Mughal era. The red chilli originated in Mexico and parts of South America and first came to the sub-continent when Portuguese traders introduced them in Kerala and Bengal. From there they travelled northwards. The record of Akbar’s time and the building of the Lahore Fort kitchen does not mention red chillies. If anything, black peppers are mentioned in ‘Ain-e-Akbari’ as the staple spice used by the people.

Black pepper has been in Lahore for over 2,000 years and was traded in the vegetable markets of the area. Its origin is from the Malabar Coast and the Western Ghats, with the Mughal calling it the ‘King of Spices’. Even today as you travel westwards to the Khyber, Afghanistan and beyond to Turkey, you will notice that black pepper is the staple spice. The amazing ‘chappli kebab’ is traditionally made using black peppers, though red spices are creeping in.

Like red chillies, even the staple tomato is a recent addition, for it belongs to South America. The Spanish conquistadors brought it to Europe, where initially it was grown as a decorative plant. The Aztec name ‘tomati’ means ‘plump fruit’. It was considered a poisonous fruit, but soon humans started consuming them. Trust humans. It came to the sub-continent with the Portuguese traders and soon replaced the traditional use of ‘yogurt’ in spicy foods.

Let us have a look at onions. This has a Central Asian origin and in Egypt was used for its circular shape as representing ‘endless life’ and it was also used in burials. The same was the case of garlic, which the Egyptians used as a medicine. As they were also grown in the Hindukush mountains, it was, and still is, used as Ayurvedic medicine. Both onions and garlic samples have been discovered in both the Harappa and Moden jo Daro archaeological sites. So, their use as medicines in food is ancient to our land.

The ancient vegetables consumed in Lahore were Amaranth or ‘cholla’, gourds or ‘louqi’, legumes or ‘phalian’ and root vegetables like carrots, etc. Almost 10,000 years ago the first rice crop was grown, much before wheat was introduced. The rice growers were called ‘Chawla’ in ancient Punjabi, and they remain a leading agro-based clan. Rice has Chinese origin, and it came to the Punjab via the Silk route trading. Today over half of the world’s population consumes different varieties of rice. Lahore prefers the ‘Basmati’ variety. The very word means ‘vasmati’ meaning full of aroma.

But the major vegetables from South America were potatoes, corn, cassava and wild beans, as well as sweet potatoes, squash and avocado. Of these the potatoes were introduced to the Indian sub-continent by the Spanish traders at the end of the 16th century. Today there are over 5,000 varieties of potatoes, with most of them being cooked with tomatoes. We know that potatoes came to Lahore in the British period. So, it is not a very old vegetable.

But let us return to the original query of Khalidi. Just what was the cuisine of Lahore approximately 1,000 years ago when Lahore was invaded by the Turko-Afghan invader Mahmud. According to a poem by the poet Saad bin Masud where he describes a meal of ‘boiled rice and ‘cholay’ with salt and black pepper’. He describes it as excellent.

There are several mentions of beef cooked in salt and pepper with yogurt and onions in ‘desi ghee’. Even today it is a favourite. Most Kashmiri families – my wife is one – stick to ancient menus using vegetables and lentils with boiled rice. When we got married on the first day she rushed home – we were neighbours – and alarmed them by saying “they eat rotis at night”. Well, being the son of Sandhu Jatt what else would she expect, after all Maharajah Ranjit Singh and Bhagat Singh were Sandhu Jatts.

So, eating habits depend on family traditions and location of original families. For example, the Afghan ‘chappal kebab’ uses onions (free of its juice) and salt and black pepper. It is half cooked on both sides leaving the middle soft. The ‘roti’ is wheat based and left to yeast on its own. The combination is amazing. On the other hand, the Kashmiris excel in ‘harissa’ a combination of wheat, rice, lentils and crushed meats. Lahoris 1,000 years ago mostly ate various vegetables cooked with salt and pepper with ‘rotis’.

So, we had a Lahore where there were no potatoes, no tomatoes, no red chillies and no hot spices. Sounds dull, but it was not. The ancient combination of any available vegetable was pepper and salt with yogurt. For sweets the ‘gur’ from sugarcane added to a meal. Incidentally, sugar cane originated in New Guinea and came to the sub-continent almost 2,000 years ago. But that is another story.

Today, Lahore has one of the finest varieties of foods, which people the world over enjoy. In Central London alone over 1,000 restaurants of Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin are doing excellent business. According to a newspaper report now the British ladies buy more spices than do sub-continentals. Not bad. But please do not try Pepper X, for you might not survive to tell the tale.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2025