RAWALPINDI Aug 27: When city goes to sleep and its wide roads give a deserted look after midnight, the historic traditional food street of Kartarpura in Rawalpindi wakes up to the life.

Located at a five-minute’s drive from Waris Khan on Benazir Bhutto Road, Kartarpura is famous for its traditional food though the locality lacks facilities and there is not enough parking space either. The food shop called Kala Nihari is considered to be the oldest restaurant in Kartarpura that has been serving variety of traditional food, including brain nihari, nalli nihari and beef nihari.

According to its owner Abdul Lateef, 52; his grandfather, who belonged to Ambala, opened the shop in 1938.

“No restaurant in Rawalpindi and Islamabad will serve you brain or nullah nihari and this is our specialty and the taste is almost the same as it was 70 years back,” Lateef told this reporter.

For newcomers, Kartarpura may look quite different from the swanky restaurants and fast-food culture, but old residents and people living in other parts of the city frequent the food street due to the culture and history attached to it.

The food street is a mix of traditional cuisines, including gratto jaleebi, beef tikka, mutton karhai and mutton tikka, pakoras, vegetable and beef samosas and the new addition of patoorhe.

Badami sharbat, namkeen lassi and a variety of traditional drinks are also the hallmarks of this food street. For youngsters, particularly students and people coming from other parts of the country, Kartarpura is an ideal place to visit as it remains open till Sehri dishing out delicious and mouth-watering food.

Banni Chowk situated close to Kartarpura gives additional charm to the culture of eating and drinking in the area, where shops remain open all the night and visitors can be seen sipping Kashmiri tea on the roadsides. Majority of families visit the food street at the weekend.

“Kartarpura is like the historic Qisa Khawani in Peshawar where you can see round-the-clock hustle and bustle.

I still remember Iqbal, a hotel owner, who used to serve us mutton and beef tikka some 30 years ago. Nowadays his sons are doing the business but the taste has not changed,” recalled Sheikh Jalal, a senior citizen.

But he regretted that increasing population and vehicular traffic had shrunk the historic food street. He said the authorities concerned should ban traffic at the main lane so that visitors can have enough sitting space.