Pakistani American Food

Pakistan consists of several different ethnic groups and languages, each with its own culinary traditions. An estimated half of Pakistanis in the United States come from Pakistan’s Punjab Province, 30 percent are Muhajirs (descendants of Urdu-speaking Indians who arrived in 1947), and the rest are from other ethnic groups, including Sindhis, Pashtuns, and Balochis. For thousands of years the subcontinent shared a common history, so it is not surprising that there are major gastronomical similarities between Pakistan and its neighbors. Thus, Punjabis on both sides of the border eat basically the same meals: a wheat-based unleavened bread, such as paratha, chapatis (roti), or puri, supplemented by cooked lentils (dal), vegetable dishes such as saag sarson (sautéed greens,) and a meat curry (for nonvegetarians) such as alu gosht (meat and potatoes) or alu keema (potatoes with minced meat). The most common flavorings are onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, and green chilies, supplemented with aromatic ground and whole spices such as coriander, cumin, red chilies, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves. In the Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan, which border on Afghanistan, the spicing is milder.