KARACHI: Food prices rise during Ramazan, especially those consumed at homes, restaurants, cafes, and caterers.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported that rural food inflation in February jumped to 47% year-on-year. While urban food inflation was 41.9pc.
Hasnain Haider, manager of Burns Road’s famous “Food Centre,” said they couldn’t use anything other than tomatoes, onions, and frying oil since it would change the taste.
“And taste,” he continued.
He was worried about the record-high inflation and stated prices would rise during Ramazan, but management would have to pay. He said prices would drop after Ramazan.
In North Karachi, Mohammad Wasim, owner of “Rohaib Pakwan centre,” stated the “costliest ingredient these days is the cooking oil and ghee, for which we are trying our best to save as much as we can” by using “meet that is full of fat”.
“By doing so, the fat of the meet turns into oil and then it helps to have the food cooked nicely, making its smell and taste more enhanced than with normal cooking oil/ghee,” said Wasim, who also advised clients who bought meet elsewhere to buy fatty meet.
“Dry/powder milk has become our priority in order to save the cost of desserts, especially with Kheer and Cocktail,” he said when questioned about milk substitutes for desserts that required a lot of it.
Babar Iftikhar, a seven-year culinary veteran, has a UK Culinary Art diploma. In some recipes, yoghurt can replace tomatoes. He suggests preparing a paste and freezing it into cubes, with one tomato cube equaling one tablespoon.
Skillston campus manager Mr. Iftikhar said there was no authentic onion substitute.
He said fried onions may be used as a substitute if they were cheaper than fresh onions, but they may not be acceptable for all meals.
“It is important to know that fried onions may provide a similar flavour but may not be appropriate for every recipe,” he said.
Cooking oil demand skyrockets in Ramazan. Mr. Iftikhar said it was irreplaceable. He suggested using an air fryer, which uses less oil than traditional cooking methods.
“Air fryers reduce cooking oil,” he remarked.
“Homemade butter can replace some foods,” he noted.
Instead of gramme flour, several Far Eastern cultures coat fried items with rice flour. Gram flour has protein, while rice flour has carbohydrates, Mr. Iftikhar said. He added that pakora on the subcontinent is coated in gramme flour rather than rice flour.
Rubina, a housewife who has been cooking for years, has been selling her meals to merchants for four years.
Due to hyperinflation, her business has closed.
Inflation has stopped shops from buying our food. She claimed they give each employee 100 rupees for food.
“I had saved 700 rupees per day for the past three years, but in the last year, I had only managed to save 300 rupees per day, and this amount does not include the petrol cylinder,” she continued.
