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Dish: 7/10
Dish: 7/10
Sloppy, spicy and delicious.
Restaurant: 8/10
Restaurant: 8/10
An unexpected fantastic burger joint.
Nihari is Pakistan's national dish, a moderately spicy meat stew. It wasn't a dish we were familiar with. In fact, we had never heard of it. In fact, we don't think we could honestly name a single Pakistani dish. That's sort of shocking, given the popularity of dishes other countries in that region. Maybe we're just idiots.
When researching Pakistani restaurants in New York City, one kept coming up over and over again: BK Jani, a burger joint in Williamsburg. This seemed odd. Williamsburg? A burger joint? It's not the stereotype of a Pakistani restaurant we had in our head. But did they serve the national dish? They sure did. On a sandwich. This one was wild, and one of the most enjoyable jaunts so far on the challenge.
The national stew
The national stew
A lot of national dishes are stews. From Poulet Yassa, to Irish Stew, to Goulash - throwing a bunch of things in a pot with meat and letting it cook low and slow, allows for more family time, and less faffing around in the kitchen. National dishes are generally comfort foods of one kind or other, and the comfort seems to come from memory, family, togetherness, perhaps celebration - some sense of community.
Nihari is cooked with spices like cinnamon, cardamom, mace, nutmeg, all spice, cloves, cumin, fennel and black peppercorns, and ginger, garlic, onions, peppers. But as always there's no agreement on which of the above or how much from the various recipes we scrolled through on the interwebs from those sights that make every recipe article incredibly long and put all the ingredients and the actual recipe way at the bottom once you've seen fourteen thousand adverts for products you left in your amazon cart because you don't deserve them. What is with those websites? Why are they so ubiquitous? Are you glad this isn't one of those sites? We put our scores right up top where you can see them. You don't even have to read this meandering shit down here.
Nihari would be traditionally served with naan bread. We ate it as a sandwich. And it's a fantastic, but messy way to serve it.
Pakistan and Pakistani Americans
Pakistan and Pakistani Americans
Most Americans probably know Pakistan as the country Osama bin Laden was hiding in when the US flew in, killed him and his son, along with three other people, news which was broken by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on the website then known as Twitter. There's some sense that it was both an ally and distrusted during the failed "war on terror", and that there's almost perpetual fear that both it and India will start lobbing nuclear weapons at each other at some point, very suddenly.
There are over half a million people of Pakistani origin living in America and most of them are based in New York, although there's also a decent number living in Texas. There is an area of South Brooklyn known as 'Little Pakistan' and there is a sizeable Pakistan Indepence Parade in Manhattan every August.
Restaurants on the section of Coney Island Avenue that Google says is defined as 'Little Pakistan', include Greek, Mexican, Indian, Caribbean, Uzbeki, Jewish and Persian cuisine, so it's Brooklyn, basically.
Pakistani Burgers Baby!
Pakistani Burgers Baby!
BK Jani does not scream "Pakistan" when you enter. It would be weird for any restaurant to scream "Pakistan", literally or figuratively, upon entry. But this place reminded us more of California burger joints than it did any sort of purveyor of a foreign cuisine. And while inside it's a casual eatery, there's a lovely little backyard, where we ate under fairy lights at picnic tables. The restaurant started its life in Bushwick, and moved to Williamsburg at some point - we were unable to locate the year in our research.
The burgers might be the best in New York City. We are not the first to observe that, by any stretch, and BJ Jani's reputation means that it is now a featured restaurant at bougey "ethnic" food halls in Brooklyn and Manhattan. But we're not interested in their burgers, since they're not the national dish of Pakistan. The Nihari is perfect late night food. After a few drinks - the big, wet, delicious tender meat falling out of two big, soft sides of something like ciabatta, were incredibly well received. The spice level isn't overwhelming, but enough to warm the cockles and enliven the senses. And as much as we're emphasizing its wetness - it all holds together pretty well. We only needed...6 napkins. We'll definitely be back to BK Jani, to sit in the backyard and try everything else on the menu. We're also looking into Pakistani restaurants in South Brooklyn, where we can enjoy more Nihari. We've got our eye on Lahori Chili.
شکریہ! الوداع!
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