Sumayya Usmani: Pakistani Food in Govanhill
In Issue 1, food writer and founder of Kaleyard Cook School and Kitchen, Sumayya Usmani shared some of her favourite places to eat authentic Pakistani cooking in Govanhill and how that made her truly feel at home
Illustration by Maryam Abbas
By Sumayya Usmani
Translated into Urdu by Riz Gul
On my first visit to Glasgow about seven years ago, I felt a sense of unexplainable familiarity. I wondered whether it was the air, the people or the atmosphere. Or maybe it was that because I was originally from Karachi, a city forever in the shadow of Lahore. It could be why I had a natural affinity for Glasgow, a city also shadowed by another. Either way, something about the city felt like home.
So I made it my home. In 2015, I left London and my 12-year legal career for Glasgow and the adventure of writing, teaching, and finishing my first book, Summers Under the Tamarind Tree. It’s a memoir-based cookbook of my family recipes and memories of growing up in Pakistan. Cooking my heritage food at home had helped me find comfort when I moved to Britain, but I had not found it in any restaurants in London. They all missed that definitive Pakistani flavour.
All that changed when I moved to Glasgow. On my first visit to Govanhill I was taken by how many restaurants served the food of my homeland, championing the true flavours of Pakistan, those haunting barbeques and rich slow cooked curries.
It’s no surprise really; many Pakistanis migrated to Scotland in the early 1960s to work in the flourishing weaving trade in Paisley, a few miles west of Glasgow, and many settled here. Pakistanis can’t be without their food, which is why the cuisine gained a strong foothold in the city – and how I came to discover the local Pakistani food scene.
Pakistani cuisine (as distinct from “Indian” food, which in the UK can refer both to all South Asian food and the regional cuisine common in many curry houses) is all about layers of intense spices infused deeply through meat, especially barbecued meats. This is especially true of the cuisine of my hometown, Karachi – a city whose food is also influenced by Middle Eastern cuisine.
Govanhill in particular has Pakistani restaurants that make me feel like I’ve flown home. Kebabish Grill on Victoria Road, which specialises in Pakistani-Punjabi food, was an accidental find, but is now one of my favourites. It’s all in the way they marinate their barbecue meats: a smoky combination of dark spices ground to make an in-house garam masala that goes into many of their grilled dishes.
Order their mixed grill platter with tandoori rotis, which comes with lamb chops, seekh kebabs, chicken tikka on the bone, and fish tikka. Their open kitchen allows you to see the meat grilling, similar to the style of Pakistani street food. They don’t serve alcohol, but you go for the food. Their style is very Pakistani Punjabi, like that of Lahore.
There are plenty of other places to sample Pakistani cuisine too, such as Karahi Palace, Lasani Grill, and Yadgar Kebab House. Though I don’t usually have a sweet tooth (like most Pakistanis), I do love a good bit of mithai (Pakistani sweets). Do try Glasgow Sweet Centre, a small storefront on Allison Street that specialises in Asian sweets. I recommend the jalebi saffron donuts dipped in sugar syrup and barfi—milk fudge flavoured with cardamom.
I feel blessed to live in a city where I can get a real Pakistani takeaway, anytime I am not cooking myself. Maybe this is why living in Glasgow truly feels like home.
