The bazaar of Hub Chowki - the town which borders Karachi and is one of the five tehsils of district Lasbela, Balochistan - reflects the enmeshing of the local culture with the influences brought by the labourers from Karachi. The labourers arrive here on minibuses and transport facilities provided by the factories to carry them in from different parts of Karachi on a daily basis. Also, during the ethnic violence in Karachi and unrest in Balochistan, the town has become home to new settlements and the population has grown rapidly in recent years.
The bazaar serves as the first stop for those who enter Balochistan from Karachi and a last stop for those who are travelling to Karachi - depending on the direction of travel. The biryani points, samosa stalls and chai-khanas popularly known in Karachi as “Quetta Hotels” are familiar spots and can be found here separated from each other by the shortest of distances. Moving further on the highway, outside the bazaar at a distance of about 2 kilometers starts a queue of roadside restaurants where trucks, trawlers and container-carriers are parked in the huge empty spaces nearby.
A serving of 'rosh' meat is popular in Balochistan
Tea accompanied by Mastung cake will turn your short break into a terrific treat
These roadside restaurants are known for their karahi, sajji and rosh, which are favourite food choices for the drivers and cleaners of trucks and trawlers. But one of these restaurants - apart from the traditional menu - is famous for serving a delicious cake popularly known as “Mastung cake”.
If you are a tea-holic like me, tea accompanied by Mastung cake will turn your short break into a terrific treat and will provide the best of culinary experience.
Mastung cake, as the name suggests, comes from Mastung, a neigbhouring town of Quetta. It is a popular product of the decade old Makkah Bakers at Mastung, once owned by Haji Nazir. Before it became a brand, it was known as “Haji Nazir cake” - named after the maker of the cake and owner of the Makkah Bakers at Mastung.
The fare served at roadside restaurants of Hub Chowki
On a first look, the cake is similar to any of the pound cakes or fruit cakes rich in nuts and dried fruits, but the taste of Mastung cake makes it a class apart.
“Mastung cake is very popular across Balochistan and can be found at many places in different districts of Balochistan. You will hardly find anyone from Balochistan who has not heard about Mastung cake. In its popularity, it equals Multani Sohan Halwa, Hyderabad ki Rabdi or Pehlawan ki Rewdi” says Sami Baloch.
Mastung, like other parts of Balochistan, is torn apart by religious and political violence
When I asked for more to take home with me, the boy working at the hotel informed me, “We have very few left and we keep that stock for serving here with the tea. You can get it from our bakery named Makkah Bakers at Hub Bazaar opposite PSO petrol pump, as both the hotel and bakery is owned by the same person.”
So the cake trail brought us to the bakery. But to our great disappointment, just two pieces were left.
“It is not baked locally but brought from Mastung on a daily basis,” the boy at Makkah Bakers in Hub Chowki chuckled. “Passenger buses travelling from Quetta to Hub and Karachi bring consignments of these cakes for us every twelve hours. The way these cakes are made, they remain fresh for more than forty-eight hours, but local requirements and purchases from the people travelling through the road keep the demand higher than the supply we usually get every day from Mastung.”
Mastung cakes, packed for transport to Hub Chowki
Travelling alongside the road I reached Uthal, the district headquarters of Lasbela. My local hosts were not unfamiliar with the cake and shared some interesting though saddening details about it.
“The bakery at Hub Chowki has borrowed its name from the original one at Mastung, who were the actual makers of the cake. But it has no direct connection with it. They bring it from Makkah Hotel at Kadkochah, a place in Mastung located on the Quetta-Karachi highway. The Makkah Hotel there buys it from Sharjah Bakers, the present makers of Mastung cake and disciples of Haji Nazir.”
Mastung cake served with tea
Haji Nazir, who first baked the cake, has survived two assassination attempts
“But where is Haji Nazir, if he is alive? And are the Makkah Bakers at Mastung still owned by him or his descendants?” I enquired.
The answers were shocking, and yet they are a reflection of what has been happening in Balochistan during these past few years.
Haji Nazir was an ethnic Punjabi and had started the bakery in the early sixties. He was forced to leave the town due to threats to his life. Some people say, he has moved to Pishin. But it is not confirmed. He survived two assassination attempts. The first came in 2008 when grenades were hurled at his bakery. He along with a young worker was injured. To avoid being targeted again, he joined a local Baloch tribe, the Bangalzai. But it was not enough to save him from the wrath of his assailants and he was attacked again resulting in the death of his local patron, from the Bangalzai tribe.
Feeling helpless and betrayed, he departed from the town. The art of cake-making was left to his disciples who now run Sharjah Bakers”, I was told by a resident of Mastung.
The disciples have kept the tradition alive and serve as the starting-point from where the cake travels to several destinations across Balochistan. Makkah Bakers at Hub Chowki and Makkah Hotel at Bawani are among the places where one can find it.
Apart from the cake, the sajji and rosh served at Makkah Hotel are also a delectable culinary experience. A plate of daal and vegetables each is a free offering with the sajji and the namkeen rosh.
Another interesting aspect to Makkah Hotel is a nearby heritage site - one of the many graveyards dating back from the 15th to 18th centuries, which are spread across Balochistan and Sindh in many districts. Here, you find dozens of graves with carved tombstones popularly known as chowkandi graves, which are attributed to the Jokhio and Kalmati tribes of Baloch descent. Many of these graves are in poor condition, some of them have parts missing and a few are merely a stack of broken stones.
But their unique design and art draw your attention and you are compelled to make a stop here. If taking photos and selfies with the delicious food and cake at Makkah Hotel were not enough for your travel album, you can add photographs of these historical graves to it and can also start a campaign over social networking sites to demand preservation of these historical monuments!
The name of Mastung which in the recent past has been in the news owing to violent incidents, is also associated with the Mastung cake. The cake, for me, is like a lament or elegy for a not-so-distant past, when such death and destruction were not so well-known there.
Meanwhile, Haji Nazir and his fate remain mysterious - a tragically fitting analogy for the larger phenomenon of political, ethnic and religious violence plaguing Balochistan.
