At any traditional Pakistani restaurant, you are served a rich stew with thick gravy, chunks of tender beef or lamb shank and a side of naan for breakfast.
This breakfast, known as nihari (also spelt nehari), is reported to have originated during the reign of the . It was mainly eaten by the nawab rulers after their morning prayers (Fajr) and went on to become a part of wider Muslim Indian cuisine. It made its way to Pakistan after the partition of India in 1947.
in North Parramatta is one of the few spots in Sydney that serves nihari. The owner, Rana Masood, was seven years old when he ate it for the first time. "The meat was so soft; I didn't even need to chew," he recalls.
From then on, nihari was a part of Masood's morning routine.
"Before school, I went to Fort Road Food Street to have breakfast of nihari with lamb feet (paya) and a yoghurt lassi," he says. "Always at the same shop."
This morning ritual was interrupted when Masood migrated to Australia in 1987. The then 20-year-old had planned on visiting his three siblings in Sydney but he ended up making the city his new home.
"I started working in a factory and when my brother opened an Indian restaurant in Parramatta in 1989, I began waitressing there," he says. "No one was doing Pakistani food back then; everyone was doing Indian."
Craving the childhood nostalgia of nihari, Masood started saving to open one of Sydney's first Pakistani restaurants, Desi Hutt, in 1998. Customers at his first restaurant in Lakemba were largely Caucasian and Lebanese, opting for less authentic Pakistani dishes like butter chicken.
The meat was so soft; I didn't even need to chew.
Masood is proud that more than 20 years later, nihari has overtaken butter chicken as the best-selling dish at Mazaidar Foods.
Masood and his wife, Asifa Khan, opened the restaurant four years ago and have expanded the authentic Pakistani and Indian offerings from Desi Hutt to include traditional breakfasts like halwa puri (Pakistani-style semolina pudding and fried flatbread), alongside favourites like haleem (lamb and lentil stew), beef paya (feet) and karahi (a tomato-based curry).
"If you go to a restaurant and think the food is yummy, you say, 'mazaidar', Masood explains the meaning behind his restaurant's name.
What separates nihari from Mazaidar Foods' other stews is the gravy's thickness. This is a result of the beef or lamb shanks cooking alongside the marrow throughout the night.
"The dish is rich in flavour and is very powerful for your body," Masood says. "I cook the bones first separately for five hours, then add the meat to the soup and cook it for another four or five hours."
Masood recommends adding sheep brains and fresh naan cooked in the tandoor to give the dish an authentic Lahori touch.
Mazaidar Foods' restaurant front. Source: Mazaidar Foods
"My wife and I have over 25 years of experience in this business and no one in Sydney makes this traditional Pakistani recipe like us," he says.
Love the story? Follow the author Melissa Woodley here: Instagram . Photos credited to Mazaidar Foods.
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