KARACHI: As the holy month of Ramadan approaches, the streets of Ranchore Line, one of the oldest areas in Pakistan’s commercial metropolis of Karachi, come alive with enthusiasm centered on a single commodity: manda pattis.
The sheets, known locally as samosa or roll patti, are the dough used to construct spring rolls and samosas, savory, triangular deep-fried sweets that are a fixture of Pakistan’s iftar table spreads during Ramadan. Samosas, which often cost less than ten cents per piece, are pastry pockets filled with vegetables like as potatoes, onions, and peas, meats such as beef and chicken mince, or, in more modern variants, cheese, tofu, or even Nutella for a sweet twist. They’re deep-fried and served hot, usually with fresh green mint, coriander, or tamarind chutney.
While some individuals have store-bought samosas and rolls on hand to cook as a fast snack at iftar, many prefer to prepare them from scratch using manda patties. In Karachi, this means a visit to Qaisar Saleem’s manda store, the only one on the Ranchore Line, which operates around the clock and employs over three dozen workers to meet heightened demand during the holy month of fasting.
“People make them [samosas and rolls] at home, which is why there is a rush of customers here,” Saleem, 45, who has been running the business for over 20 years.
“The public wants to create sanitary products, which is why. You know how the stuff accessible outside [on the market] often is.”
During Ramadan, the shop’s 35 employees work 12-hour shifts, “from 7 in the morning to 7 in the evening,” according to Saleem, and consume more than 30 bags of flour, each weighing 25 kg, within 24 hours.
Around him, workers made sheets of manda, a mixture of refined wheat flour kneaded with a machine to form a dough that is rolled out with oil and then formed into large, circular sheets that are cut up into triangular and rectangular pieces of pastry to be sold as the outer covering for samosas and rolls.
One large, circular manda sheet costs Rs40 and may be used to produce either 12 samosas, eight spring rolls, six patties, or 12 wontons.
“GOOD AND HYGIENIC”
Buyers claim the manda sheets serve two objectives.
Making samosas and rolls at home is less expensive than buying packaged kinds, and buyers can be confident that the finished product is hygienic.
Pakistan, a country of over 241 million people, is now suffering from the effects of inflation, which reached a historic high of 38 percent in May last year but softened to 23.1 percent in February this year, remaining on the high side due to high energy and food expenses.
“The minimum cost of a samosa in the market is Rs40,” buyer Abdul Razak Ghanchi told. “Making it at home costs just Rs20 or Rs22. Even after frying, it costs around Rs25-26.”
“We buy from here every time [ramadam], after two or three days, we come here, and we get it from here only,” said housewife Farkhanda, another client at Saleem’s business. “These products are clean and sanitary. “We use them for the entire month.”
Preparing the goods at home also ensured quality and hygiene, Ghanchi explained.
“It is reassuring that the item is prepared at home, made with your own hands and is safe to eat, it doesn’t have impurities or any dirty things,” he went on to say.
“The important thing about this is that when we make samosas and rolls at home, we ensure the meat or minced meat we use is clean.”