HYDERABAD: Ever since the Pakistan cricket team reached the city on September 27 for the ODI World Cup, they have been enjoying Hyderabadi cuisine albeit with tight security measures in place.
Earlier this month the Men in Green went to the famous restaurant, Jewel of Nizam, and posted a video of players visiting the place on the official X handle of the Pakistan Cricket Board. On Sunday, a few of their players including skipper Babar Azam visited Peshawar Restaurant at Lakdikapul.
Apparently longing for Peshawari chapli kebab, a few players first ordered it along with some other delicacies from the famous Peshawar Restaurant a few days ago. The spicy melt-in-mouth minced meat kebab reportedly was first prepared in Peshawar, Pakistan, even before the Mughal period. The players ordered the food again on a couple of occasions before paying a visit to the restaurant.
"Our brand name is Peshawar, so we made sure that our chapli kebabs remind them of their home. And much to our pleasure and satisfaction, they were more than happy. They complimented us saying we reminded them of their home," Abdul Moid, restaurant owner, told this daily.
The owner said they also ordered charsi tikka, chicken kadai, mutton kadai and mutton biryani. "We are famous for charsi tikka. They must have got to know about us and called us to deliver all these delicacies. We delivered food at their hotel a couple of times. As they are our guests, we were reluctant to charge them but they insisted on paying the amount and collected food only once we accepted money." Notably, in Urdu, charsi means smoked.
It is learnt that speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi, wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed along with a few members of support staff also visited the restaurant apart from the Pakistan skipper.
The owner, however, did not divulge more details of the players' visit. "We have been asked not to leak details of their visit because of security reasons. Even phones were not allowed when we delivered the food," he signed off.