It is said that few decades ago there was a truck or bus station was established in outskirts of Hyderabad And this was actually a route towards Hala,District Matiari. so in short a place was started to travel towards Hala from Hyderabad and with the passage of time the place was given a name Hala Naka ,as it was mainly a truck driver’s place so definitely pakhtoon food was also very much required.The traditional salty meat foods were started like namkeen rosh and Mutton karahi etc but today this place is one of the most popular place for its mutton and chicken karahi alog with its beef BBQ.
When I discussed my plan to chef Sadat, he asked me not to miss hala naka’s Karachi so this food was on my top priority list. Once I moved to hala and nasarpur for some photography but due to short of time I had to skip this lovely place “Hala Naka”. But as it was on my top priority list I had to fetch it.one day I was coming back from mithi and umarkot and I had to meet Mr syed Ataullah shah sahib in mirpurkhas, shah sahib is a well-known government servant in district administration, mirpurkhas. The plan was set with him and we decided to have dinner at hala naka.
It was nearly 11 pm when we reached there, two of his other friends also joint us. When I got myself there I was really amazed to see the food environment there because I was never expecting Sindh for food’s craze. There were a lot of people waiting to get seated on chairs.
Hotel’s name was “New Salateen Hotel”. A Mini food street could be seen their, people were standing in a long row and waiting for their turn for order, actually that was the most fascinating part of the hotel, you wait for your turn and choose your fav part of mutton e-g leg, thigh etc etc and you get it cut and chopped in front of you and then it is served to you. This whole procedure takes approximately one and half hour but you have to stay calm to enjoy the brilliant taste. We also waited for some 2 hours and nearly 1 am we were served with our tasty mutton curry or karahi.
So this is how my dream came to true that I explored Hala and tasted Hala Naka’s Karahi.their is another very interesting thing I experienced, as I mentioned earlier that basically that’s a truck driver’s spot to come to eat Pakhtoon meat foods and mostly truck drivers drive whole day or night and they get exhausted.to get rid of your tiredness you see many “MAALSHIAY’ the massage therapist, who keeps diff oil bottles and shake them in a way that it generates an interesting sound.one of the massage therapist came to me said “brother have yourself massaged” and I said “no thank you i am fresh” but anyhow I photographed him to give him some smile.
After having such delicious muton karahi at hala naka you forget the word “Normal” and you eat like animals.after having that stuff the peshwari qahwi is must so we were also served with this Traditional Qahwa to digest the food. So that was my great and memorable experience of Hala Naka and it was nearly 2:30 am that I was dropped back to my stay at Hyderabad.
