Roads & Kingdoms

Jan 9, 2020 / An Elegy for Karachi’s Empress Market - Roads & Kingdoms

The dismantling of Karachi’s markets and informal shops isn’t just robbing the city of its soul. It threatens the survival of the very people that make it a city.

September 25, 2018 / Eating Black Forest in Lahore - Roads & Kingdoms

What do Germany and Pakistan have in common? A beloved cake.

March 2018 / Amman Guide / Walking Tour: Start with Falafel, End on Kanafeh - Roads & Kingdoms

February 8, 2018 / The Sandwich That Ate Pakistan - The Trip / Roads & Kingdoms

How an unassuming KFC chicken sandwich became a permanent part of Pakistani food culture

November 2017 - Pakistan’s Martha Stewart - Roads & Kingdoms / Slate

A profile of Zubaida Tariq: home cook turned TV star, 72-year-old grandmother - and an inspiration for memes

(I appeared on Christopher Kimball's Milk Street podcast to talk about this story - listen here.)

November 3, 2017 - A Dish So Good It Makes You Mad at All The Other Food You’ve Eaten - Roads & Kingdoms

On breakfast obsessions in Beirut

2017 / The Universal Struggle to Get to the Bar Before Happy Hour Ends

It's 5 p.m. on a Thursday, and there's a line for a cab in Amman

2017 / 21 Things to Know Before You Go to Karachi

Revel in the irreverence of Pakistan's largest city

2016 / The KFC Chicken Sandwich That Ate Pakistan

How a fried chicken sandwich became a part of Pakistan's food culture

2016 / 5 O' Clock Somewhere: Relearning the Art of Procuring Alcohol Legally

Dispatch from a liquor store in Amman, Jordan

2016 / 17 Things to Know Before You Go to Lahore

A guide to navigating Lahore

2015 / Dispatched by Bourdain: A Stage Set for Slaughter

Longform story on the sacrificial animal market in Karachi for the Islamic holiday of Eid, and the culture of consumerism, crime and cattle

2015 / Breakfast: The Under-Appreciated Cousin of the World-Famous Naan

The best breakfast meal in Karachi is a paratha

2015 / Training Day

The story of a beloved rooster and a cockfight that will determine its future

2015 / Breakfast: Halwa Puri

Karachi's grease-and-spice laden breakfast of survivors

2014 / In Karachi, the delivery man cometh

On how food delivery businesses took over the city

2013 / Gangster's Ball

Scenes from Lyari's Baloch Culture Day celebrations - and the criminal syndicate running the show

2013 / Pakistan's Patty Kings

The Karachi home-grown burger: the bun kebab

2013 / Tea in the Boiling City

In chai, Karachi trusts: why tea is the binding force in the city

2012 / Chicken Soup for the Shiite Soul

A stew called haleem has become synonymous with the rituals around the Shi'ite mourning month of Muharram

2012 / Christmas in Karachi

Finding the Christmas spirit in a city dominated by violence