PESHAWAR: The walled city is a renowned meat-lover's paradise. From succulent tikka karahi at Namak Mandi to chapli kababs at Qissa Khawani Bazaar, Peshawar’s love affair with meat dishes is an everlasting one, beckoning eternal carnivores.
Near the gates of the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) in Peshawar, however, is an eatery that serves as the outlier. With no chic interior designing, no air conditioning, no windows, and not even any doors, Cherry Berry is not your average restaurant, simply because its enterprise is contained within the metallic frame of a yellow, single-door Suzuki pick-up van.
The owner of this Suzuki van and the thriving joint is Shaukat Khan, who people affectionately call “Shaukatay”. Shaukat, now 50, established this restaurant 17 years ago by setting up a small cart outside the doctor hostel gate at KTH with only two dishes on his menu at the time: the brain masala and fried beans.
The restaurant's popularity gradually gained strength among locals — five to 10 customers a day in 1998. Today, the cart serves approximately 300 people each night from the back of Shaukat’s specially designed Suzuki