Lahore delicacies: Tawa gurda kapoora – aka Taka tak
September 24, 2008 · 8 Comments
Aqeel Ahmad
While the world is talking about the weirdness of
Beijing style food, I thought of highlighting the position of Lahori food on the chart of bizarreness. I am sure it stands somewhere in the top 10. So here we go:
Roughly translated, Tawa gurda kapoora means kidneys and testicles in a large frying pan. To avoid the embarrassment of associating such words with food, most of us now call it Taka tak. It refers to the sound made by the skillful chef while frying these organs and hitting the pan with two sharp slicers in a captivating rythm. He keeps slicing and frying them until the kapooray (testicles), gurday (kidneys), dil (heart), maghaz (brain) and chaampain (ribs) become a homogeneous mixture of meat and thick masala curry. You can make your pick and choose which parts to include in your serving. It is DELICIOUS.
One of the most famous spots to try this out is Butt taka tak at Lakshmi chowk, Gawalmandi. It is located right next to Butt Karahi that has been reviewed earlier. Not only will you enjoy the typical outdoor dining experience in the heart of Lahore, you will also find a bunch of live chickens to give you company while you listen to the magical beat of taka tak. Not to mention all those large tables smothered with uncooked goat organs (as you can see in the above picture) giving you a feeling of being part of a massive autopsy project.
What? .. Yikes? .. No! The moment you take the first bite of this scrumptious meal, will be the time when everything else, such as traffic noise, diesel smoke, smell of chicken shit, autopsy tables, etc., will stop bothering you. So dive in and give it a try.
Price range: Rs. 150-250
Cleanliness: Dirty
Categories: Cuisine · Lahore · food
Tagged: delicacy, Gawalmandi, goat, gurda, kapoora, kidney, Lahore, Lakshmi Chowk, meat, menu, testicles
8 responses so far ↓
Rashmi Talwar // September 25, 2008 at 8:25 am |
Hello
This article by Aqueel Ahmed is rightly compared to the bizzare cuisine of Beijing .surely it sends shivers down and photograph is aptly described as a autopsy table …yukkk
Vandana // September 25, 2008 at 3:20 pm |
Although this table is a vegetarian’s(mine)nightmare,I still loved reading this post.I especially love that last line in Urdu
“Makkhan ke paise alaihda se vasool kiye jayenge”
ramirez // September 26, 2008 at 1:43 pm |
its KATA KAT you div. not TAKA TAK.
ive heard that medical experts say that women should not kapooras (testicles) which are a essential in kata kat bcos it can cause an increase in testosterone levels and thus changes like increase in sex drive (unmarried women will have a problem but then willing males in pakistan are everywhere), increase in body hair, deepening of voice and other unwanted changes
ralam420 // September 27, 2008 at 4:19 am |
Ramirez,
These don’t seem like problems.
Raza Rumi // September 29, 2008 at 4:29 pm |
Rashmi ji: apologies for the picture but then we want to display the real, gritty side of Lahore too..
Vandana: I can imagine how nasty this might appear to a vegetarian but then we in Lahore love meat and ’spare-parts’ as they are known in the colloquial parlance.
Ramirez: C’mon – are you sure. By the time this stuff is cooked, I wonder how much of T stuff is left..
Shaheen Sultan Dhanji // October 1, 2008 at 12:16 am |
This stuff is great! I had it in Lahore — and can hardly wait to have it again!
Ramirez, LOL ! Nothing happens, as I am a living proof of such myth! My voice is as feminine as one can get, absolutely no hair grew and well, sex drive — thrilling! “Spare parts” should be tried by all !!!!!
Entertaining review…and glad for the post.
Vandana // October 2, 2008 at 1:16 pm |
Spare parts? is that what you call that stuff in Lahore?What a brilliant name.Hats off to you Lahoris.If visas were not such an issue,half of Amritsar would be there in Lahore with you each weekend to eat all this meaty stuff.
The Thing With Food « devil be damned // July 19, 2009 at 8:47 am |
[...] bitches. We much rather eat your brains. Oh you did not know about our Brain Masalas? What about Gurda Kapura? Man you are such a white [...]