---
type: Video
title: "Trying DELICIOUS Pakistani Food 🇵🇰"
description: Old Lahore through the Delhi Gate market, a monkey handler declined on sight, and biryani on a rooftop overlooking the Badshahi Mosque at Western prices.
tags: [pakistan, lahore, walled-city, markets, street-food, animal-welfare, attention]
timestamp: 2026-08-06T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctWQ5awQrss
video_id: ctWQ5awQrss
upload_date: 2021-12-14
duration: 831
---

# Trying DELICIOUS Pakistani Food 🇵🇰

Old [Lahore](/places/lahore.md) in the evening with [Mac](/people/mac.md),
starting at the Delhi Gate — named because it faces Delhi — and ending on a
rooftop above the Fort Road food street.

The market is the part he didn't expect. He goes in wanting to buy something to
take home and finds there is nothing for him: **it is entirely a market for
people who live there**, clothing, cashmere, clocks, nuts, no tourist goods of
any kind, and he says that is the reason it was worth walking.

The evening also produces the clearest example yet of how much attention two
foreigners draw here. Near the mosque a queue formed — an actual queue — of
people waiting to have their photograph taken with them, none of whom knew who
they were.

*Obs: this page is based on auto-generated subtitles; amounts the transcript
leaves ambiguous are marked unverified.*

## Itinerary

Delhi Gate → fifteen minutes deeper into the Walled City market → fresh orange
juice → tuk-tuk to Fort Road → the food street at night → dinner on a rooftop
restaurant overlooking the Badshahi Mosque.

## Key moments

- [00:00] **The Delhi Gate**, so called because it faces Delhi, and the way into
  the Walled City market.
- [01:09] The market has no tourist trade at all — the shops are for residents,
  and Harry gives up on buying a souvenir about fifteen minutes in.
- [03:12] Orange juice pressed to order in a screw press, 200 rupees, and a bird
  hits him on the head mid-sentence.
- [04:51] A tuk-tuk quoted at 150 rupees, roughly a dollar; he paid about three,
  on the same principle as the day before — reward the driver who doesn't try it
  on. See [reward honesty and hard work](/tips/reward-honesty-and-hard-work.md).
- [05:52] **A man doing tricks with a monkey, and Harry keeps walking.** He says
  why on camera: the animal is probably not well treated and he doesn't want to
  support it — see
  [check animal welfare before booking](/tips/check-animal-welfare-before-booking.md).
- [07:00] A persistent guide-tout with an MBA and excellent English works them
  for several minutes on the food street; Harry takes his number and doesn't
  call.
- [08:38] **The rooftop restaurant**, Cuckoo's Den, which he is told is a
  historic post-Partition institution (from video – unverified — he says on
  camera that he can't confirm it). Views over the Badshahi Mosque, a violinist,
  and a rooftop that fills up.
- [11:13] Two chicken biryanis that arrive looking like four, with pilau rice
  and vegetables.
- [12:16] **The queue for photographs** near the mosque, from people who have no
  idea who he is — the strongest instance of it in the cluster so far.
- [12:48] **4,000 rupees, about $22**, for two biryanis and two drinks. He calls
  it Western pricing, says he knew that going in, and rates the view worth it.

## Extracted pages

- [Lahore](/places/lahore.md)
- [Pakistan](/countries/pakistan.md)
- [Mac](/people/mac.md)
- [Check animal welfare before booking](/tips/check-animal-welfare-before-booking.md)
- [Reward honesty and hard work](/tips/reward-honesty-and-hard-work.md)