August Issue 2010

By | Society | Published 14 years ago

“You need to cover an event where Muhammad Yusuf and Saeed Anwar will be… but remember, you can’t ask them anything about cricket.”

I know, it sounded just as odd when I heard it the first time — and even odder every time I was reminded. You’d wonder what an event organised by Frieha Altaf and involving cricket’s superheroes would be all about. No, it was not about sports goods. It was all about a meat shop.

A unique mesh of people gathered in Khadda Market on July 18, for the single purpose of launching export-quality meat.

The Al-Shaheer group, which has been exporting meat to the Middle East, decided it was time to introduce it in Pakistan. So they set up Meat One in Karachi.

The shop was different from other meat shops in Karachi in many respects. Firstly, it was the only meat shop in which the air wasn’t pregnant with the overwhelmingly pungent smell of meat. Secondly, the meat was displayed in an attractive setting and customers could surf through the shop and select any cut or type of meat that they desired from specialities like fat-tailed lamb to specially cut beef tenderloin.

And what’s more, Meat One claims that its prices are the same as those of the road-side butchers.