Pasni is for Seafood!

Our Shrimp Catch at Pasni Beach!

It would be injustice to Pasni and to one’s own self should someone visit the place and does not have seafood, available in wide and at times weird varieties. Though Pasni is a small time town, but it accounts for the significant seafood catch out of the total Makran coast produce, most of which makes its way to export markets due to its size and quality. Good news is one can buy the precious metal, say fish and shrimps, over there in whatever quantity they fancy without breaking their pockets. Unfortunately, I had to wait for my second visit to take benefit out of this value proposition as the first one, enroute to Gwadar, only proved to be a raky.

I thought we would get a better and a fresher deal from the fishing jetty itself rather than bargaining at the fish market; and the fluke went well. We bought more than three pounds of medium sized pink prawns, called Jheera in the local jargon, and small sized unfamiliar fish in the similar quantity from one of the fish traders. Including the labour to peel and clean the treasure, to make it ready for the BBQ, we paid a meager sum of around PKR 800, i.e. around USD 9.

It is totally another story that the fish was nothing but a lesson learned; it was actually BBQed shrimps that made our long day after a drive of more than 500 kilometers. At the end of that sea side BBQ evening, we were all wondering why not we bought three pounds of shrimp for each five of us in the first place! To make up for this gross oversight, we decided to load the ice box with shrimps and sneaked into the jetty again the next morning, only to learn that shrimp carrying boats usually dock at the jetty before the sunset, alas!

One can also take benefit of the local eateries which sell cooked, usually fired, seafood including fish, shrimps, and lobsters with authentic local taste. It would be interesting to mention here that the word Makran is derived from Mahi, means fish, and Khor, means eater. And people of Makran are proud fish lovers to the extent that a historian of Alexander era suggested that all the food, even mutton, in Makran coastal range taste like fish!