Watch: Bengaluru’s famous Frazer Town iftar food trail comes alive during Ramzan

The exterior of Fraser Town’s 121-year-old Albert Bakery belies its iconic status. Those who look for it after learning about its popularity might not readily find it. The narrow two-story building is easy to miss on Mosque Road, named after Haji Sir Ismail Sait mosque. The minimal and modest branding — Albert Bakery (in all caps) written with white paint on a horizontal strip of maroon concrete — is another reason for its hiding in plain sight. To realise its reputation, you need to see its interior. When we enter, at about quarter to five on a Monday evening, about 20 customers jostle for space to buy the Bakery’s offerings — popular among them: Bheja Puff (which has a mushy mutton brain stuffing), Khoya Naan (a flatbread packed with condensed milk), and the quintessential Ramzan savoury, Haleem (a thick stew typically made of wheat, lentils, and meat). By six, most of these items get sold out. 

Albert Bakery was our starting point of Mosque Road’s iftar food trail, which has become a thing in Bengaluru during the Muslims’ holy month of Ramzan. It is hard to tell who pioneered the Iftar food stall at Mosque Road, which, until the 1980s, was a quiet street with a handful of commercial establishments.

Nuggets of history

“About 20 years ago, someone had the idea of putting up food stalls in front of the [Haji Sir Ismail Sait] mosque for Ramzan. These stalls used to dole out Iftar goodies. The idea clicked. So, in the subsequent years, many people, including restaurants, started setting up these stalls. And people come from as far as Whitefield to indulge in these delicacies,” says Mansoor Ali, one of the co-founders of Bengaluru By Foot, a group exploring the city’s cultural heritage. 

Mansoor regularly takes people on walks, feeding them nuggets of history and trivia. And, in the case of his Iftar walk, he gives them literal food — the best ones from the best places, according to him. As a Muslim born and raised in Bengaluru, he knows the right places for a specific iftar dish and its cultural backdrop. 

“About 95% of my walkers are non-Muslims. And most of them are people from outside Bangalore. Some locals, who haven’t been to this part of the town or don’t know much about the festival, also join to experience this Ramzan mela,” he says.

Despite being a Bangalorean, Madhurika, a Vedic architect (dealing with vastu shastra), has not experienced Frazer Town’s Iftar food mela. So, this year, she decided to sign up for Mansoor’s Iftar walk. “If you come by yourself, you may feel overwhelmed by all the colourful food here. But if you have a guide, it’s much better because you can learn about the food’s origin and recipe. Also, you get to know the stories associated with the food. So, it’s really cool to combine all of that into one experience,” she says.

A melting pot

As the sun begins its descent, the food stalls lining either side of Mosque Road enliven the atmosphere with delicacies of different colours, smells, textures, and tastes. Even the sounds that some foods make — like the crackling hiss of meat getting fried and the splash of colourful drinks getting poured onto glasses — attract our attention. It is an all-out assault on all the senses.

“When the pandemic hit, everything was deserted here. There was not much happening in 2020 and 2021. Even last year, after the lockdowns lifted, it was 50% of the usual crowd. But this year, it’s back to normal,” says food content creator Zafir Syed, a regular at Frazer Town iftar walks. 

When he moved from Mumbai to Bengaluru eight years ago, he thought he would miss the city’s beloved food street at Mohammed Ali Road. “Fortunately, I found Frazer Town,” he smiles, “Every year you find something new to eat here.”

One of the latest additions to Mosque Road is Noorie’s Multicuisine Kitchen, which specialises in Hyderabadi cuisine. Run by Noorie and her husband Imran Sait, it offers unique Hyderabadi savouries like shikamuri kebab and mutton kofta, apart from the usual dishes like haleem.

Pathar Ka Ghosht in a food stall at Mosque Road, Frazer Town, Bengaluru during Ramzan
| Photo Credit:
Ravichandran N

After Noorie’s, we head to Savoury Family Restaurant’s Ramadan stall to taste some Harissa (a blander version of Haleem), believed to have Armenian origins. After packing some nalli nihari (slow-cooked stew with pieces of mutton shank), a Mughalai dish, we head to Karama Restaurant for a refreshing drink of Mohabbat Ka Sharbat, an old Delhi speciality made of milk, watermelon chunks, sugar and Rooh Afza. 

If you are wondering about the name of the drink, it has an apocryphal story. Nawab Qureshi moved from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi when the love of his life broke his heart. He still had a lot of love for her. So, he decided to share this love with the world through a sharbat.

On the way to Karama, we spot Pathar Ka Gosht (a Hyderabadi dish where the meat is cooked on a rough-surfaced granite slab), kebabs made of chicken, mutton and beef, sea-food savouries popular in Kerala, and even camel meat.

According to Mansoor, there were limited options in the initial years of the iftar food stalls at Mosque Road. As the number of stalls grew, delicacies from different cuisines of Muslim communities across the country reached Frazer Town.

He tells us this as we sip a little-too-sweet cup of Sulaimani Chai, a popular milkless tea in Kerala, from Taj Tea House. Dismissing our complaint of the excess sugar, he jokes, “ Arey, so what? It’s Ramzan, yaar. Let’s be sweeter than usual.”