A jewel in Karachi's crown - Empress Market

Childhood trips to Empress Market were anything but pleasant. To a 10 year old spending Sunday morning in a huge bustling bazaar with a cocktail of aromatics from fresh produce was not a treat. I would forcefully accompany my grandmother or mother, reluctantly agree with bribes of a treat of chickee sweets (sesame jaggery brittle) or fresh pomegranate juice. Admittedly I would finally be coerced....What always stayed fresh in my memory were the sights, the urgency and method in the madness. Despite my lack of interest at the time, little did I know I would value each offering Empress Market had. From the seasonal vegetable stalls, the fresh fruit, Arabian sea delights in what seemed like an endless heart wrenchingly smelly fish hall to the dry fruit section, where you would find a wrinkled up man with a wooden oil press ready and willing to devote 3 hours pressing fresh coconut, sesame, almond or my mother's favourite, char maghz oil for you before you eyes. There was some love there for this Market, much before I realised it...Upon a revisit on my last trip home, I found that it suddenly seemed so much smaller, the fish hall was no longer and the general excitement I felt was dampened - maybe it all seemed so much more awe inspiring for a child than it did for me now, but what still struck me was the abundance of produce, spice, fresh meat and fish that still was second to none found elsewhere in Karachi city. The building itself is still just as commanding with its name owed to the one giving during the Raj to commemorate Queen Victoria, it is still a stunning building with hidden beauty behind the tough love it had got over the years. No food  trip to Karachi is complete without seeing a place where all the best produce can be found, as it is that which forms the a foundation of Pakistani cuisine. Seasonal freshness. Empress Market to me now is an institution, a haven even in it's state of disarray it still come second to no other fresh food market in the city. Steeped in history and tradition and it's sandstone walls stand there speaking of the celebration of fresh produce of a region which boasts some of the most wonderful food in the world.