Khana Detroit brings Pakistani street food to Michigan, one pop-up at a time

Khana Detroit serves up Pakistani and Desi-inspired dishes through a uniquely American lens. The pop-up restaurant is currently stationed at Frame Bar in Hazel Park through Feb. 6.

Khana Detroit is likely the only place in metro Detroit where you’ll see twists on Pakistani and Desi dishes like butter chicken nachos and masala-rubbed fish and chips.

Pakistani fish and chips at Khana Detroit’s pop-up at Frame Bar in Hazel Park.

Those twists are the vision of Maryam Khan, who started Khana over three years ago as a pop-up restaurant. It’s been hailed as some of the best street food in the world right here in metro Detroit.

Khan is currently the chef-in-residence at Frame in Hazel Park, where she has created a menu that will be available through Feb. 6.

“The food is very representative of who I am,” says Khan. “I’m a first-gen American, daughter to Pakistani immigrants born and raised here. The food is inherently Pakistani but always served via an American vessel.”

Khan was interviewed on CultureShift on WDET alongside Mark Kurlyandchik, the editorial director for Frame and longtime food writer who recently profiled Detroit’s pop-up food culture for SEEN Magazine.


Listen: Maryam Khan shares her pop-up restaurant journey.

 

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Author

  • Ryan Patrick Hooper
    Ryan Patrick Hooper is the award-winning host and producer of CultureShift on 101.9 WDET-FM Detroit’s NPR station. Hooper has covered stories for the New York Times, NPR, Detroit Free Press, Hour Detroit, SPIN and Paste magazine.