Among the winding streets of Doha, in a small marketplace, lies an even smaller corner shop bakery. The smell of fried sugar wafts around its doorway. If you were to walk through the door, in a pre-pandemic world, this little bakery would be bustling with people – packed with plastic tables and chairs forming a maze for you to carefully navigate through to reach the counter and place your order. At the counter itself, rows of delicate, brightly colored sweet treats (called mithai in Urdu and Hindi) tempt you towards them. Trays of piping hot puris (fried bread) and large metal glasses of ice-cold lassi stream through the kitchen behind the counter. In the middle of it all is a smiling, spectacled middle-aged Pakistani man, conducting the chaos like a mastermind. His characteristic deep belly-laugh resounds through the hustle and bustle that surrounds him; Ijaz Ahmed could not be prouder of his bakery.

In our fifth episode of Qatar in Quotes, Ahmed tells us about how, when he was unable to find authentic-tasting Pakistani cuisine in Doha, he decided to found Soghaat Bakery and Sweets – a home away from home for himself and many other South Asians in Qatar. Ahmed partnered up with his brother, who has a successful bakery under the same name in Canada, to bring sweets favored by the South Asian community to Qatar.

It is no coincidence that this bakery is named Soghaat. “The subcontinent’s culture is such that, despite the passage of 50, 60 or even 100 years, there are certain things people still like eating, in the same way, shape and form –– the people who leave their country to work and live abroad  particularly miss those things,”Ahmed told our episode hosts, Syed Ali Ahsan and Natasha Das. Soghaat was born out of this need, this longing for traditional foods specific to the subcontinent. To Ahmed, Soghaat stands for a place that offers food with the “original taste” of home.   

Ahmed has tried his level best to make his bakery feel reminiscent of South Asia. The staff, environment and food all put together, he said, are what make his bakery special and authentic to the South Asian community. “The moment [people] enter into Soghaat, they feel ‘I am at home, relax’.” Ahmed cares about his customers and finds the time to approach and welcome each and every person that visits his bakery.

Ahmed’s journey to provide authentic desi food and sweets in Qatar is still ongoing. He and his team are currently looking to hire someone from Mumbai, India, so that they have someone who specializes in making foods traditional to the Indian state Maharashtra, specifically so they may serve such foods to the bakery’s Indian customers.

For Ahmed, anything that isn’t truly authentic is unacceptable

Listen to our full episode, Sweet Tooth, to learn more about Ahmed’s efforts to bring South Asian sweets to Qatar.

Written by: Iffah Kitchlew