Pistachio

Three checks take ten seconds. First, the split: pick up a handful and look at how many shells are naturally open. A healthy batch is mostly open. A run of fully closed shells means immature nuts and hard work at the table. Second, the kernel colour through the split: you want green showing, not brown or shrivelled. Third, weight in the palm. Pista in shell should feel solid for its size. A light, rattly handful is a handful of shell. If a seller will not let you pick up the pack and look, that answers the question by itself.

Roughly half the weight of in shell pista is shell. So a kilo at Rs 4,600 gives you about half a kilo of actual nut, which works out near Rs 9,200 a kilo for what you eat. That does not make in shell pista a bad buy. The shell slows you down, keeps the kernel fresher for longer, and the cracking is half the pleasure of the evening tray. But if the nut is going into kulfi, kheer or a garnish, you are paying for shell you will throw away, and our pista kernels at Rs 8,600 a kilo are the straighter purchase. The full breakdown of salted, zafrani, red and kernel pista is in our pista guide.

Pista kernels carry natural oils, and heat is what turns them. Keep the pack sealed, away from the stove and out of sunlight, and an opened pack holds well for weeks. In a Quetta summer, or anywhere the kitchen stays hot, the fridge is the safer home, still sealed tight so the nuts do not pick up other smells. If a kernel tastes stale or sharp, the oils have turned. Do not push through a kilo of it.

What is the pista price in Pakistan? At WD Foods, Rs 4,600 for 1kg, Rs 2,300 for 500g and Rs 1,150 for 250g, in shell. Online stores list comparable salted pista well above this, up to about Rs 6,950 a kilo.

How many pista should I eat in a day? About 30 grams, roughly a small handful in shell, is the commonly suggested portion. The shell helps here: it paces you in a way a bowl of kernels never will.

In shell or kernels, which is better value? For eating at the table, in shell, because the freshness and the ritual are the point. For cooking and garnish, kernels, because every gram you buy goes into the dish.

WD Foods is the online store of Wahid Nimco, working from Quetta since 1990. We deliver across Pakistan in 3 to 5 business days. If you are in Quetta, come to the shop on Masjid Road, open every day from 9 AM to 10 PM, and read the shells on our stock before you pay. The season's full rate list is in our dry fruits price list, and the rest of the shelf sits in the dry fruits collection.