Kabul Afghan Restaurant International City

[Montray Yadav]

TechnicallyAfghanistan is not part of the Middle East but rather in Central Asia bordering Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. In cuisine, it shares a little bit with most of its border nations and a good deal of influence from India.

Due to the expense and luxury of some of those ingredients, Kabuli Pulao is considered a special occasion meal. I am not oblivious to how lucky I am to be able to go to the corner bodega and pick up raisins for just a few dollars on any weekday evening.

At those restaurants, I mostly stuck with their well-known kebabs or ventured into the vegetarian curries, especially the intriguing pumpkin option and some of the appetizers, like Manto Dumplings or the fried eggplant known as Baudinjan Buranee.

You can also sometimes find Afghan food hidden among the glut of halal food carts around the city. I used to be very partial to this one we used to feature on our food car tour, but unfortunately for us, the owner decided to go back to school and close up the cart. You can almost taste the food through the video below.

I chose lamb because it is certainly the more popular protein in this part of the world and we eat chicken all the time in this house. Of course. lamb (at least this cut of lamb) takes much longer to cook and become tender and soft than chicken. Needless to say I underestimated the time and the method and so my lamb was cooked through but chewy and tough.

I found lots of interesting recipes and decided to use some tips from many. The bulk of my recipe came from the website Afghan Culture Unveiled. But while she used chicken for this recipe, I was determined to use lamb.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat. Add sliced onions and cook until translucent. Add lamb and cook until browned. Add broth and boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil 1/2 cup of water and add carrots. When tender (about 5-7 minutes), add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, raisins, toasted almonds, and sugar. Lower heat to medium and continue stirring until sugar and liquid evaporate.

Add the rice to the onion/spice mixture. Add lamb back to pot. Add the foil pouch. Cover the pan and put it into the oven. Cook for 15 minutes. Then drop the temperature to 250 F and cook for another 20 minutes.

To me, the most important part of this journey is to have my three year old son Sam try food from all over the world. But as luck would have it, he is at an age where he is a very picky eater. He loves rice and meat and sweet things, so I thought this would be a home run.

Brian Hoffman is a classically trained actor who is now a full-time tour guide, blogger, and food obsessive. He leads food and drink tours around New York City, which not only introduce tour-goers to delicious food, but gives them a historical context. He has written food articles for Gothamist and Midtown Lunch in addition to overseeing this blog and a few food video series, including Eat This, Locals Know, and Around the World in One City. His latest series is an international cooking show with his son which can be found on this site.

In 1797, Mission San Jose, the 14th of the 21 Spanish Missions in California, was established at a place known today as 43300 Mission Boulevard, northwest of Mission Peak. John C. Fremont mapped a trail through Mission Pass 50 years later, providing access for American settlers to the lands along the San Francisco Bay. Washington Township was established soon after (1853), taking in the communities of Mission San Jose, Centerville, Niles, Irvington, and Warm Springs. On January 23, 1956, these communities incorporated to form the City of Fremont.

To satisfy our urge for the tastes of Thailand, we sought out the recommended Sala Thai, located in the center of Fremont at 39170 State Street. A beautiful Buddhist altar there is part of the dcor, and the fried soft shell crab in a light and pungent sauce of chile, green bell pepper, and onion is certainly a highlight. Before we departed, I peeked in the kitchen to see a gleaming battery of traditional ornate Thai pans queued up on the stove.

Located near the Thai temple is another sight for strip-mall-weary eyes. The city-owned 21-acre California Nursery Historic Park has functioned as a nursery almost continuously since the 1880s, supplying date palms to the 1915 San Francisco International World Expo and Hearst Castle. At the end of 2013, a half-acre site within the park became the new home for LEAF (Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont), a non-profit nursery dedicated to learning and action toward community building, sustainability, and local food production. Since its founding in 2010, LEAF has offered workshops on topics such as water-efficient gardening, drip irrigation, and winter cover crops. With a doubling of its size at the new site, LEAF is planning to build a new nursery center, three greenhouses, and 34 raised beds, many accessible to people with disabilities.

Last fall, LEAF hosted a series of well-attended international cooking demos showcasing the five cultural groups represented in the World Garden. For example, one night, they cooked pinakbet, a dish from the northern Philipines that consists of mixed vegetables steamed in fish or shrimp sauce, served with pancit (Filipino noodles).

Another farmer growing food in Fremont is Ramavtar Singh, an emergency room physician who grew up in small agricultural village in India. At his Ramavtar Singh Farm near Mission San Jose, Singh produces very large and meaty certified-organic Lamb Hass avocados, which he sells to the Fremont and Los Gatos Whole Foods Markets.

As I stood in line to pay, the piping hot naan burning through the butcher paper to my forearm, I noticed a box of powdery white balls. The gentleman at the cash register explained this was qurut: strained, salted, and dried yogurt balls used to thicken soups, add flavor to stews, and balance rich roasts. It is also the base for a savory Afghan bread pudding called qurooti. This method of preservation was particularly useful for nomads who were able to tuck precious milk into bags to be pulled out when they set up camp.

For a meal in Little Kabul we tried De Afghanan Cuisine (37395 Fremont Boulevard), which was filled on a weekday with multi-generational Afghan families, who were no doubt enjoying the deliciously spiced beef chapli kababs with the ubiquitous naan as much as we did. On a later visit to Salang Pass Restaurant at 37462 Fremont Boulevard down the block, we lounged cross-legged on pillows at one of the traditional low tables and guzzled pitchers of the cucumber- and mint-laced yogurt drink, called dogh, noticing that other patrons had brought their own wine and beer to this halal restaurant.

A long and painful era of war in Afghanistan has brought Fremont many refugees from rural communities who are lacking the modern, high-tech skills needed to compete in local job markets. The Afghan Coalition, a Fremont-based nonprofit serving various needs within the Bay Area Afghan community, has created a microenterprise program, which includes a project called the Afghan Community Co-Op Kitchen. The kitchen is a place where women can get affordable commercial workspace, marketing assistance, and business knowledge aimed toward starting and building food-related businesses.

Looking for an Indian market, we headed down to the Mowry Landing Shopping Center, where we were lured in the door at 5113 Mowry by some powerfully savory aromas. Inside New India Bazar I was amazed by an array of produce items that I have never seen in my Oakland neighborhood: gourds labeled opo, sin qua, tindora, and snake gourd; bright-green deeply textured bitter melon; guar beans; round orange dosakai cucumbers; and such herbs as methi (fenugreek) and curry leaves. Tucked away in the back was the cash-only Chapatta Corner, where we picked up some samosas and vegetable-filled puff pastries with the full intention of taking them home. However, after tasting the pastries while parked at the next stop, we had to turn around and go back for more, leaving the store with two grocery bags of food and only $19 less in my wallet.

Asking around for the most highly recommended restaurants, I heard about Asian Pearl Seafood Restaurant in the Pacific Commons Shopping Center off Auto Mall Parkway below I-880, and the Shanghai Noodle House on Fremont Boulevard at Grimmer in Irvington. I made it to Teo Chow Noodle Shack, which sits nearly stranded beside a construction zone on Cushing Parkway in one of the many ubiquitous strip malls with an international gauntlet of eateries. The superb bowl of springy egg noodles I ordered was suspended in a delicious clear broth and topped with a generous portion of roast duck. Teo Chow is owned and operated by Calvin Ng, a UC Davis food science graduate, who calls on the talent of his father, Kwong, who started his chef career in mainland China.

After my son, Mikhail was born, I went back to India, and though it was an incredibly difficult decision, I left my 10-month old son with my mum and sisters in Mumbai and left for New York to begin my education for 2 years and chase my Afghan dream.

The one thing I have noticed everywhere I go, without exception, is that when you give your time and effort to people, and try to understand, learn, and appreciate their culture, language and way of life, they open their hearts to you, a hundred times over.

Kabul is a proper city, smaller than Mumbai or New York, less vibrant, far less active and populated but a city nevertheless. We have supermarkets, malls, restaurants, parks, cinemas, and recreational areas. However, Kabul is a traditional city, a city in the middle of an ongoing conflict, political strife and tension so naturally locals and expats are careful with their movements. I am especially so. I always dress as conservatively as I possibly can. I always wear a scarf on my head and cover my arms and legs to the best of my ability.

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