Afghanistan, versus other countries in the region, has a wide terrain that makes it suitable for growing a variety of grains, including wheat, corn, barley, and rice. Similar to other Middle Eastern countries, yogurt is important to the cuisine. Afghanistan is also said to be known for its grapes, although we didn’t see many grape-related items on the menu. According to Wikipedia:

Afghanistan produces exceptionally high quality fruits, notably grapes, pomegranates, apricots, berries, and plums. These fruits have traditionally been Afghanistan’s main food exports. Dried nuts and seeds, such as walnuts, pistachios, almonds, and pine nuts are both very popular and plentiful in Afghanistan. Exceptional varieties of oranges, known locally as “Malta” are grown in the warm climate of Nangarhar province. Olive oil is also produced in Nangarhar province but for local and national consumption only. Herbs and spices used in Afghan cuisine include mint, saffron, coriander, cilantro, cardamom, and black pepper. Lamb and chicken are the preferred meats. When available, meat is widely consumed. Afghan cuisine emphasizes well-balanced tastes. Food should be seasoned but neither too spicy nor too bland. Contrasts are emphasized.

An major influence on Afghan cuisine occurred in Kabul, the royal seat. The royal families focused time and effort in cultivating Afghan cuisine by appointing chefs to create speciality dishes. These dishes include kormas, palaos, rice dishes, desserts, and more, which were featured on Kabul Kabob House’s menu.  Rice dishes, especially, are considered expensive and sumptuous. Traditional rice dishes featured on the menu were Chalou and Palou. We ordered the Potato Chalou (although the menu has many different types of Chalou), which was a stew composed of potato and beef served with white rice, brown rice, and bread. The stew was savory and garlicky, and not spicy. The menu also featured Palou, which is considered the national dish of Afghanistan (related to pilafs). Although we didn’t try it, the menu listed Qabli Palou, and describes it as “tendered, seasoned chunks of lamb, covered with brown rice, topped with shredded carrot, raisins, almonds, and served with Afghani bread, salad, and lemon cilantro sauce. From the description, it seems that the difference between Chalou and Palou is whether the rice is combined or served separately.

Other traditional dishes we were surprised to see on the menu (although we didn’t try them!) were Aushak and Mano, dumpling dishes. Wikipedia states that these dumpling dishes are “wildly popular,” but almost always served in the home because forming the dumplings is a laborious process. Manto is an Uzbek dish where the dumplings are filled with onions and ground beef. At Kabul Kabob House they are topped with yogurt, although they can also be served with a tomato-based sauce. Aushak is from Kabul, and are dumplings filled with leeks and topped with a garlic yogurt sauce. These dumplings can have many regional variations.

Similar to other Middle Easter cuisine, kabob was featured on the menu. In Afghanistan, kabobs are stricly street food and are rarely served in the homes. Lamb is the most common meat used and most kabobs are served with bread rather than rice. Often, the kabobs are topped with sumac, a purple/maroon spice that gives a lemony taste to foods. We tried the Chapli kabob, which is one of the types of kabob that is served only in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Unlike other types of kabob, the chapli kabob is shaped like a hamburger and is a mixture of flour and meat, making it less expensive. Ours was served on a bed of rice and we found it to be tender, savory, and juicy. We were also served a salad and had the option of a variety of sides. We chose cabbage with beef, which was savory and tasty.

Along with our meal, we were served two enormous pieces of bread. Although the menu called it “Afghani bread,” bread in Afghanistan is called Naan (translates to “bread”). The Atlantic has an interesting article on the importance of this bread to Afghan culture, where it is served at every meal and served all throughout the day. However, ours did not resemble the photo in the article or look like Indian naan, although it was cooked in a deep stove. Ours was oval shaped, golden colored, and cooked so that it is slightly crisp on the outside but tender on the inside. It looked more like Obi Non, which Wikipedia states is an Uzbek variety and often served round. Regardless, the bread was fresh, warm, and delicious.

We also liked the variety of desserts available. The menu featured Goshifeel, Ferny, Afghani Ice Cream, and rice pudding. Goshifeel, or “Gosh Feel,” resembled triangles of flat fried dough covered in sugar and crushed pistachio. We ordered some, but ended up forgetting them there so we didn’t get to try it. The rice pudding was highly flavored with cardamom. The Afghani Ice Cream was described on the menu as “prepared with a special kind of noodle,” and we learned that this traditional dessert is called Faloodeh. Wikipedia describes its interesting background:

is a Persian sorbet made of thin vermicelli noodles frozen with corn starch, rose water, lime juice, and often ground pistachios. It is a traditional dessert in Iran and Afghanistan. It was brought to the Indian subcontinent during the Mughal period. The faloodeh of Shiraz is famous. Faloodeh is one of the earliest forms of frozen desserts, existing as early as 400 BCE. Ice was brought down from high mountains and stored in tall refrigerated buildings called yakhchals, which were kept cool by windcatchers.

We found it flavorful, rich, and creamy. They also have baklava, which is also common in Afghanistan. Afghan baklava is cut in triangle shapes and toped with crushed pistachio.

One of the amusing items on the menu was Horchat and Lassis. The lady who works at Kabul Kabob  House informed us that lassis do exist in Afghanistan, but are called a different name. Horchata is a traditional Spanish or Latin American beverage. She said, however, that she put it on her menu because so many of her clientele asked for it during lunch time. We tried her horchat and found it to be light, milky, sweet, and flavored with sesame and cumin – a spin on traditional horchata.

TOTAL: $29.99, including tax (two entrees, one drink, one dessert)

Almost as soon as I walked in I was touched by the husband and wife playing chess at one of the tables. It turns out that the wife was also the only other woman in the place besides myself and also the chef. The place was male dominated, but everyone was extremely polite to me. One of the problems I encountered was the language barrier. The male servers, though very polite and eager to help me, spoke no English. Luckily one of the other patrons translated for me.

Egyptian food is apparently vegetarian friendly and relies heavily on legumes and vegetables, crops common to the Nile Valley. A lot of the dishes on the menu were familiar to me from other Middle Eastern cuisines like baba ghannouj, shawerma, kabob, etc. I’m not sure how these dishes differ from other countries in the Middle East. 

The one dish that stood out was foul mudames (Ful medames), which I ordered. They served it on a plate accompanied by a basket of bread, similar to pita. Apparently this dish is very typical and has an interesting history. Ful translates to “fava beans” and medames means to “buried.” To me the dish tasted similar to refried beans and was rather rustic. Apparently this dish was originally a peasant food, but has now been fully incorporated into the Egyptian diet. The dish is commonly eaten for breakfast and has been described as “like a stone in the stomach.” The bread I was served is also a typical staple of all Egyptian meals which is more heartier and glutinous than typical pita bread and called Eish Masri or Eish Baladi. “Eish” comes from the verb “to live,” which reflects its importance to Egyptian life. I found the dish to be comforting, simple, bland, and filling. I ate the foul mudames using the pita since there were no utensils on the table – I assumed this was how it was done. I also found this recipe, I’m not sure if it is legimatimate or not. 

I was mostly struck by the variety of drinks on the menu rather than the variety of food. Maybe this is because they have a full page of hookah flavors and the restaurant focuses more on people relaxing and drinking. Since it was cold outside I tried Cinnamon with Milk. It came in a glass and was very hot milk with cinnamon in it. It was not sweet and I wondered if I should have added sugar to it (there was some on the table) but I wasn’t sure. Perhaps I picked a boring drink to try, but I was craving cinnamon that day. Their other hot drink options included mint tea, fenugreek with milk, black fenugreek, anise, milk hot chocolate, coffees, teas, hot karkadi, etc. Their cold drink options included karkadi, carob, and tamarind. I wasn’t familiar with the word karkadi, but in English the translation is Hibiscus. Karkadi beverages are apparently very common in North Africa and were said to be the preferred drink of pharaohs. Wikipedia states that in Egypt, “wedding celebrations are traditionally toasted with a glass of hibiscus tea…[and] karkade is used as a means to lower blood pressure if consumed in high amounts.” So, something to consider trying. 

I also decided to order some pastries. They gave me a rather large selection of six pastries for $5.95. These two pieces of three types. These were served warm. The first of these was baspusa (Basbousa), which is made of semolina soaked in syrup. To me it tasted like an extremely sweet and moist pastry with little other flavor. The semolina was soft and did not have the semolina texture of many Indian sweets I am used to. The second pastry was konafa (kanafeh), which was like a bunch of thin semolina noodles fried, soaked in syrup, and then cut into a square. I found this more pleasing than the baspusa because it had more texture. The final item was baklava, but formed into a donut shape with pistachios in the center and being baklava, was delicious. They also had rice pudding, flan, and mahalabia, all types of custard which I did not try.    

For a week night, it wasn’t that full aside from the men smoking hookahs along the walls. I definitely smelled like hookah after I left, but I suppose that’s the nature of the restaurant. 

Total: $16.22 excluding tax (one entree, one beverage, dessert selection)

The Lebanese Taverna is located in Tysons II mall in what they are now calling “West McLean” (?) at the ground level of the mall adjacent Saks Fifth Avenue. The restaurant is high-end with exposed stone, wood paneling, and recessed lighting. There are three dining areas: a bar/cafe area, an outdoor seating area, and an indoor dining room. There is a full bar with a huge selection, including Johnny Walker Blue at $30/shot. We ate outside because you can smoke out there and they make it feel formal and nice.  

We found the service to be unhelpful. Luckily, we were able to order some sort of fixed price meal that included appetizers and entrees. The waiter assured us that we would get an good assortment of vague things.

Lebanese Cuisine

I read that animal fats are consumed sparingly in Lebanese cuisine, according to Wikipedia. When animal fats are consumed, they are typically poultry rather than red meat. I was surprised by this because I generally think of Lebanese food as being meat centric and mostly red meat focused (perhaps this is because this is American Lebanese food?). They say that Lebanese food contains large amounts of garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice and these are included at every meal. Also, most foods are grilled, baked, or sauteed in olive oil, which seems true since our meal contained no fried foods.

The food is typically served mezze style, similar to tapas with a variety of small dishes of differing textures and tastes. I would say this was definitely true of the appetizers, which were quite traditional. Wikipedia noted that the mezze course generally has hot and cold dishes and typically hummus (a dip made of blended chickpeas, sesame tahini, lemon juice, and garlic served), baba ghanouj (char-grilled eggplant, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic puree), falafels (deep fried spiced ground chick pea patties), tabbouleh (diced parsley salad with burghul, tomato, and mint), stuffed grape leaves (a.k.a. wara’ enab). We were served all of these items. Although these portions were served similar to tapas, the portions were quite large.

One of the sauces I love is the ubiquitous extremely garlicky white sauce. This sauce is called toum/toumeh/toomeh and is a garlic dip typically served with shawarma. I always wondered what was in it and I found a recipe that lists egg yolks, vinegar, mustard, salt, olive oil, and garlic as the ingredients, but also also a second recipe that contains yogurt, olive oil, garlic, mint leaves, and salt. I think I typically get the former style of dip.

I found that kibbeh is considered the national dish of Lebanon, and this interesting history of the dish from Sallybernstein.com:

The national dish of Lebanon is kibbeh, an emulsified paste of the freshest lamb and bulgur wheat. Think of kibbeh as a sort of Lebanese pate. Originally, kibbeh was made by pounding lamb with a jorn (mortar) and modaqqa (pestle), then kneading in spices and soaked bulgur. To some, that are unaccustomed to this procedure, this can be an unpleasant sight. The informative English food writer George Lassalle, in his book Middle Eastern Cuisine, East of Orphanides, describes kibbeh-making in the rural villages of Lebanon as “frightening.” He found the incessant pounding and kneading of the meat and bulgur both dreary and alarming. With the advent of the electric grinder and food processor this ancient method of kibbeh-making has all but stopped, except in the most rural villages. Often in American cities with large Lebanese and Syrian populations you’ll find butchers that specialize in “kibbeh meat”: lamb that is ground two or three times to form an emulsification.

Kibbeh can take on many forms, the most famous being kibbeh nayee (raw kibbeh) which is somewhat like steak tartar. Two other common forms of the food are kibbeh bil-saneeya (baked kibbeh) and kibbeh rass (fried kibbeh), both of which usually contain a filling of cooked meat and pinenuts. Baked kibbeh is layered in a pan with its stuffing and drizzled with olive oil, while fried kibbeh is shaped into miniature hollowed out footballs and then stuffed before being fried. Both of these cooked kibbeh are often served with refreshing yogurt sauce. Despite advancements in modern technologies, kibbeh-making is still an arduous task and usually reserved for holidays, festivals or Sunday dinner.

For our entrees, we did not eat any kibbeh, but instead we served kofta (listed as Mixed Grill), which are fingers of minced meat and spiced that are baked or grilled on skewers. We were also served shawarma: marinated meat (chicken or lamb) that is skewered on big rods and slowly cooked, then shaved and eaten with pita and condiments (listed as Mixed Shawarma). These were served in huge portions along with lots of fresh pita.

Although I read that drinks aren’t typically served with the meal, we certainly drank during our meal and sampled some Lebanese beer called Almaza – apparently owned by Heineken! Coffee is a staple at the end of the meal. Although we had beer, Arak is the national drink of Lebanon, similar to anise-flavored liquers like Ouzo and Sambuca.

For dessert we sampled a sort of fried dough dessert covered in honey and served with saffron yoghurt and rose water as well as a pistachio and honey bread pudding with ice cream. We didn’t have any baklava, but what distinguishes Lebanese baklava from other types is that it is often drizzled with rose water syrup and contains pistachios, versus walnuts and honey in Greek baklava.

Total: About $25-$30 per person