Ethnic Food Project

Kabul Kabob House is a small restaurant in the Van Dorn area of Alexandria. They cater primarily to the neighborhood and consequently, the restaurant has plastic table cloths, no table service, and is geared toward a low-maintenance lunch crowd. They offer a lunchtime buffet and dinner. The restaurant is staffed by a perpetually friendly lady works long hours and is comes up with the menu herself. The signage states that the food is halaal.The menu is quite large and has a lot of options, including kabob, tandori, palou, chalou, and sambosa, aushak, mastawa, aush, etc.

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)

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Dona Azucena Autentico Comida Salvadorena’s is a narrow restaurant tucked in between others near the intersection of Glebe Road and Pershing Drive in Arlington. When I went there on a Saturday night, it was packed with lines inside the door. The interior is similar to a diner or fast food place, but they have servers and the place was packed with what I can assume are local Salvadoreans. Even though the restaurant was nondescript, the profusion of Christmas decorations made it really charming. You can carry out or eat-in and all the food is prepared in front of you.

Salvadoran cuisine is primarily influenced by the Maya, Lenca, and Pipil peoples. The Mayan people are the native populations that are spread throughout the Yucatan peninsula, not just in El Salvador. The Lenca people are the indigenous people that live in southwestern Honduras and in eastern El Salvador whose lives revolve around milpa (“field”), a crop-growing system. Lenca men cultivate coffee, cacao, tobacco, plantains, gourds, maize, wheat, beans, squash, sugarcane, and chili peppers. The Pipil peoples live in western El Salvador and speak a different dialect (called Nahuat or Pipil). This group has the strongest influence on the current culture of El Salvador, and a large portion of the population claims Pipil ancestry, despite the fact that few speak the language.

The standard and most well-known dish from El Salvador is the pupusa, which we ordered. They were made in front of us by a group of women and were fresh and hot. The word pupusa comes from the Pipil word pupusawa. The traditional pupusa is made with thick hand-made corn flour and stuffed with cheese, chicarron (fried pork rinds), refried beans, and/or loroco (a vine flower). These are then flattened and grilled. In El Salvador, they sometimes use rice flour instead, however ours were definitely made with corn (this variation comes from Olocuiltaon the east side of San Salvador). In the United States, often they use commercially prepared corn flour (like Maseca). I’m not sure if we were served this.

In addition to pupusas, we ordered fried yuca (yuca frita), which was crisp and delicious. This dish is very typical and is deep fried cassava root. We also ordered fried plantains, which are also very typical. These were served with sour cream, which cuts the sweetness and is cold.

Along with all this came a massive amount of what resembled coleslaw. This mixture is called curtido and is pickled cabbage, onion, red chilies, vinegar, and carrots. The curtido was spicy and sour at the same time, with salsa placed on top. Perhaps the best description of it is that it is similar to a fusion of sauerkraut and coleslaw, with perhaps kimchi thrown in (sometimes it is allowed to ferment slightly at room temperature prior to serving). Salvaide states that the curtido is eaten with the pupusa, and people break aaprt the pupusa and pick up the curtido with it, but it is also eaten with most meals. Additionally, they state that pupusas are from the Pipil people almost three millenia ago. Tools to cook pupusas have been found in camp sits that age back almost 2,000 in Joya de Ceren, El Salvador.

Apparently sandwiches are popular food items in El Salvador, but they did not serve any. Another popular item that we did not try was a soup, which looked like it contained seafood.

We also tried a dessert called chilates that resembled a hush puppy, but was a dessert. It was a rather bland ball and served with a lot of syrup, which tasted strongly of molasses. Apparently chilates are served in a savory version, too. However, I have not been able to find much information on Salvadoren cuisine. We sampled some horchata, a traditional beverage made from ground rice. I’d had it before and remembered it being thin, sweet, milky and cinnamon flavored. However, this horchata was thick and tasted sort of like peanuts. I’m not sure if this is a variation on the typical horchata.

Unfortunately, we did not try other staples, like chicha (a mild alcoholic drink made from fermented ground corn), tres leches cake (a cake soaked in evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and cream, similar in taste to a cheesecake), or the infamous soup.

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