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Afghan Cuisine
| Article
# : |
13460 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1987 |
1,101 Words |
| Author
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Eloise Paananen
Eloise Paananen is a food and travel writer based in
Washington, D.C. |
If you consider exotic dining amid fragrant aromas of spices and mysterious surprises in vegetable cookery to be among life's grandest pleasures, pull up a cushion and taste what the Afghans have to offer.
Under a tent are large platters and pots filled with delicacies bearing strange-sounding names. Chalau (rice) and Korma (sauce), Kebab (chicken or lamb), Naun (whole meal bread), or Lawash (whole meal flat bread). Excellent tea comes much later, long after a desert of perhaps Baklava (paper-thin layers of honey-soaked pastry and walnuts) or Gosh-E-Feel (fried pastry in the shape of elephant's ear, dusted with cardamom, sugar, and pistachios).
The food is placed on a cloth spread over a carpet. Guests are usually given an individual bowl or plate but no silverware, because fool is generally eaten with the fingers of the right hand after the traditional hand washing. Bread is used for scooping up soft foods. Bowls of raw vegetables, plenty of fresh fruit, salads, pickles, and yogurt are prominently displayed. We are expected to enjoy large quantities of everything, including buttermilk or the yogurt drink called Dug.
It is a leisurely, non-fast-food occasion that demonstrates family closeness, religious and cultural traditions, and abundant hospitality.
Afghan cuisine resembles Indian curries and Pakistani staples. "The main difference is that we use more vegetables, fresh fruits, and nuts than do the others," says gourmet restaurateur Zalmi
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