United Nations of Food: Afghan in New York City

I tick off Afghanistan and Pakistan in my quest to eat food from every country in the United Nations.

When you think of Afghanistan, food is not what springs to mind for most people. But if you get the opportunity to try Afghan food, you should – it’s quite delicious!

So what is Afghan food like? Well, it’s kind of a cross between Pakistani and Iranian/Persian food. This makes sense given the fact that Afghanistan borders Iran to the west and Pakistan to the east.

Still in the dark? If you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend you seek out Iranian food – often called Persian food to invoke the great ancient Persian empire and avoid any uncomfortable modern political associations. It has certain elements in common with other Middle Eastern cuisines such as that of Lebanon and Syria, which I have covered previously in the United Nations of Food series, but it’s also quite distinctive.

Meanwhile, Pakistani and Indian food have a lot in common – though to talk about Indian food as if it’s just one thing is quite misleading. India is a huge country and its regions have distinctive food traditions. Still, if you had only ever been to Indian restaurants and you went to a Pakistani restaurant for the first time, you would recognise many items on the menu – curries, tandoori meats, naan breads and roti.

By the way, my favourite Pakistani restaurant, and one of my favourite restaurants in London, is Tayyabs (also known as New Tayyabs) in Whitechapel. I used to live in the East End and went regularly – there is often a long queue unless you book in advance but the advantage of living nearby is that you can get take-away and skip the lines. All their food was awesome but I particularly recall the tinda masala or baby pumpkin curry. Helen at Food Stories has some pictures of the dish on her blog.

Tayyabs
83-89, Fieldgate St
London E1 1JU
Tel: +44 (0)20 7247 6400
Email: info@tayyabs.co.uk
Web: tayyabs.co.uk

Bamiyan Afghan Restaurant

Anyway, back to Afghan food… When I was in New York City for the Travel Bloggers Exchange conference in June, I wanted to catch up with my friends Alex and Kachina and their little boy who live in Manhattan. They suggested going to Bamiyan on the Lower East Side for dinner, one of their favourites. I assume the restaurant is named after the Bamiyan Buddhas – the giant sculptures of the Buddha that were destroyed by the Taliban right before the US invasion. (It’s a loss to the world that still upsets me greatly).

We scored a table in the window where we sat on cushions close to the floor. Now, I may have eaten Afghan food before but I don’t recall so for all intents and purposes, this was my first time. I let my friends do the ordering since they were regulars. The food was delicious!

My impression was that it has curries like in Pakistan but the Iranian influences come through with the delicate spicing and interplay of sweet and savoury flavours. It’s not hot like some Indian and Pakistani dishes – I couldn’t detect any chilli pepper. The kebabs and pastry desserts also struck me as coming more from the Iranian side. The carb component was mostly rice and bread but I also noted pastas and dumplings on the menu.

I don’t normally like to take photos in restaurants but since the restaurant was quiet and we were tucked away in the corner, I decided to make an exception this time. It got more difficult as it got dark as I didn’t have a fast lens with me, so forgive the occasional blurriness especially for the desserts.

We started with an appetiser called kadu – turnovers filled with pumpkin, with yogurt dip on the side. This was interesting because the turnovers were very sweet and I could imagine eating them as a dessert, but the yogurt dip was definitely savoury.

We also had kebab. I’m pretty sure this was the morgh – marinated pieces of boneless chicken breast with basmati rice.

For the mains we had an amazing chicken dish called fesenjan. I know it looks darker than chicken usually does – that’s partly the cut and partly that’s the way it’s cooked. It’s described on the menu as “sweet and sour tender pieces of boneless chicken, simmered gently with walnuts and pomegranate juice; served with white basmati rice”. It was one of my favourite dishes – I love the tangy sweetness of the pomegranate, which is a distinctly Middle Eastern flavour.

We also had lamb – specifically Quorma Baunjaun with Lamb. The chunks of tender lamb were served with eggplant sauteéd with onions, green peppers and tomatoes, and basmati rice.

There was Afghan bread to mop up the juices.

For dessert we had phirnee, a creamy rice-flour pudding with pistachios and rose water…

… and baklava with nuts and honey.

Bamiyan Afghan Restaurant
358 Third Ave (at 26th St)
New York, NY 10016
Tel: +1 212 481 3232
Web: bamiyan.com

United Nations of Food

I’m on a quest to eat food from every member country of the United Nations and write about it on the blog, So far I’ve written about Uruguay and Colombia, China, Japan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, Mexico, New Zealand and Ghana and all posts are tagged as UN Food Challenge. Now, with Pakistan and Afghanistan, I’ve covered 12 and there’s 180 to go.

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