Afghan Home's Excellent Reputation Is Deserved

CRUMPETS

Afghan Home's excellent reputation is deserved

By CONSTANCE CRUMP

NEWS RESTAURANT REVIEWER

Between decking the halls and baking up a storm, the Crumpets were privileged last week to enjoy a banquet at the Afghan Family Home Restaurant. The recipient of much publicity and acclaim, all deserved, the establishment was declared one of America’s 100 best new restaurants by Esquire magazine last year. Our feast fully supported the brouhaha.

Sandwiched between women’s clothes and fabrics, a pharmacy and a shoe outlet, the Afghan Home’s location in a strip shopping center is not chic. The lovely banquet room could not accommodate all the Crumpets (it’s designed for around ten diners) so we took the center tables in the main dining room.

THE FEASTING began on a light note, a cucumber, tomato and onion salad in vinaigrette; served in a clear glass bowl. Naun, Afghan flat bread cut in squares from a large loaf, accompanied the salad. Aush was the soup course, a very thick vegetable-noodle concoction that reminded one Crumpet of minestrone. The spices, however, are different. Kidney beans, garbanzos (chick peas, if you prefer) and flat noodles in a yogurt-based broth, with a ground beef and mint garnish compose a refreshing start to a meal that would have been forbidding had we known the quantity of food to come.

Spiced spinach arrived - Popeye meets Arabian Nights. Afghanistan is Iran’s next door neighbor, and many of the Persian flavor combinations are also common in Afghani cuisine. The seasonings are complex and unoccidental - though delicious. This dish is my personal favorite although it has stiff competition from the buranee badenjan - spiced eggplant sauted in oil and sauced in yogurt.

THE EGGPLANT made all the vegetarians in the company purr with content. One Crumpet, formerly acquainted with the fruit only through eggplant Parmesan, found the dish a revelation. Its perfectly balanced blend of spices, not hot, not sweet, but a little of both, are infinitely satisfying.

Shish-kebab proved to be Waterloo for at least one (former) vegetarian in the group, who said in his own defense, “I’ll make an exception for meat if it’s really exceptional.” The shish-kebab, big cubes of lamb with peppers (green), onions (white), and mushrooms is cooked over a grill to char-broiled perfection. Carnivores ate all eagerly. Confirmed vegetarians questioned their philosophical commitment

Quabilli palaw, chalaw and aushak arrived to close the entree part of the banquet. The first is a brown rice, almonds, raisins, carrot strips and lamb chunks delicately seasoned with cinnamon and other spices usually reserved for sweets in Western kitchens. It is delicious, although some Crumpets found the cinnamon a bit much. Chalaw is subtly spiced white rice, somewhat overwhelmed by the other splendors of the banquet, but a welcome break for spiced-out palates.

Aushak are delicious Afghan won-tons, deep-fried dumplings filled with scallions, and topped with ground beef and yogurt with mint, all beautifully seasoned. (It becomes almost redundent to write about the spices, but every dish is superbly balanced and unique, although sharing a similar spirit).

Nearly surfeited, the Crumpets enjoyed Afghan tea, chai, spiced with cardamom. Desserts are out of this Western world, including deep-fried coils of pastry soaked in honey, rosewater and cardamom (jalabi); baghlawa, a relative of baklava with a rosewater fillip; and sheerbrinje, an almond and pistachio-studded rice pudding.

THE SERVICE was superior throughout. “No problem” is the customer service motto at Afghan Home. This philosophy is often expressed at other establishments, but seldom carried out with the same gracious air as AHFR. To provide not only adequate, but excellent service for such a large group is no small achievement. To do so for about $17 per person is amazing.

The level of service offered in restaurants operated by non-native speakers of English makes one embarrassed for the service traditions in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Apparently the American tradition of hurry up and wait is being challenged by new and more gracious practices that do not perceive personal service as demeaning, but elevate it to art. Pass the melting pot, please.

Afghan Home Restaurant

331 N. Maple (in the Maple Village Shopping Center)

662-9707

FOOD                   9 out of 10
SERVICE             10 out of 10
ATMOSPHERE    8 out of 10

HOURS: Lunch daily (including Sunday) from 11:30 a.m. until 3 p.m; Dinner, Mon. — Sat., from 5 until 10 p.m., Sunday until 8 p.m.

LIQUOR: None

PLASTIC: All major credit cards.

PRICES: Moderate. Dinner for two, around $20 to $25 with tip.
 

NEWS PHOTO-DAVID DWORKIN

Afghan Home's Zahra Raiyn and delicacies.