Afghan food seen from a foreigners view

[al-arab]

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

I have not seen a similar thread so I make one now.

I have not tasted much Afghan/Pashtun food but I will try Pashtun/Afghan food for the first time from a restaurant this week in Jeddah.

If you hosted a foreginer what would you offer him of food if you should choose? Special Pashtun recipes and very good dishes? Something unique to Afghan cuisine?

wassalam

[badmash_khel]

What sort of food do you like usually? Rice, Qormas, Noodles, pastas (italian)?

[Old School Killiwal]

In Afghanistan, it is a known fact that most of the famous and best tasting dishes, like mantu, pulao, aushak, naan, etc. all originate from the Uzbeks. I would probably serve these to my guests.

I prefer the normal everyday food we eat, however. There is something called "weshalai" which is called "anday ka paratha" by Peshawaris, that's the best thing ever.

[badmash_khel]

^
Mantu and Aushak might have come from either uzbeks or hazaras but not qabili palau. Uzbeks have their own palau called uzbek palau, its more fattier and heavy than normal qabli palau. The Uzbeks themselves were nomadic tribes who didn't have a sophisticated culture. Most of their culture is from indo-european tribes of central asia. The Uzbeks are just another wild horde of nomads like Mongols from central asian steppes. The biggest and most cultured cities in uzbekistan are ancient indo-european origin like samarqand, bukhara and khiva.

[Old School Killiwal]

weeshalai?
i think you mean eeshela.

Most Pashtuns call it eeshala but we say weshalai.
You can also find it in Somali and Ethopian restaurants.

[Old School Killiwal]

^
Mantu and Aushak might have come from either uzbeks or hazaras but not qabili palau. Uzbeks have their own palau called uzbek palau, its more fattier and heavy than normal qabli palau. The Uzbeks themselves were nomadic tribes who didn't have a sophisticated culture. Most of their culture is from indo-european tribes of central asia. The Uzbeks are just another wild horde of nomads like Mongols from central asian steppes. The biggest and most cultured cities in uzbekistan are ancient indo-european origin like samarqand, bukhara and khiva.

From your recent Persia-centric posts, I can tell you are a Tajik sympathizer.

Joke.

[badmash_khel]

From your recent Persia-centric posts, I can tell you are a Tajik sympathizer.

Joke.

Well you are not wrong, I do have soft spot for our neighbours despite our recent past troubles. I cant deny my liking for balochis, tajiks, kashmiri, punjabis, pamiris. However, Iranians are a different case. I have met a wide variety from douchebags to very decent people. They tend to be cold hearted than other neighbours though.

[faye]

in iran, they were the warmest, most friendly muslims i met, going through to india.

that dish looks good killiwall. i will get the recipe.

[badmash_khel]

If you like Meat kababs (lamb) then go for Chapli kabab (peshawri style if they have it)



or Seekh kabab


Make sure to enjoy the kabab with white youghurt mint sauce.

If you like rice then you can order, uzbak palau, Qabli palau, sabzi chalaw. All rice dishes are good, you won't be dissapointed. Afghans make the best rice in the whole world. With rice make sure to order either Qormas like Do Piaza, Okra, pea Qorma or Pumpkin or Aubergine Borani.

If you like italian style raviolli then go for Mantu (meat dumplings with youghurt)


If you want same dish in vegetarian version then go for Ashak (vegetarian dumplings with youghurt)

You can also try Afghan noodle soup called Aush.

For desert have some green afghan tea with sweet dishes like Firni, Sher berenj, Jilabi etc.

sorry about the big images, can't resize :D

[Gulalai]

for guests you always have to have rice, ghwakha, and mantu.

i'd suggest khorwa too because all pashtuns always have khorwa

[Karachi]

I haven't tried much of pashtun food either, except Chapli kabab, which I love. Other Afghan food I have tried, but not all items, I am still yet to try mantu

[torkham]

forgot bolani and borani. sorry couldn't find a pic.

[faizkhan]

Alaka pa da saag ao shumla oskay!

[یاسمینه]

Where can I find recipe of traditional Afghan/Pashtun food? I want my wife to try and make some Afghan food. One of my Pashtun friends from University, one day I tasted a very good soup that had noodles, different vegatables and tomato and mint leaves or similar. He told me the name but I have forgot it now.

Is it similar to any Afghan food or is it more Pakistani? It should be Afghan because he is from Qandahar and not Pakistan.

Al Arab, in our kitabtoon you can find an Afghan cookbook in English. I hope you/your wife will find lots of interesting and yummy recipes.

http://www.pashtunforums.com/showthread.php?t=24626

Bon appetit

[abassinafghan]

the average pashtun dish , is shlombe , some leaf of breads some tomato or some onions with it or some other veggies if the people have a bar . once in a while depending on the income , a soup with a few pieces of meat .

eggs are expensive, meat so expensive that 90% can not afford it on a daily basis . or even a weekly basis . same goes for all those tasty and refined dishes ...