Have You Eaten Afghanistan Food?

Have You Eaten Afghanistan Food?

Jack and I love the food at the Afghan Famous Kabob Restaurant on Route #29 in Gainesville, VA. The restaurant is now in a new location since the old building it used to be in has been torn down for the future realignment of #29 with the Southern Railway train tracks in Gainesville. All the meats here are Halal which means the animals are butchered and dressed according to Islamic religious principals. I just know that their meat kabobs and their Afghan style gyro sandwiches are the very best. I love the spicy green yogurt sauce they serve with the gyros.

The restaurant has lots of live plants growing in pots along the ceiling and a row of smoking pipes on display on a shelf. The smoking pipes are called hookahs.

Remember this photo of the young Afghanistan girl from the cover of National Geographic magazine in the 90's ? The girl had such a striking face that this photo became famous around the world. I've read that since then this girl has become an adult and that she is married now and has children.
Here is a striking photo of an Afghanistan man. Maybe this photo was taken by the same photographer as the photo above. I do know that one time when we came to this restaurant we learned that one the restaurant workers was related thru his sister's marriage to the California doctor, Khaled Hussein, who wrote both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Both of these novels although disturbing and depressing are worth reading.

Here are our Afghan gyros with the spicy green sauce.

And this is what Jack and I had for dessert.

Afghan Baqlawa which is thin layers of syrup-soaked phyllo dough with walnuts topped with ground pistachios. It is much like Greek baklava since both countries feature middle eastern cuisine. It was very sweet and very good. Yum, yum!

I wonder about the war still raging violently in Afghanistan. It has been going on now for over eight years. Will this current surge work and will we begin a draw down of troops next year?

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And five years from now I wonder what will be going on in Afghanistan and if the Afghan people will be living in peace. What do you think? If you have any thoughts on this subject leave me a comment.