WRITING CULTURE 2012: Film, Food & Beyond

I have been a blank slate when it comes to food. Before I moved to this fast-moving city, I kept myself going on diets of hamburgers, Arizona iced teas and canned chili.
Obviously not the best diet.
After moving to this bustling city, I began to experiment with different types of food, starting with the very cultural choice of having a side of pork-fried rice instead of white rice with my orange chicken.
After a few crash test tastings of food, I eventually found myself eating dishes like Tokyo Spicy Curry at the ramen spot near Baruch, Pad Thai with extra peanut sauce and spice at Little Basil, and now finally, I have overcome one of the greater obstacles in my journey: food from Afghanistan.

The restaurant itself was like entering into an adventure of it’s own. The front door is adorned with a tree that seems to branch out and then fall into the patterns constructed from glass tiles.
As I stepped in, a smell of tea and some sort of stew filled my nose. Being that it was only three in the afternoon, we had the place to ourselves. After we sat down, we all ordered our own drinks and dishes.
To start of my foray into the unknown tastes of Afghanistan, I started with a kettle of Shir-Chay.
It is a simple tea, but one that is traditionally drank by most Afghans. The drink is construed from a mix of milk, sugar, cardamom and rose petals.

When I was expecting the drink, the idea of rose petals floating around in my drink did not sound like a possiblity that would be too far off.
I was given a pot and a glass and the server then poured my first glass. I must disclose that I was surprised to find that a liquid that looked like coffee with cream in it came out, sans the rose petals.
The moment that the concoction touched my lips, I was instantly in love. It had a sweet taste that tickled the sense as it went down.

I was surprised by how much that I liked the tea. I finished my first glass and was overtaken by a melancholic feeling, thinking that  I was out of tea. This sadness was wiped from my being once I reach over and lifted the kettle, which shook due to the fluid that took up its interior.
Then came the time to order. i was having quite a lot of trouble deciding, but one must afford me a touch of sympathy due to my lack of cultural know-how.
I may have ventured into new foods schnozz first, but this time I had no previous coaching or encounters with the food.
After some serious soul-searching, I decided to order an Afghani pasta dish called Asheh Gooshi.
The name itself was enough to intimidate the daring food tester in me, but the ingredients cast an allure over me that was impossible to overcome.
The noodles themselves were homemade in the house, and they were topped with a lamb meat sauce combined with a large dose of yogurt sauce.
I continued to sip on my tea until I saw the waitress coming around the bend. Her hands were revealed from behind the walls and I set eyes upon my dish.

The noodles were wide, but thin, and covered with a red and and white sea of sauce with small islands of meat poking out from the top.

To consume such a meal is unheard of in my small tribe of Long Island dwelling compatriots.
The most cultural dish one can find out in the sticks of Farmingville is a small sushi joint that would surely have garnered a “Pending” grade from the department of health.
I dove into the meal, not knowing what exactly to expect from the multi-colored meal, but the moment the first forkful of noodles, meat, and red and white sauces hit my palate, I was hooked.
The dominant taste of the dish was was tangy, due to the yogurt, but once one moved past the initial sour demeanor of the sauce, the flavor of the spiced meat kicks in. All of this was brought together by broad noodles, which had a slightly salty flavor that completed the dish.
Overall, my experience at Bamiyan was one that I left me stunned. The food and drinks were top notch and the prices, although a bit high, were not as bad as they could have been. My impression were that this is some real authentic cuisine, and it is food that is prepared with a strong sense of culture and spice behind behind each meal.