Next Stop Afghanistan

Our anniversary celebration took place at Kabul Grill on Long Island. From the Midwest to the capitol of Afghanistan is a far distance in country, climate, and culture. We had no plans of a dinner place when we rode the train to Long Island, but it wasn’t an accident that after a morning spent touring Old Bethpage Village, we chose this place for the Uber driver to drop us off.

We could not have chosen better. Rafi greeted and seated us, showing the hospitality that the Afghani people are known for. We made our choices of eggplant with yogurt, naan, chicken kebab with its mild seasonings and saffron, and rice with raisins and carrots.

Rafi, the owner, wanted to know what brought us here. When he heard we were celebrating our 43rd anniversary, he brought a second salad.

“Are you Muslim?”

“One hundred percent. What about you? Rafi asked.

“Christian.”

Later a man came in to get catered food for a Passover meal. He explained to us that this is the traditional food his Jewish grandmother made. (There were once tens of thousands of Jews in Afghanistan. Now there are none.) The Jew, the Muslim, and the Christians had a most amiable conversation in this peaceful country far from the turmoil in Kabul.

Above our heads hung the famous National Geographic picture of the 12-year-old Afghani girl in Pakistan. I mentioned we’d seen the same picture in a favorite restaurant near our place, but sadly, the restaurant closed. Rafi said the owner had died. I told him we’d met the man who started Edible Arrangements at the restaurant. “Do you know about him?”

“I know all about it,” he said looking down and giving a little kick that said, we don’t want to talk about this. Instead, I commented about the large, homemade kites decorating the walls. “Do these symbolize kite fighting?”

Rafi lit up. Kite fighting, now that was something he loved talking about. It’s the sport of their country. We once passed by a park with a sign, “No kite fighting!” Rafi couldn’t explain why Mayor Giuliani outlawed the sport of trying to cut your opponent’s kite string. Rafi said that it’s a colorful scene that people like to watch.

We don’t usually get dessert in a restaurant, but we were celebrating so we ordered baklava.

“Do you want baklava or custard?” Rafi asked.

Custard? That tempted us, but we stuck with the baklava. “You’re going to make us fat,” I said when I saw the large serving of the layered filo pastry, nuts, and syrup.

Finally, we finished and paid. As we walked toward the exit, Rafi appeared with custard. He handed it to Laurence saying, “You take good care of that wife of yours.”

A short train trip away on Long Island we experienced the food and culture of Afghanistan.  Berniece