Last Sunday, a few of us on Basement crew gathered to relax (sitting!) and enjoy each other's company above ground. Especially after the packing marathon that was the March 1 due date. We dined at the Helmand Restaurant in San Francisco. The story goes that this restaurant (and a sister restaurant in Cambridge, MA; cti, check it out!) was owned by one of President Karzai's brothers. Up until a couple years ago, the restaurant was in North Beach by Telegraph Hill, but a rock slide red-tagged the building, and now the restaurant is on Van Ness Ave. Our group included Annette, Carol, Deborah, Pam, and Teresa and her husband and son. I had my camera in my knitting bag, but somehow forgot to take photos (didn't knit either). Still kicking myself. A few days later, I stopped by with my camera, and owner Daoud took some photos for us. Not as much fun as seeing the smiling faces of our group, but wanted you to see --
Pallow rice with raisins and carrots --
Teresa's vegetarian dish was beautiful and included pumpkin (is this the dish, Teresa)?
Not sure if any of us ordered this, but had to show some lamb --
Muhammed always warmly greets us --
Ann and Daoud
Ann always orders vegetarian Aushak, a ravioli filled with leeks
The Afghans are celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year and celebration of the Spring Equinox. Best wishes for peace and prosperity is a traditional greeting. Nowruz Mubarak!
Want to know more about Afghan food and the new year holiday? Read our Afghan-American friend Humaira's recent post on her
Afghan Cooking Unveiled blog.
4 comments:
I attended this informal get-together and thoroughly enjoyed it. In the basement there is no time for chit-chat. So, getting to know each other personally was great. I had a lamb and spinach dish that was delicious. I hope there are more of these in the future.
Yes, that was my vegetarian special: a beautiful composition of spinach, tomato-ey okra, silky eggplant, a creamy pumpkin dish that tastes like candy(that my 19-year-old son is addicted to--Helmand is one of his favorite restaurants) and of course that wonderful rice, yummy! and I'm not even vegetarian! Great food, great conversation!
--Teresa
This sounds so delicious!
I emailed Church World Service in Afghanistan to wish them a Happy Nowruz, and I mentioned that we recently enjoyed an Afghan dinner here. They invited us to Kabul -- and said the local food is very good. How's that for an invitation!
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