Kabul Afghan Cuisine

Address:
106 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Phone:
(215) 922-3676

Reviews

Surprises at Kabul: The crowds, the flavors, The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 26, 2001
To dispatch an invitation to Kabul in this edgy moment had political resonance, as Helen Cunningham well knew. She wasn't confident she'd get many takers. Nor she was certain what she'd find when she got there: "I figured the place would either be dead or full of Quakers." But by last Friday night, a curious thing had happened at her favorite Afghan cafe, here at the far eastern end of Chestnut Street.

The table for 12 that she'd assembled at the back of Kabul's evocative, dimly lit dining room barely had space to squeeze in. Beneath the ornate samovars and a water pipe called chalam, every seat in the 50-seat house was filled. There was a foursome of Chinese students. There was a table of three Iranians. Fully half the crowd, owner Kabir Sultani estimated, were newcomers sampling for the first time the mysteries of Afghanistan's delicate scallion dumplings, savory pumpkin ravioli, and fragrant saffron rice laced with pistachios and orange peel infused with rosewater.

The novices appeared to be, Sultani observed, pleasantly, contentedly surprised by their tentative initial encounter with Afghan cuisine. It was not, perhaps, what they were expecting, if they had any expectations at all - like much else about the fractious mountain kingdom that drifts in and out of America's gaze, never achieving sustained focus. The cookery's ingredients are as humble as the land - chunks of lamb, sometimes skewered, and eggplant, mashed pumpkin, and a tart, thin yogurt called maast. But they create an inventive born of the ancient influences of the Silk Road, dishes softly redolent of cinnamon, cardamom and cumin, hinting of Persia more than the challenging peppery offerings associated with India's north.

Who knows what the days ahead will bring? After the late night bars have emptied in Old City, chants of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" have been heard menacingly in the streets. And at the decidedly inauthentic Moroccan fantasy that is Tangerine, the hostess confessed to some mild anxiety. But so far, Kabul - for 10 years now a mainstay at 106 Chestnut - has been a focus more of curiosity and empathy than of the recent surge of indiscriminate anti-Arab sentiment. For her part, Cunningham, who heads the Fels Fund, the Philadelphia charitable foundation, had collected her party (including gallery owner Helen Drutt English and farm-market activist Bob Pierson) to show solidarity with local Afghans of good will.

But Sultani pointed also to postcards of concern from old customers that he has tucked in the mirror frame behind the cash register. There have been encouraging phone calls as well, he said. Far from sympathizing with Afghanistan's repressive Taliban regime, he and his partners lament the dark age it has heralded. They are painted by the abysmal hunger and debasing poverty. In the alternate Afghan universe that is Kabul, over fluffy clouds of rice and the patter of drums, Helen Cunningham surveyed the peaceable kingdom, basking in her modest and unexpected triumph.

-By Rick Nichols, The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 26, 2001, F1-F2.

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