Chef at Large

Anyhow, more of an eating house than a restaurant the way we all expect it, Afghan is a very small place (20 covers in all) with a few tables and a ‘takht’ in one corner. The takht is a raised platform covered with carpets on and behind it. A traditional form of eating, it was quite refreshing and different to sit cross legged and eat. I’ll bet most of us haven’t done so in quite a while.

First off, we were served water only on asking about 20 minutes later, the service is raw, uninformed but friendly and finally, the place is a bit dodgy at best.

We started with the Manto and a chicken leg kebab. Mantos are Afghanistans answer to the Tibetan momo or Chinese dimsum. Composed of lightly spiced meat in a flour shell, it is steamed and served covered with one layer of beaten yoghurt and a second layer of a tomato based dressing. The chicken leg kebabs were heavily scored chicken legs, coated with dry (I think) spices and deep fried. They appeared burnt and rather dark initially, but were perfectly cooked and quite delicious when we actually bit into them.

One thing about Afghani food is the nearly total lack of spices or more specifically, the chilli hot spices. The food isn’t bland, it has seasonings and spices, but hardly any red or green chillies. The owner Wahidullah Noory, who took over the place a year back, says Afghani people sometimes walk in after not having eaten anything substantial for 1 - 2 days because they cannot tolerate the spicy nature of Indian food. Apparently 80% of their customers are Afghanis and 20% are Indian Kashmiris and foreign tourists.

Continuing our repast, we ordered Dogh, Dashi kebab and a mutton korma with Afghani naans. Dogh is a lassi (watered yoghurt whipped with some spices) with mint, onion, tomato and salt, served in large beer mugs. The Dashi kebab are mutton ribs served in an oily gravy composed wholly of half fried onions and some spices. The korma was unlike any other korma I’ve eaten anywhere else. Essentially very well done mutton in a thickish onion tomato gravy. The naans again were unlike any other naan I’ve eaten. Served in square portions, it was totally devoid of oil, made of whole wheat flour and quite springy in texture.

So, there we were, sitting cross legged on a carpeted takht, with large single portions of food in front of us, naans in hand and doing our best to demolish everything. By the way, we weren’t eating in individual plates - we did it Afghani style - all for one and one for all - all of us ate from the same portions only keeping our naans and Doghs to ourselves.

We also chanced upon an elderly, huge, gruff looking Afghani gentleman named Mohd Alim. He apparently was/is the head of the Afghanistan High Court. When I requested a little smile for my photo, while he obliged, he also said that “We’ll smile only when our country is free of war”. Surprisingly soft spoken and gentle in demeanor, he too had come here for an authentic Afghani meal.

Summarising, we had 1 portion each of Manto, chicken leg kebab, doshi kebab and mutton korma. We had 3 portions of Dogh and naan. The damages for a meal for three came to INR 460 - which was surprisingly low. They do home deliveries, takeaways and accept credit cards.

Afghan: H-7, Krishna Market, Near Gurudwara, Lajpat Nagar - I, +91.98734-28432