What do Afghan food and Thanksgiving have in common?

Pumpkin.

Yup.

Professor gave me leave to post about something non-news related, so how wrong can one go when blogging about food? I mean, look at This is Why You're Fat. I've checked that website out enough times to have a cholesterol-induced coma just from looking at the pictures.

My first taste of Afghan food was in 2009, while I was interning in Washington DC. Before I took off for the capital, I bombarded my cousin for tips on how to survive without dying of starvation or wandering into the wrong quadrant and getting mugged. Her response: "try the Afghan Grill at Adams Morgan!" (No tips on safe areas, thanks cuz.)

So I did.

Adams Morgan was a pretty good meeting point, as a friend of mine was also in DC and we figured why not grab a bite together? Even with the frequent delays on the Red Line, it wasn't too difficult to get there. The escalators, on the other hand, were probably one of the scariest things I've had to go on. Call me a wimp, but I hate heights. And I hate escalators that are so long you look like you're descending into the bottomless pit of 300 as you get on at the top, and steep enough to go climbing on with belays and possibly a pickaxe.

Anyway, back to the food. Afghan Grill is this tiny little place on the 2nd floor of one of the townhouses around the corner from the station, and there weren't a lot of people there when we arrived (early evening), but the staff were pretty friendly and got us a window table. Then we looked at the menu.

The specialty was Kadu Buranee, which is lamb with pumpkin, yoghurt, and rice. But I didn't go for it (which I should have), and my friend got it. I instead chose Qabili Palao, which was lamb (or chicken) with raisins and carrots.

About 15 minutes later, a plate the size of my head was plonked down in front of me piled high with rice and lamb. Let the demolition begin.

I have absolutely no idea how authentic the food was. It looked reasonably true to style. I mean, there are Chinese restaurants all over the world; some are the genuine thing, others sell stuff like "chop suey". I'm sorry, I'd never heard of the stuff until I LEFT China. But besides authenticity, I just need to know if at least tastes good.

And this rice and lamb was good. Sweet, thanks to the raisins and whatever they'd cooked the carrots in, and pretty tender too. Then I tried a bit of my friend's dish, and MMM PUMPKIN AND LAMB. The lamb was more of a meat sauce covering the pumpkin, so you got to mix it into the rice and therefore use only one utensil to eat the whole thing.

It really didn't take us long to polish off what we could, and even then there was some rice left. "Would you like some dessert?" Uh, no thanks, unless you want us to explode a la Mr. Creosote. We did try Turkish coffee though, which is a pretty interesting experience when you forget - and then remember - that the grounds are supposed to remain in your cup after the coffee has been boiled.

So in a nutshell, I really liked the place. The only drawback was the price, which is on the steep side for a semi-hole in the wall even for DC. Nevertheless, I went back a few weeks later, dragging another friend along. We thought we'd get smart and order appetizers to reduce the portion size. Until my friend ordered the appetizer sampler.

We waddled home.