Today is the afghan new year (nav roz)..Marks the birth of Spring...Interestingly, I saw the first wild flowers yesterday in our lawn...
saal-e-nav mubarak!
Mar 21, 2006
Nav roz!
Today is the afghan new year (nav roz)..Marks the birth of Spring...Interestingly, I saw the first wild flowers yesterday in our lawn...
saal-e-nav mubarak!
Mar 20, 2006
naan mae kurdhi....3
Veggies skip this post...
afghan chicken biriyani...without the usual dry grapes and carrot garnishings,,,
potatoes in meat...afghan style!
afghan chicken biriyani...without the usual dry grapes and carrot garnishings,,,
potatoes in meat...afghan style!
Mar 19, 2006
fooddddu
Naan mae kurdhi?...2
Throughout history, Afghans have always been a warring tribe and never really advanced themselves in food skills. (Or, in fact anything). Their basic diet is afghan roti /afghan pulav with spice less chicken/beef/sheep. The best they have come up is the kebab…This is typical of any warring civilization. The women have less time for delicacies and even less resources for experiments. The food remains close to the basics.
The afghan roti is almost a meter long and half an inch thick. Nobody makes it at home. Everybody buys it from local bakeries for 6 afghanis a piece. Its ok when warm but gives your gums a good exercise when cold. I stopped eating it the day someone said that the dough is kneaded with the feet. Oops!
When Afghans (Mughals) came to India, they brought with them their basic military food-the afghan pulav. In military camps, there was no time for cooking meat separately. So it was cooked together with the rice. This kept evolving and finally found its present form as ‘Biriyani’ under the Nizam of Hyderabad (who was an expert cook thankfully)
So, Afghan pulav is the spiceless forefather of our modern Biriyani. Sometimes, slender slices of carrot and dry grapes are mixed for flavor or whatever.
Afghans have a typical way of eating. Only the meat is in the plate. What we usually call the side dish is actually the main dish here. The roti is always on the table. They take the meat in the right hand and a bite of roti with the left. I was so amused by this sight when I saw it the first time. I desperately wanted to show this sight to my family. .what a fuss they make with table manners!
Afghans consider vegetarians as very poor people who cannot afford a sheep.”Hey look at Abdullah buying potatoes and pumpkins.. he must have had a bad harvest of hashish this year.” Well, it’s sort of unfashionable to give importance to vegetables in this part of the world. So, in general it’s either meat or hunger. And they’ve had a fair share of both in their history.
Afghanistan has an attractive variety of fruits. Grapes (remember studying in history the famous Kabul grapes brought to India by Babur) , berries, water melon, apples, apricots, kenus(oranges), peaches are found in abundance in summer. I should also mention that nuts (pista, walnut, badam etc) form a big part of afghan snack diet.
Something the Afghans cannot live without is Tea – both black and green. I almost puked the first day I landed here when I sipped the green tea offered to me. I begged for milk and sugar the next day and from then on our cook serves me only ‘dhoodh-pathi’ (milk tea)…and I don’t care when I am looked at with amazement for adding milk to tea!
When compared to all of this, look at that way we south Indians have zoomed ahead in the kitchen sector. I was reading the comments of Tilo’s post to realize this. Our choice and variety of food is unparallel to anywhere on planet earth
The biggest sacrifice I had to make when coming to Kabul was food…the wonderful south Indian food… I come from ‘thinnu ketta’ Tamil nadu, the land of good food…! And of course I come from Madurai…the land of kuthu parotta and chalna! (my mouth is watering as I am typing this line *sigh*)
I don’t know what I would have done if not for the culinary skills of my junior architect SundaraPanidan. Necessity is the mother of invention… He learnt and improved his cooking skills in Kabul …the scapegoat was chiefly me. But he is a true professional by now.. (refer previous post for proof)
Of course, my specialty is hot water and scrambled eggs!
 |
| the famous afghan roti! |
The afghan roti is almost a meter long and half an inch thick. Nobody makes it at home. Everybody buys it from local bakeries for 6 afghanis a piece. Its ok when warm but gives your gums a good exercise when cold. I stopped eating it the day someone said that the dough is kneaded with the feet. Oops!
When Afghans (Mughals) came to India, they brought with them their basic military food-the afghan pulav. In military camps, there was no time for cooking meat separately. So it was cooked together with the rice. This kept evolving and finally found its present form as ‘Biriyani’ under the Nizam of Hyderabad (who was an expert cook thankfully)
So, Afghan pulav is the spiceless forefather of our modern Biriyani. Sometimes, slender slices of carrot and dry grapes are mixed for flavor or whatever.
Afghans have a typical way of eating. Only the meat is in the plate. What we usually call the side dish is actually the main dish here. The roti is always on the table. They take the meat in the right hand and a bite of roti with the left. I was so amused by this sight when I saw it the first time. I desperately wanted to show this sight to my family. .what a fuss they make with table manners!
 |
| the afghan kabab! |
Afghanistan has an attractive variety of fruits. Grapes (remember studying in history the famous Kabul grapes brought to India by Babur) , berries, water melon, apples, apricots, kenus(oranges), peaches are found in abundance in summer. I should also mention that nuts (pista, walnut, badam etc) form a big part of afghan snack diet.
Something the Afghans cannot live without is Tea – both black and green. I almost puked the first day I landed here when I sipped the green tea offered to me. I begged for milk and sugar the next day and from then on our cook serves me only ‘dhoodh-pathi’ (milk tea)…and I don’t care when I am looked at with amazement for adding milk to tea!
When compared to all of this, look at that way we south Indians have zoomed ahead in the kitchen sector. I was reading the comments of Tilo’s post to realize this. Our choice and variety of food is unparallel to anywhere on planet earth
The biggest sacrifice I had to make when coming to Kabul was food…the wonderful south Indian food… I come from ‘thinnu ketta’ Tamil nadu, the land of good food…! And of course I come from Madurai…the land of kuthu parotta and chalna! (my mouth is watering as I am typing this line *sigh*)
I don’t know what I would have done if not for the culinary skills of my junior architect SundaraPanidan. Necessity is the mother of invention… He learnt and improved his cooking skills in Kabul …the scapegoat was chiefly me. But he is a true professional by now.. (refer previous post for proof)
Of course, my specialty is hot water and scrambled eggs!
Mar 13, 2006
Mar 12, 2006
the moment...
Every photograph stands for a word, a feeling , a poem…Where Life is about continuation, photography is about the moment, the eternal moment!
Art trespasses all borders and eradicates all frontiers of race, culture and language.
With art an eternal expression is born that protects our sanity and serenity.
It brings peace when nothing else could and when everything seems to fall apart. Art breaks down the conventional and leaves behind the imprints of possibilities.
With Art we save ourselves;
With Art we pose the most vital questions.
Art trespasses all borders and eradicates all frontiers of race, culture and language.
With art an eternal expression is born that protects our sanity and serenity.
It brings peace when nothing else could and when everything seems to fall apart. Art breaks down the conventional and leaves behind the imprints of possibilities.
With Art we save ourselves;
With Art we pose the most vital questions.
Mar 9, 2006
Mar 8, 2006
Kabul this week...
Few snaps that i took on the way to the Kabul International airport (from my car)...
bagh-e-zanana...
Kabul has an exclusive women's park!!!
I have no idea if its used though!
The board thats hanging outside gives an idea that its probably under renovation with Japanese funds...
I just had a few seconds to snap the entry as i was passing it...not a good idea to snap anything related to women here!
Happy Women's Day !
Mar 6, 2006
gone with the wind...
She flew towards me in the flowing air
With an Icy look yet clothed in fire;A strange mix of fear and desire
Griped my soul , I stare, I perspire.
I got a glimpse of the moon lit face
So near yet miles afar;
So unreal yet there she was
A flickering lamp in the chilling air.
I strained my eyes but futile it was
As the moon was behind her now;
I kissed her shadow just before
She vanished with the wind.
She loved the wind and the wind loved me.
She loved the wind as the wind loved me.
(1991)
[Here Iam republishing a poem that was inspired by the American Poet Theodor Roethke. I had by chance come across an article about Roethke in 'Span' as a school boy. The imagery he had used in a poem had a deep effect on me and inspiried me to pen this poem.]
Mar 4, 2006
Madurai map...
This is the artistic representation of the Maduari city beautifully done by Rathina Basker (for commercial purpose). He was kind enough to send this to me for my opinion and allowed me to use it in my blog as well...good work rathina!
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