Suburban Tasteland

The Power and the Glory of Kebab

Each weekend night on a very busy corner in Crystal City, area cab drivers along with droves of South Asians and their families pile into Kabob Palace. Naturally, this is the sort of scene that immediately inspires AC and myself to see what the fuss is all about.

We made our inaugural visit to Kabob Palace when it was just a cab stand, a small take-away with about a dozen tables, all of which we typically found occupied during the late dinner rush on a Friday night. While diners wait in line to place their orders, they can while away a few minutes checking out the case of raw skewered meats, all of which are painstakingly arrayed in one of the most glorious displays of unrepentant carnivorousness in the D.C. area.  Moving up the line, watch as one of the countermen takes a freshly kneaded loaf of dough and sticks it to the side of the clay oven, removing a fully realized naan barely ten minutes later, steaming and blistery. As you can imagine, Kabob Palace quickly became a mainstay in our weekend repertoire.

That’s why we were pleasantly surprised about a year ago to see that Kabob Palace had expanded and added a full-service restaurant about three doors down, as a supplement to the cab stand. Service can be spotty, and on almost every visit, the waitstaff have had to inform us that at least one item we ordered is not available, or, in the case of their mantu, the item we desire will require an excessive amount of time to prepare. Nevertheless, having been to the newer location several times, we have now identified our favorite selections and, thankfully, these items seem to be consistently available.

First off, meat is essential. In our opinion, Palace Combo #9 is king. It includes a skewer of kubideh, which are cylinders of ground lamb, liberally spiced and very juicy, and a skewer of lamb kebab, nicely charred on the outside, dusted with sumac, and tender and juicy inside. The meat comes with a small cup of their cold, refreshing herbed yogurt sauce, which is an appropriate dipping sauce for the meat and bread. As the restaurant delights in serving large portions, we always share the combo so we can leave room for their amazing vegetable sides.

Kebab Palace offers a choice of spinach or chickpeas with each of its kebab combos. We always opt for the spinach dish, which we find is a close cousin to saag paneer, the standard spinach and cheese side found at a lot of Indian restaurants. Though this version is more hardy, less of a puree, than saag. It’s flecked with onion, herbs, and spices, and is the perfect accompaniment to the meat. The chickpeas are a bit oily for our taste, but they're unique in that they seem to have been slightly sweetened with cinammon.

But the star vegetable in our view is the okra do piaza, which may very well represent the most complex and delicious preparation of okra we have ever tasted (pickled okra is a close second). The okra is sautéed within an inch of its life, as it is almost crispy, but it still retains its fleshy innards, though none of the sliminess that seems to be okra's natural textural tendency. It’s cooked with ample onion and red pepper and a lot of spices. But it's the mustard seed that launches this dish into the spicing stratosphere. Between you and me, I probably eat more than half of it each time we share this dish. Sadly, the okra is not offered as one of the complimentary sides for the meat platters and must be ordered separately.

As with every South Asian meal, bread is a key component. The naan is among the best we’ve had. It’s always presented to us piping hot, doughy, and crispy in all the right places. And we always get a few of those odd bread bubbles that occur in the oven when air gets trapped inside the bread—we love that. But what we love the most is creating our own little sandwich with the bread: a bit of kubideh, a generous helping of yogurt sauce, all wrapped in soft, hot naan. It’s heaven. The best part is that this whole meal, including a drink or two, will run two people about $30 with tax and tip.

Eat more than your share at Kabob Palace:

2315 S. Eads Street
Arlington, VA
(703) 486-3535

—AK

Aushak Attack

My parents introduced me to Afghan food when I was barely six years old at the Bamiyan Restaurant, which once occupied a prominent corner in Old Town across from the venerable Burke & Herbert Bank. Though I wasn’t a particularly adventurous eater, I would snag a few bites of my dad’s plate of aushak in between bites of my usual kebab-e-murgh (chicken kebab).

The Bamiyan even had a sculpture of the Buddha carved in high relief against the back wall out of some sort of mock sandstone, the significance of which my little boy brain did not grasp until roughly 20 years later when the Taliban destroyed the real life statues of the Buddha in the Bamiyan province of Afghanistan.

Despite having enjoyed Afghan food at a dozen or so other establishments in New York and D.C. over the ensuing decades, I still lament the shuttering of the original Bamiyan. Of course, AK says that I may be the most nostalgic person she’s ever known, so it may not be entirely about the food. Still, I was admittedly stoked when a Chowhounder reported that a new Afghan restaurant called Bamian (different spelling) had recently opened on Leesburg Pike, the chef and owner of which was purportedly the chef at the original Bamiyan.

So my father and I trekked out there, and were surprised to find a sizeable freestanding venue in contrast to the narrow strip mall storefront I was expecting. In fact, the latest rendition of the Bamian is a fairly classy establishment. There’s an actual antechamber with a host who leads you through frosted glass doors, past a small waiting area with loungey chairs, into an expansive dining room of banquet hall proportions. A dramatic chandelier hangs from the center of the room, and even the wall sconces are mock chandeliers. It’s not really tacky or too extravagant, it’s more like a mid-tier hotel restaurant. It’s clear from the scale of the operation that they hope to do a lot of business through weddings and other site rentals. Our waiter confirmed that the chef and owner was indeed the chef at the original Bamiyan. He also added that the same family owns a restaurant on Route 1, which I believe must be the far shabbier, matter of factly titled Afghan Restaurant.

We tried the aush soup ($3.95) for starters. I was disappointed that the noodles were more like the thin and mushy noodles in a can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup rather than the thick, homemade noodles that I've enjoyed in aush elsewhere. The soup was saved by the peppery mini lamb meatballs, but I thought it was otherwise unremarkable.

The doogh ($2.50), a yogurt drink with mint and salt, was surprisingly light and refreshing. At other places, it can be like drinking a thick smoothie.

Both my father and I enjoy kebabs, but feel that the true measure of an Afghan restaurant is how it negotiates its mantu and aushak. Bamian's renditions of both their mantu ($12.95), which are Afghan ravioli with minced lamb and onion, and their aushak ($12.95), Afghan ravioli stuffed with finely chopped scallions, are the finest we've ever had. And the presentation was quite elegant, as well, in contrast to some of the homier versions we've had previously. The dumplings in each dish were clearly homemade, thin and delicate, and covered in a meat sauce with lentils and yoghurt sprinkled with dried mint.

I was, however, disappointed that their nan (whole wheat instead of white, by the way), unlike the blistery blanket-sized versions served fresh out of the oven at other establishments, seemed reheated and was cut into user-friendly squares piled into a standard breadbasket. Afghan bread should be torn in between bites of food, but, then again, perhaps that sort of savage struggle is inappropriate in Bamian’s relatively fancy setting.

For dessert, we had a rather serviceable double espresso with our firni ($3.95), an Afghan custard. I've had firni at a number of other places that drown it in rosewater, so much so that you think you're eating custardy perfume. But Bamian's firni was smooth and refreshing with a sprinkling of chopped pistachios, and a faint, but pleasing essence of rosewater. Definitely among the best we've ever had.

Those who are interested in checking out Bamian should know that if they are traveling away from Alexandria on Leesburg Pike, that the turn-off to the service road entrance to Bamian is moments before the exit to Columbia Pike.

Check out Bamian at:
5634 Leesburg Pike
Falls Church, VA 22041
(703) 820-7880

-AC