Afghan Famous Kabobs.. and Monster Trucks

When working one's way down a list of 100 restaurants, why not start at the very beginning? A's a good letter, even if the restaurant title it's commencing is farther away from one's neighborhood than its early alphabet ranking would suggest. Doing things in order, Dotti and I headed to Gainesville, VA (40 miles away--that's more miles than letters of the alphabet) to visit Afghan Famous Kabobs. The food was so good, I'd recommend traversing each of those miles.

As an entree though, I'd like to share my Saturday activities before that great Sunday afternoon lunch. It's relevant because it involved a man and monster trucks and that's a bit of what this blog is about. The details are less relevant than the fact that I had the privilege of watching trucks crush cars, teenagers ride motorbikes upside down in a cage, and see replicas of school buses fly through the air.

Here's what it looks like in motion:

Captured mid-jump...

...Then mid-crush

 

This truck is actually called "Crush Station" and that bit of yellow is holding its "pincers"...

Just more video, please:

After all that revving and destruction, a girl needs some sustenance (albeit a day later). So, we found a fine strip mall that housed an unassuming Afghan place in what I would call the Best Afghan Ever (or certainly of recent memory). I may have ranted about how burger don't need to be fancy--because they are burgers--and I'd apply the same soapbox to Afghan food. This is comfort food and doesn't need starched table cloths or pithy music in the background (like another top 100 cheap eats Afghan place has, ahem). The fluorescent lights didn't do much for the art, but, alas.

For $15 apiece, we had approximately eight plates on the table. We started with aushak, ravioli filled with leeks, hiding a sauce of yogurt-mint below, and topped with ground beef sauce.  The leeks were richly sauteed and the yogurt and meat combination of sour and complex would have been worth the drive.

We split two entrees: the super dish with a chicken kabob, lamb kabob, and shami (like kafta: spiced meat, formed into spheres, and grilled). In addition to a salad, a side of rice was served with meat sauce (qurma).

 

The next entree was the vegetarian plate (we went from A to Z on that one): starkly bright sauteed pumpkin (kadu), sauteed eggplant with tomatoes (bouranee banjan), and sauteed spinach (subzi).

  

We each had warm, stewed chickpeas (which warmed our bones like soup)...

 

 ...and a huge piece of Afghan bread, perfectly constructed, strand by strand:

 

I consumed nearly that whole piece (twice the size of my head), enjoying it much more when I realized it could be even more exquisite when dipped in a cilantro/chili/yogurt sauce:

 

If only I could only have one of those monster trucks take me to my much-anticipated dinner at Minibar tonight, then I'd really be set.