Shish Kebab House Of Afghanistan

tonight's adventure was to the Shish Kebab House of Afghanistan in West Hartford Center. this place was absolutely amazing. i'd been there before, not for the food, but for the hookah bar at night. after the kitchen closes, the bar stays open and everyone can enjoy some amazing shisha. but, that's a story for another time.

 the atmosphere is incredible. the decor, music and general setting is very calming and beautiful. "i like the slanty roof and the windows." my favourite part is a plaque a saw when i was there for hookah on my birthday.

and the service was equally as phenomenal. the female waiter (ehem. look at me. i'm pc) was very helpful in giving us advice as to what to chose when it came to sides and things of the sort. unfortunately, she was absolutely NO help when it came to choosing my beverage.

that, my friends is Daugh. it consists of homemade yogurt, chopped cucumber, mint leaves and a dash of salt. and it was, by far, the most horrible thing i have ever consumed. ever. can i please stress EVER. as a matter of fact, mr zebra said that, if i don't take anything from his words about tonights adventure, i need to make sure the reiterate how absolutely terrible this drink was. then, someone come over and asked if it was my drink, i nodded yes and tried not to make a face. she advised to drink it without the straw due to the content of the top of the drink. alright, well, why not take her advice, right? i mean, she's got to know what she was talking about, right? um. not right. completely incorrect. "i can't believe you make me drink it again and i listened to you!" said mr zebra. there was no choking this down. not a chance.
moving on..

mr zebra had the leg of lamb kebab. what can i say? he's traditional! haha. the menu reads 'traditional kebab dating back to ancient times in the near east, consisting of cubes of lamb skewered over coals.' and, by recommendation, he chose spinach rice and eggplant. "i love this lamb - the spices it's cooked in gives it really wonderful flavour. the eggplant was not my favourite, but okay. i wouldn't get it again. i'd get the pumpkin instead. the lamb and rice were very good. yes. they were. the rice had a smooth, ricey flavor to it." i sampled his and, i must say, at least the eggplant was better than the drink.

then there's me. i had the Kabeli Palow. 'special rice topped with seasoned almonds, raisins, carrots, flavoured with cardamom, served with pumpkin and sautéed lamb kabab.' holy amazing. i'd eat the pumpkin every day for the rest of my life, no lie. and the rice was the most perfect blend of spices and flavour. truly savourable. everyone knows how much i adore lamb, and this one took the cake. and, let me tell you, put a bit of everything on your fork at the same time and it's a complete and total oral orgasm. over and over again. oh, yes, i would certainly do this again. speaking of me..

look! there i am in all my crazy faced glory. i promise, my hair is currently much redder than it looks.

so, with the exception of that horrible, horrible drink, tonight was incredible. the menu described a full Afghanistan dinner served as it would be in an Afghanistan home. let me tell you how we are certainly going back for that. it's serves a minimum of four, so we're going to have to plan accordingly, possibly with another one of my favourite food bloggers - i'd link her here, but her blog far surpasses mine in taste, content, style and words. so, i refuse to be shown up at this particular moment (though, she's inspired me to have TurDuckIn).

and that, kids, is all she wrote.

Toshi

so, tonight was a night of sushi. again, exactly one that could be considered a New Year's Revolution, but it was still wonderful enough to be documented. we had set out to try uni, which we've only heard to be horrible. but, really, why not try sea urchin? i mean. just to say we did, ya know? it doesn't matter. they didn't have it.

it was small, quiet. and the waiter said he placed us at a table that held the warmest spot. a huge plus. and then he brought us warm cloths to wipe our hands. again, very nice. my favourite sushi spots have not done this, so i was quite excited. and, seeing as though it was freezing outside, it helped. a lot.

along with the standard menu, they gave you the à la carte checklist with a pen. i'm a fan of filling things out (thank you, The Counter, in West Hartford for making my dreams come true with that, but that'll be another entry, i promise), so this was an amazing enhancement to our dining experience.

one glance at the menu, and i knew exactly what i wanted. it was called Crunchy Dragon. i need to add that this place had a wonderful way of naming things, including Eel Of Fortune, but my choice of dragon could not be topped. "Eel, mango...avocado, tempura flakes, with spicy mayo on top." to be completely blunt, it was fucking amazing. from the à la cart menu, we chose the uni (which, as stated, they did not have), squid (which was our replacement, seeing as neither of us had it before), crab meat and fatty salmon. 'i picked it because i like salmon and i thought fatty salmon would be better' says mr zebra.

like i said, the Crunchy Dragon was incredible. the squid, well, had the consistency of an over-boiled egg white. 'it was hard and flavorless. not at all what i expected.' 'well, what did you expect?' i asked. 'what did i expect? i expected it to be softer and chewier, perhaps. more like calamari.'
the salmon was great, like it has been any other time i've had it. 'the salmon was delicious. everything i've come to expect salmon to be.'
and the crab meat.. well, tasted like crab meat! what can i say? sushi is pretty much sushi unless it's horrible. ha. 'the crab meat was different.. different from the crab meat sushi i've had before. different from what i expected, but delicious. it looked kinda like rhubarb or something. maybe you shouldn't say delicious because i used delicious in the last one.' apparently, our crab meat thoughts are pretty opposite. 'well, it tasted the same! i just looked different' he added after i read off my opinion.

it was a good night, inexpensive which is a HUGE plus, a great place and a wonderful experience. 'overall, good. the food was very good, though it was a bit quiet. but that was good. service was friendly, restaurant was comfortable. the warm towels were a nice touch. and i wish i could remember the weird thing that the lady at the other table said. oh yeah! it was "aren't scallions illegal in the united states?"'

and that is that.
'til next!

Abyssinian

so, tonight wasn't exactly part of our New Year's Revolution, per se. mr zebra and I have enjoyed Ethiopian together in the past. the admiral and conductor, however, not so. they are both what i would call.. living inside of a box. and they like it there. but, that kind of thing is nearly impossible when i'm around. and so, in celebration of my last day inside of the orange box, we celebrated with Ethiopian at the Abyssinian in the West End of Hartford. And, due to the fact that we all must be up early, please don't expect this entry to be filled with quite the.. explanation.. of the last. Essentially, everyone had to leave as soon as I got their basic opinion of the experience.

Sadly, I was a complete idiot and forgot to take a picture of the sign, but this is where it should have gone.
This is also where I was going to put and amusing video of the Admiral in it's place, but I can't seem to figure how to get it off of my camera yet.
So, instead, check out my spiffy new shoes. I got them on clearance and intend on wearing them to my new job. Often. (I got a pair of blue ones, too.)

Now, Ethiopian is a very.. communal dinner. You are served one large, round platter covered in a piece of bread called Injera (please congratulate me for knowing that!). Basically, it's a large, bland, flabby pancake. "it felt like I was eating a sponge!" "it was porous! that's what it was!" The Admiral and Conductor were both surprised to find that, when the meal said it was served with a salad, the salad actually came in small, individual piles on the platter spaced with what may be been spinach piles and bean-like piles (similar to hummus).

Along side the platter were small plates of more of the same bread and each meal was served in a small bowl with a large spoon.

I had Yebeg Alcha. Lamb, simmered in mild sauce of butter, onions, ginger and turmeric. I'm not going to lie. I played it safe. I start a new job tomorrow.. adventurous may not always be the best option in such a case.

The Admiral enjoyed Yesege Alicha Be-Denish. Beef chunks and potatoes cooked with vegetable oil, garlic, carrots, onions, and green peppers. "it was.. interesting. it was good. it had the foreign taste to it. i don't know how to describe it. it had that ::snap, snap:: non American taste to it." and there, we have the Admiral at his finest.

Ah, and Mr Zebra. Happily, he did not get what he had last time! Although, it was completely similar to the Admiral's.  Yesega Wot Be-Denish. Beef chunks and potatoes simmered in red pepper sauce with ginger root, garlic, onions, carrots and cardamon. "i don't know how to do push ups! it was fantastic. it had great flavor! i enjoyed it much more than the last time we went."

Lastly, Conductor. He's a pretty pessimistic SOB recently, not gonna lie. Yesega Wot - Beef simmered in red pepper sauce (Berbere), seasoned with green pepper, ginger root, garlic, onions, and cardamon. "it was the kind of food you knew was going to give you diarrhea later. eh. i got nothing for ya." For the record, Conductor is an ass and that is a complete lie. We all grabbed at everyone else's and it was all delicious.

Speaking of being grabbed at.. you didn't think you ate off the giant spoon, didja? Like Admiral, would you see yourself shoveling it into your mouth with a large utensil? No, actually you shovel it into your mouth with your hands. Would it be wrong to say "What else would you expect from Ehtiopea? You thought they could afford spoons?" when typical responses from people when I mention my love for this place are 'I've always wanted to go to an air bar!' or 'what do they serve? malnourishment?' Really, now.

Basically, you spoon your dinner choice on to the large platter along with everyone else's and using pieces of the bread you tore from the piles, you scoop/grab/pinch it and do your best to get it in your mouth.

It's a lot of fun! And, since everyone is grabbing from the same giant platter, you can mix, grab and try what ever you'd like in all sorts of interesting ways, ie, grab the lamb and the beef and some of that spinach stuff. Or substitute any of the above for the bean pile/salad/etc. Just the act of it all is great - - like a team building exercise or something.
Even thought the pessimistic thoughts of Conductor and the skeptical comments of the Admiral (who I am very proud of, I must say. Trying new things is very unlike him!), it looks like everyone enjoyed it, don't ya think?

Taste Of India

okay. please allow me to explain that i am not a very worldly person.  but i've always wanted to be.
"[mr zebra], do you think you're a worldly person?"
"i dunno. what do you think? ..you don't think you're a worldly person?"
"no, but i've always wanted to be."
"me, too."
so, forgive me if i am completely horrible at all of this. most of the time, i'll probably have no idea what i'm eating most of the time, nor how to pronounce it. mr zebra is good at that stuff, but it doesn't much help me here. anyway..

tonight, we went to Taste Of India in West Hartford, CT. we thought it be a good place to start because we both have dabbled in indian food in the past. by dabbled, i mean, i followed instructions on what to take from a buffet and he and i both once grabbed some in a mall in Providence, RI.

we started with this mix of appetizers. all the description said was "a mix of vegetarian and non vegetarian appetizers." thanks for the help, Taste Of India. so, it sort of went as follows.
onion clump. which was, decidedly, an indian version of a bloomin' onion. ha. it was completely different than that, really, but very delicious.
potato/spinach clump. also very delicious. but neither of us know if it really contained potato or spinach.
meat-filled wanton-like thing. can i explain it any better? well, it had peas in it, too. not too exciting of a snack, but we enjoyed it.
vegetable/potato-filled wanton-like-thing. see above. also, it may not have been potato.
chicken-like finger. i'd imagine getting this at a drive through. and it was quite good dipped in that sweetish red sauce you see pictured.
potato patty? again, it may not have been potato. i honestly have no idea what i was consuming. but, we compared it to a shepherd's pie lacking meat and in patty-like form. again, very delicious. but it only came with one so we had to split it.

i'm sure any food connoisseur hates me right now.

 i was saddened a bit by mr zebra's choice of dinner. it's the same thing he had at the mall. bad way of celebrating the New Year's Revolution, especially at our first stop. but, what can i say? he knows what he likes.  Chicken Tikkamasalla.
"it was good, if boring. it was bland. it was good, i mean, you tasted it. it was sweet, delicious, but bland."
and that's that. i did enjoy the bit that i had. obviously this, and mine were eaten over rice.

"you're right. i should have gotten a more exciting.. thing. to eat."

Rogan Josh. not be be confused with groban, josh. it was actually delicious lamb. with some spices and brown sauce. still don't know what that white drip was. but, i'd get it again and be happy. however, if we were to go back, i'd get something else. because i'm adventurous like that.

that, my friends, was one choice of dessert. Gulab Jaman. described as 'cheese ball dipped in syrup.' um. well. pancake. that's the best explanation i've got for that. i don't understand what makes it a cheese ball. it was warm, which, i guess, surprised me. sort of like i expected something.. but i don't know what that something was.

and that. well. that was the other dessert. Ras Malai. 'homemade creamcheese patties served in sweet cream sauceflavored with cardamon and garnished with pistachio' (please note, it was written as is. "sauceflavored" which made us both laugh a bit). hmm. how could i explain this one? a cold, milky.. sponge. "that's exactly what it was." again, i don't understand where there cheese comes in to play. "neither of them tasted like cheese. at all. it's ridiculous." i'm sure it's just that we have no concept of this food at all. it was cold. and once you chewed (ie; squeezed) the sweet miky goodness out, it was just dry and bland-cookie-like-sponge in your mouth.
i wanted to go with the other dessert, which consisted of something like milk and rice and fruits and raisins. but mr zebra vetoed that. i'm not going to listen to him anymore.

on the way out, there was something that looked like birdseed in a bowl. it had a spoon and it was next to the toothpicks. so, i tried it. somehow, a mass of what looked like different things all tasted like black licorice. i HATE black licorice. and i couldn't get all of the little seeds out of my mouth. but, anyway, it was an experience.

all and all, it was a great evening. there was a lot of laughter (especially in the 20 minutes we were waiting for someone to come over to find out if/what we wanted for dessert. ah, well. would i eat this food again? in a heartbeat. at this place in particular, probably not. there are plenty of other places to experiment with.
"[mr zebra], what did you think of the experience?"
"i thought it was good. that's all. um. it was a good time! see i sound like an idiot when you type it out like that.. the food was good and, yeah, we had a good time. i think you said it all."

and that, friends, is the end.

Happy New Year! Wecome to TwentyTen.

A Dining Revolution.
One brand new dining experience a month (or more).






'the bomb of the season is a velvet revolution..'