Khyber Pass - Awesome Afghani food in Hillcrest

Toni and I are back after our seven continent tour of the underbelly of world cuisine. We studied food with the great chefs of Paris, Addis Ababa, Ankara, Changsha, Florianopolis, and the Ross Ice Shelf. We spent six months with the biscuit guru of Mobile. Now we are back and ready to review the heck out of San Diego. Toni and I have moved into a restaurant heavy part of town and are excited to get at it.

Tonight we ate at Khyber Pass, a Hillcrest restaurant featuring Afghanistan cusine. (523 University Ave.
Hillcrest, San Diego,CA 92111,619-294-7579, contact@khyberpasssandiego.com ) Right away we noticed that the place was nearly empty. Unusual, as Hillcrest has about five restaurants per block and they're all always pretty busy. But Toni and I thought it looked clean, the hostess was friendly, and the menu looked pretty good.

Neither of us had eaten Afghani food before. We noted a lot of lamb, kabobs, curry, and many dishes of which we had never heard.

The decor was fairly minimal. A blown up photo of the famous shot of Sharbat Gula, named 'Afghan Girl,' and an evocative wall painting featuring  a woman, a man on horseback, and a stone city in the mountains, was about all there was. The music was native and was surprisingly engaging.

We started with bolani (bulanni) or awasana, as an appetizer. This is leeks, potatoes, in a yogurt sauce, wrapped in a delicate fried pastry ($3.95). It came with three sauces--chatni sauce, a hot green sauce made of cilantro, mint, green pepper, and garlic; a pink yogurt sauce that tasted a bit like French dressing; and a hot pepper sauce. Toni found out that this is a common party food in Afghanistan, and served often during Ramadan to break the fast. It was delicious! And such a bargain, I'm telling you, we got about eight of them for under four bucks!

Then we got our main courses. Toni got the karahi chicken ($18.95) off the kabob menu; I got the sweet and sour apricot chicken ($14.95). Toni's was chicken stir fried with bell peppers, spices (I hear some turmeric and coriander might have been involved.) with a side of basmati rice. Toni described it as spicy, but not really, tender, and said "it was really good." Toni as research girl, learned that a karahi is the pan the dish is prepared in--picture a middle eastern version of a wok. My food was just how it sounded, good cuts of chicken covered in a mouthwatering apricot sauce, with big chunks of apricot, and a side of rice. (Toni was making me go less spicy tonight.) Sweet, not spicy, and very satisfying.

For dessert we ordered the rice pudding, and as the server recognized us as internationally famous food bloggers, she threw in some pistachio pudding for good measure. Neither was as ordinary as they sounded. The rice pudding had definite cinnamon overtones. We could not identify the flavor in the pistachio pudding; Toni said it was like "a spicy flower." We asked and were told that it was cardamom. Research girl found out that it is related to ginger, is smoked, chewed, and is used as a medicine to treat infection as well as snake and scorpion bites!

We did not order drinks, though the restaurant does have beer and wine and some Afghan teas.

Total damage for 1 appetizer, 2 entrees, one dessert, and two pops - $54.00. I gave Khyber Pass a very solid GOOD all around, while Toni gave it an enthusiastic GREAT!

There you have it. It feels good to be back home writing. Look for weekly posts!