Sunday, October 12, 2008

Welcome to the world of Afghan Cuisine

The Helmand
806 N Charles St
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-752-0311

The other week I headed out for the Bachlorette Party of a friend. We started at The Helmand The Helmand serves Afghan Cuisine. When you walk in you are welcome by a warm feeling with colorful main dining room that is festooned with festive Afghani clothing and tapestries. Every dish is a careful composition of cumin, coriander, mint and other spices. for dinner.

We started our dinner by ordering a couple orders of the Kaddo Borawni which is Pan fried and baked baby pumpkin seasoned with sugar and served on yogurt garlic sauce. I never would have thought of putting some of those ingredients together. However, it made for a perfect appetizer. It had a sweetness that was over powering and the garlic gave it a nice bite that wasn't too much. The texture was very smooth and the pumpkin was perfectly cooked.

For my dinner I had the Mantwo which is homemade pastry shell filled with onions and beef. Served on yogurt and topped with carrots, yellow split peas and beef sauce. The dish was prepared perfectly and had a nice spiciness to it. These could become a new comfort food for me. As you ate it the feeling was a warm one that made you feel at home. I must admit I was a bit optimistic about the dinner but I will say now I look forward to trying other Afghan food.

Of course after eating and sharing some bottles of wine we presented the Bride with some typical Bachlorette gifts for her wedding night (we got the attention of the wait staff and the surrounding tables). The owner then presented us with Champagne on the house.

The experience was wonderful and I can not wait to go back again. Part of the party then did journey to the 13th Floor for some dancing while the rest of us had to go home to bed (It was a Thursday night and I do have to teach those kiddos).

Helmand on Urbanspoon

1 comments:

sherin said...

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.


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