afghan food.

to kick off the long weekend, we dined with our wonderful friends the buckleys (aka sean and carol) at this delicious afghan place.  now this was the first experience we had eating afghan food and i must say i was pleasantly surprised.  i was worried the food would be super spicy, which i'm not a big fan of.  the food was full of spices - but nothing too spicy.  


so we got in the car and drove the distance for some good afghan food in nova (northern virginia) and ate at a delightful little place called maizbon.  we started with burtaa, which is grilled eggplant with light tomato sauce mixed with garlic yogurt sauce and served with fresh baked naan. (pictured above)

jeff and carol had the shorba, which are chunks of lamb, with potatoes, carrots, fresh cilantro, and spices, served over bread soaked in lamb broth.

i had the qabuli palau brown, which was basmati rice served over lamb meat and topped with raisins and carrots - so delicious!  and sean ordered a dish very similar to mine except it didn't have raisins and carrots - just a large leg of lamb under his brown rice (i cannot seem to recall his exact dish.)

we then ended on a lovely note of baklava and yogurt with rose water for dessert.  but, the best part of this delightful place was that we got to bring our own wine (with no corking fee) - so we wondered in with our four bottles of wine and had a grand time of drinking and enjoying afghan food.