afghan cultural festival

Say the words "free food" and I'm there.


Say the words "free Middle Eastern food" and I'll come running with bells on.

Schenectady had an Afghan Cultural Festival today, featuring arts and crafts and other such displays. It also featured food--free food--and I'd been looking forward to it all week. It was catered by the Taj Mahal Restaurant, which I had known nothing about but now adore.

Here's my first plate (yes, I had seconds, and yes, I let everyone else go through the line before I attacked again), chock-full of goodness:


They served up samosas stuffed with peas and spices and lots of things I couldn't identify but ate anyway:


Delicious. It absolutely melted in my mouth and was pretty zesty too, which I find very important.

My favorite kebab, the chicken kebab, was also dished out:


Check out the massive skewer hole:


That was one heck of a skewer!

I got some Afghan salad, with diced tomatoes, onion, green peppers, cucumbers, and mint (a key component):


Very refreshing.

I tried the shor nakhod, which was composed of chickpeas, onions, potatoes, and I believe I detected a bit of cilantro:


I do love me some chickpeas. And cilantro.

For dessert, there were two choices. I, of course, got one of each. First was goosh feel:


I guess it's an Afghan palmier, and it was tasty. However, the highlight of the entire meal was...


...the baklava.

My favorite.

The Taj Mahal Restaurant makes a mean baklava. It's not the absolute best I've ever had, but it ranks pretty high up there.

They also offered pallow (rice with almonds, raisins, and pistachios), sabzi (wilted spinach), and lamb curry, but I opted to pass on those.

Middle Eastern food rules.

Free Middle Eastern food is cause for celebration (especially when there's baklava involved). :)

(Hey, I already admitted to my parsimony. Don't hate.)