Shish Kebab House of Afghanistan

There's only 1 reason to go to West Hartford Center to eat and that's the Shish Kebab House of Afghanistan. Everything else can be found somewhere else, usually cheaper, frequently better, and almost always with a lot less pretense. SKHA, however, is special.

SKHA was opened back in 1988 by a family of immigrants from Afghanistan who fled the chaos caused by the Soviet invasion in 1979. They have been serving excellant food since SKHA openend (immigrants + resturant = good, cheap, interesting food), first in Hartford, on Franklin Avenue near Mozzicato's Bakery, and since October, 2006 in West Hartford Center on LaSalle Road.

I went to SKHA's Franklin Avenue location many, many times (including during the days before 9/11, when Afgahnistan seemed only to be a remote place, with little - if any - connection to my life). I never had a bad meal and most always had an excellant meal. After I met my wife, we went there together often and always ate well.

SKHA was a lot of fun in those days, because it was in a little house, full of nooks and crannies, that had been gutted to serve as a resturant. There wasn't much room (they had a tiny bar that reminded me of a bar I had in my dorm room in college) and the lighting wasn't great, but the smells and sounds, and the family staff made it a great experience, separate and apart from the food. Indeed, one of the things my wife and I both liked about the SKHA was that it was authentic; there were Afghani rugs (including one that told the sad tale of the Soviet invasion) and brickerbrack hanging all over the place, and you could buy various spices, teas, etc. in bulk.

After SKHA moved out to West Hartford Center, however, we stopped going, mostly because we were p*ssed that another really good part of Hartford had packed up and moved to the suburbs. Tonight, however, my wife and I were out that way and we decided to go to the SKHA.

What used to be a cramped little neighborhood resturant is now a fashionable multi-level affair with a full-sized bar, tasteful photos of Afghanistan and several well-placed rugs and plenty of space between tables. The tables and chairs, however, seemd to be the same ones that they used on Franklin Avenue, which was a great touch.

In fact, in some ways, the evolution of the SKHA is like the assimilation of various immigrant groups into the broader American culture. You start with a cramped spot in a neighborhood other groups have vacated and what you do is entirely homespun, and sometimes hokey, but it's always authentic and without pretense. After a while, you move to a better, more "American" spot, that has more room and is more fashionable. You are still close enough to the old country ways, however, that there is still a lot of authenticity and just enough homespun hokiness to remind everyone (including yourself) that you haven't been homoginized, at least not yet. Hopefully, however, SKHA won't take the next step of the American journey and start serving chicken nuggets and taco salads.

Thankfully, nothing about the SKHA except the location has changed, so we had an excellant dinner. It was so good, in fact, I kicked myself for being petty and not going out there sooner.

If you haven't eaten Afghani food you have been missing out (and if you have no interest in trying Afghani food then you should be at Olive Garden having all-you-can eat breadsticks, not reading this blog). As you might guess, kababs loaded with beef, chicken, lamb, and veggies are integral to Afghani cooking, but there is a lot more to it than that.

After the complimentary Afghani bread (which is flat, but leavened and in strips that resemble a Kit-Kat bar) we started with an order of steamed eggplant, fried with a tomato sauce, homemade yogurt, and mint ($6) and an order of samosas ($5). SKHA's samosas are filled with spiced peas, potatoes, and veggies and are very good. The eggplant was outstanding.

For dinner, my wife had the Mantoo ($17) and I had the Ashak ($17). They are similar dishes, and each is delicious. The Mantoo consists of steamed dumplings filled with spicy meat and onions. The Ashak consists of boiled dumplings filled with scalions and spinich and topped with spicy beef. Both are topped with yellow peas and homemade yogurt. The combination of flavors in both meals is just great - a mixture of spicy meat, cool yogurt, hearty dumplings, and flavorful vegitibles. The portions are more than generous, so you aren't craving more when the table is cleared.

You get a side dish with your meal and my wife and I both had the spiced pumpkin, which has the consistency of the squash you eat at Thanksgiving. It is delicious. (It's also incredibly hard to make. When SKHA was in Hartford it sold an Afghani cookbook which my wife bought. She is Italian, so she is an outstanding and enthusiastic cook, but she has not been able to master the spiced pumpkin). There are other side dishes you can choose from. I've had them all and the spiced pumpkin is the best, though the spinnach rice is really good and worth a try.

For desert, I had the rice pudding ($6) and my wife had fernee ($6), which is a milk pudding. The rice pudding is topped with almonds and a sprinkling of rose water. You can also taste some cardamom. The fernee is a thick white pudding (think flan, but whiter and thicker) also in cardamom and rose water. Both were tasty and filling (so filling that my wife couldn't finish the fernee, which meant I got the leftovers :>). I also had a nice Turkish coffee ($3).

The only disappointment of the evening was I didn't see any of the Afghani family that ran the resturant while it was still in Hartford. That's a minor thing, however, and didn't detract from a delicious meal.

There is also a fully stocked bar and a pretty extensive wine list, but SKHA is not the sort of place you go to to show off your knowledge of the latest 98 point wine. You go there to eat some delicious and (for westerners, at least) unusual food.

I am not going to do stars, or rosettes, or anything like that. Suffice it to say, however, that notwithstanding that I will have to haul my #ss out to West Hartford Center and put up with a bunch of people who think the sun rises over Prospect Street and sets over Avon Mountain, you can bet I will go back to SKHA; soon.

Here's the link to SKHA's website - http://www.afghancuisine.net/