Afghan food? Who would have thought?

So...it has been over a month since I last blogged about eating out. Since many of you know that I am fairly litrugical, it must be obvious that this was because it was Lent and I was fasting like crazy and also lost a ton of weight in 40 days! BZZZT. Wrong answer, although it would have been a good excuse. Actually it is just that, unlike the situation for T.S. Elliot, March is for me "the cruelest month." Meetings, covering for vacations, choir stuff, reading multiple books for Lent studies (Aha! see there was something liturgicl), means that in my free time I collapse instead of blogging. But I still eat! And...I have been several time in the last month to a wonderful little restaurant at the north end of the KMart parking lot in Fort Collins call Mazza Kabob. This was introduced to me by my son Bryan, who is currently floating off the Atlantic Coast someplace, but who was also genetically destined (as is his brother Doug) to be a major gourmand. I had now idea what Afghan food was like. My knowledge of Afghanistan was slanted at best: 1) The Far Pavilions, a novel that describes how the British screwed up by invading Afghanistan (this written decades ago BTW 2) Jimmy Carter upsetting everyone by cancelling our participation in the Moscow Olympics because the Russians invaded Afghanistan and eventually got their buttova kicked 3)Our current war..'nuff said; and of course 4) The Man Who Would be King...which is in a fictional country that probably was based on Afghanistan (where Michael Caine and Sean Connery due great for a while but then die at the end ). But I am woolgathering instead of talking about food. From my mere 5 visits to this restaurant, I have decided that Afghan cuisine is kind of a mix of Indian and Middle Eastern/Turkish. Their main menu items are the Kabobs: Chicken, Beef and Kufta (meatballs). The chicken kabob is divine...wonderful spices and really high quality white meat...not the strips pulled off the drumstick and disguised as decent chicken that you get someplace. Their rice is that kind that I stare at and think "why can't my rice at home turn out like this?" where every grain is perfectly done and separated from the others. The main dishes are served with a side of a ultrasmall afghan salad and a yogurt mix that you can spread on anything that you want. They have an eggplant main dish, eggplant burrani, that is also wonderful..thin slices of eggplant without a hint of bitterness, served with a great sauce, and the rice. Chicken Korma is another of my favorites, which if you have eaten at any of the Indian places in town, I would recommend you try Mazza Kabob's to compare--wonderful taste without too much heat. The portions are ultra generous. There are also great combinations. The last time I was there I had something called a "challow" that included the chicken korma but instead of regular rice had a rice in a brown sauce with raisins and slivered carrots. You often get a side of Afghan style Naan, which is slightly thicker than its Indian cousin. The Chai tea is also spot on. The owner (Sayed, I think) is this wonderful man, who comes out frequently to make sure you enjoyed things and that his food was up to snuff. This is one of these places that I really want to last in town. You may be thinking "Afghan food sounds strange." But I assure you it will surprise and delight you. I took my psychologist friend Tammi there--she is from Nebraska and thinks that only beef and potatoes are truly food and everything else is a dare--and she loved it. Please go to Mazza Kabob. You will be a better person for it.