I travelled on 9/11. Yes folks, I’m that much of a badass. And then I went and ate afghani food! Yeah! But seriously, I did do these things. The travelling part was a breeze. It was one of the most pleasant and smooth flights I’ve ever had. Plus, the flight was about 40% empty. It was lovely.

I met up with A at a nondescript strip mall in San Carlos, home of Kabul Afghan Cuisine. I’ve never had afghan cuisine before. I mean I’ve had middle eastern, but I never knew what kind of middle eastern. Can I just lump all middle eastern food into generic middle eastern? Probably not. So this was going to be a new and novel experience for me.

First, a side salad. Everyone gets this I think. It was a perfectly ordinary salad.

A went with a veggie combo plate. You can pick 3 different options, and she went with two helpings of the pumpkin, challaw kadu, and one of the eggplant, challaw badenjah. That eggplant looks like brown slop but it was actually good. But not anywhere close to being as good as that pumpkin. Yes, pumpkin. Now, the only pumpkin I’ve ever eaten was pumpkin pie. So when A raved about the pumpkin, and everyone on yelp raved about the pumpkin, I was skeptical. But of course, I wanted to try it. Oh man, it’s so good. I never envisioned pumpkin being this tasty! We’re not sure how it’s prepared, but we think it’s just hunks of pumpkin slightly seasoned and cooked. So simple, yet so good.
I went with the chef platter, which is the non-veggie combo. I had the aushak, which is dumplings served with yogurt and meat sauce, and two fried things – sambas and bulanee katchalu. So this aushak stuff. It was really good. But strangely enough, it was like a pot sticker/ravioli with meat sauce. Seriously, the meat sauce was very positively italianesque. I liked them regardless. The smaller fried things, the sambas, were good. It was stuffed with some kind of veggies and I used the green sauce that accompanied my dish. It was a mysterious sauce, but it almost seemed mexican-ish as I swear I tasted tomatillos in there. The big fried thing, the bulanee katchalu, was ok. There was a strange spice in there that tasted like medicine, so I just didn’t eat it. I also got two pieces of a thick bread, they call it afghan bread. This bread is awesome.
I made sure that we left room for Beard Papa’s. Since I knew there was one in south bay, I had to fit that in. So on my way to Sunnyvale, I made sure we stopped at the one in Redwood City. This particular Beard Papa’s was in an adorable downtown-ish revival type of shopping / eating / cultural area. You could tell the area was being all fixed up and swankified. There were all kinds of shops, restaurants, bakeries, theaters, everything. And there were older buildings with their original authentic architecture. Man, I could live here, I thought to myself.

Or maybe I just wanted to live here so I could go to Beard Papa’s every day. They’re still as good as I remember them being. A large and well-textured pastry, overflowing with oozy delicious vanilla dream of a cream. I bought 3, but I only ate 2. Are you impressed?

I’m on vacation y’all, and in the bay area to boot. Just got here and have lots planned. Much of that involving food, of course. I’ve been here for 8 hours and already have two things to post. This is going to be a great week!

Stay tuned…

L had picked a gastropub for this past Sunday night’s dinner. What is a gastropub? I have no idea. But it’s a pub that actually cares about the food they serve. It’s not just burgers and chicken wings. And of course they have a good beer selection. Located in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood, the Sidecar Bar & Grille will have been around nearly 2 years . It’s in a very unassuming corner on 22nd and Christian, caddy cornered from a dry cleaners. I biked there and showed up at 22nd and Catherine and nothing was there. I was very confused. Then I thought oh, maybe it’s 20th and Catherine so I biked there. It wasn’t there either. Then I found out it was at 22nd and Christian. You could see how I could be easily confused.

It’s a rather small place, with a long bar and kitchen on one side of the building and tables on the other side. There is also some outside seating. The menu isn’t very big, but they also have specials. With their food, they offer beer recommendations as to what type of beer would go best with that dish. The restaurant itself is quite pleasant and on the quiet side. There is one small tv in the corner. Early on a sunday night it wasn’t very busy, so we were able to have a real conversation and actually hear each other. I think there may have been some music playing, but I didn’t notice it. It was a nice change from having to scream to talk to your friends when you’re at a regular pub.

We got served by the owner and he was super helpful, attentive, and spent lots of time explaining to us about all the food and helping us decide on what to order. L went with the chicken and duck empanadas, which was a special. B got the fried fish, which came with hush puppies and honey butter. I went with the pulled pork sandwich. We split a calimari appetizer.

Let me tell you, the calimari was fantastic. I’d had calimari the weekend before and man, that calimari didn’t compare at all to the calimari at the sidecar. This was probably the best cooked calimari I’ve ever had. Perfectly cooked to give it the perfect texture. I don’t know how they timed this so perfectly. And the kicker was the dipping sauce that came with it. It wasn’t a regular old marinara, it was slightly mexican-ish in flavor. Man, it was a perfect complement. I could have eaten this stuff with a spoon.

My pork dish was also excellent. It came slightly sandwiched between two pieces of some cheesy cornbread. I’ve never had cheesy cornbread before (topped with cheese), and I have to say, I liked it. My cornbread pieces were slightly charred on the edges, but it wasn’t a big deal. They were still quite good. The side of slaw was good too. The pork was well flavored and very tender. The bbq flavor wasn’t too strong or too sweet, it was just right. It looks like one hot mess in the picture, but believe me, this dish was great.

I’m not regularly a dessert gal, but L mentioned the pecan square that they have here as being excellent. They basically take what would normaly go in a pecan pie and make it into a flat square, about 3×3 wide. It has a crust on top, they put ice cream on it, and drizzle it with a caramel sauce. Oh my goodness. This was so freakin good. It wasn’t too sweet like pecan pie usually is. It was incredibly chewy, which I loved, and it had a rather mild flavor. It didn’t even taste like nuts really, it was just chewy and delectable. The ice cream on top made it that much better. See how good it was, I couldn’t even take a picture of it before I took a big bite of it. L and I split this and it was really more than big enough for the two of us.

If I lived near this neighborhood, I would come here all the time. Seriously. They make the food with so much love here. The staff is too nice. They have cheap beer specials. I think this may be the start of a lovely affair.