Live from Little Kabul

[mark_asphodel]

I don't know why I'm surprised when people have Fremont ties.  It's the fourth-largest city in the Bay Area, making it the largest suburb (San Francisco is The City, with Oakland and San Jose as the other two cities).  It's a big sprawling mess of 210,000 people.  But it doesn't have... character?  Let's just put it this way-- when I was a kid, I thought of Hayward as the nearest "city" because they had a functional downtown, a better hospital, a Cal-State campus, and two BART stations.

But Fremont is where I'm from, and it's where myaru  lives, so while I was out here dealing with a mess of family heirlooms, we had a get-together down at the Hub (it's an open-air shopping mall).  We had our spouses along for the late-lunch part of the fiesta and then went off to writergeek and fandomgeek.  Good stuff.

Also, Fremont has (as many of you may have heard), a large population of immigrants from Afghanistan, which has led to some awesome and unique restaurants.  My most excellent spouse and I went to Salang Pass, which is a little bit Americanized in terms of the flavor palette but still has very nice food, including amazing rosewater-laced desserts.

Anyway, said heirlooms have been packed up and sent away on the moving van, so I guess I accomplished what I came here for.  

Comments

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

I feel like I ought to crack one of my Fresno jokes here. :-) But I am quite happy that you two got to join forces in epic real-life crossover-ness.

[myaru.livejournal.com]

I feel like we should grill you (or beg?) for recommendations someday, because the rest of the household isn't terribly keen on just picking a place off the street and trying it. But now we have a name to try out. Is that the place with pumpkin soup? Because, well... :D

Have a safe trip. <3

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Heh.

Yep, it was totally Epic Life Crossover time. :D

Come to think of it, you ARE just down in Ohio...

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Salang Pass has the stewed pumpkin, available as an appetizer or an entree.

I also like Afghan Village on Thornton in Newark, but it's a little more idiosyncratic. Service can be slow, and the food is a little more... pungent. Like, the Aush (noodle soup) definitely had the burnt-tire taste of fenugreek, whereas the Salang Pass take on Aush was far more mild and buttery. We like the pungency, but YMMV.

Thanks!