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ReviewSalangPass

Page history last edited by Mark P 16 years, 2 months ago

Salang Pass Review

 

Although Salang Pass's dishes were interesting and unusual, we generally didn't like them.

 

We tried a number of appetizers, plus the free stuff provided when we sat down: 

  • Green salad with romaine, tomatoes, and cucumbers, tossed with Italian dressing. Fine. The Italian dressing seemed like it came from a bottle. The edges of some of the salad leaves were brown, implying they weren't very fresh. Nevertheless, we ate most of it.
  • Flatbread. Served warm, it was a decent though not interesting carb carrier. Neither topping on the table--a red sauce like the bottled hot red chile sauce one finds at Asian restaurants, and a green sauce entirely lacking any spunk--enlivened the bread. The bread itself wasn't bad, and I found myself spooning sauces from later dishes on it. This didn't really work well: the bread wasn't spongy enough to soak up sauces, and the sauces from later dishes weren't really worth eating.
  • "Borani Badenjan: Eggplant sauteed with fresh tomatoes, seasoned with garlic, and topped with a special yogurt sauce." Basically stewed vegetables, not just eggplant though there was eggplant there. No yogurt I can recall. Bleh.
  • "Borani Kadoo: Pumpkin sauteed seasoned with garlic and topped with a special yogurt sauce." Everyone knows I like Afghani pumpkin dishes, but this was sad. The yogurt topping was assertive sour cream, and it made the pumpkin weird and just didn't go. And the pumpkin itself didn't have any of the sweetness cooked pumpkin should have.
  • "Bolani: Afghani calzone, stuffed with chopped leeks and potatoes, cilantro and special seasonings." Much like a potato parantha (an Indian dish), though with the addition of onions. Or perhaps a bit like a green onion pancake (the Chinese dish), though with substantial potato stuffing. Served with yogurt. Regardless of how one thinks of it, we found it reasonably appealing at first when it was hot, but fairly quickly got bored of it.
  • "Aushak Afghani styled ravioli stuffed with leek and seasonings, topped with ground beef and a special yogurt sauce." Despite the menu's description, the filling seemed more like spinach to me. We all disliked this dish, though I at least found the corn and ground meat topping not bad.
  • "Mantoo: Afghani dumplings steamed, stuffed with beef, onions, and seasonings, topped with ground beef, split peas and a special yogurt sauce." The better of the two sets of dumplings, mainly because the meat filling wasn't as offensive as the spinach. Being acceptable, it was one of our better appetizers.

 

We also tried two kabobs: 

  • "Chapli Kabob: Grilled sandal shaped ground sirloin mixed with scallions, cilantro and special seasonings." Possibly the best dish, the complexity of the meat's spices sneaks up on you. It really had a nice blend of spices, and we didn't have to ask anyone twice if they wanted to finish the meat.
  • "Chopan Kabob: lamb marinated in a special sauce, charbroiled to perfection, served with Basmati rice and a grilled tomato." Lamb on a bone, though it had almost the same spicing as the meat, was dry and overcooked and hence not as good (and wouldn't really qualify as good). The basmati, heavily scented with cinnamon, was fine.

 

The one drink someone tried was dogh. It's a drink of yogurt, cucumber, and mint. The drinker was surprised to see the cucumber, but apparently that's the way it's traditionally served in Afghanistan. He was also surprised it was served warm. And we were all surprised it arrived extremely fast, so fast we can't imagine they mixed the drink when we ordered it. (Two of us got the image of a punch bowl of dogh sitting in the back.) Finally, although the drink tasted homemade, the drinker said it wasn't very good and barely touched it the whole meal.

  

The restaurant is located in a nondescript building. Its interior, which was mostly empty while we were there, is much more colorful, with a huge wall mural and vibrant curtains draped around an area where one could sit on the floor and eat. (We declined, under the warning from some yelpers that they couldn't tell the last time the carpet had been cleaned. In fact, some attendees at our dinner commented that the table and napkins didn't look cleaned well either.)

 

The total was $18/person, including tax and tip but not including the dogh.

 

Original Announcement

 

We'll go to Salang Pass in Fremont.

http://www.salangpass.com/

 

Comments from Other Attendees

 

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