Afghanistan | Gherkins & Tomatoes

Deep Roots: A Love Note to the Lowly Carrot

August 11, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A dish of carrot hastily cooked may still have soil uncleaned off the vegetable. ~~ Chinese Proverb Except for the feathery grey braids poking out from under the rebozo, she looked like a child washing dishes. But she wasn’t a child and she wasn’t washing dishes. Rinsing the large carrot— one about the size of a zucchini zonked on steroids at the end of a scorching mid-western summer — in her impromptu sink, the old Indian woman leaned over a […]

Categories: Afghanistan, Beef, Carrots, Lamb, Mexico, Recipes, Rice • Tags: Afghanistan, Beef, Carrots, Chicken, Lamb, M. M. Vilmorin-Andrieux, Qabili Pilau, Recipes, Rice, The Vegetable Garden

Of Carrots and Things

August 7, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Never bolt your door with a boiled carrot. Irish Proverb A memory, augmented and tempered by time … and carrots. I close my eyes and scraps of the past flicker through my mind. The last carrot rasped against the finest “teeth” on the four-sided grater, orangy juice pooling slowly into a small puddle in the bowl. “Big” Grandma (as opposed to my other grandmother, “Teeny” Grandma) stood back and shook her head. “Not enough carrots. I guess we need two […]

Categories: Afghanistan, Cakes, Carrots, Recipes • Tags: Afghanistan, Cakes, Carrots, Recipes

Afghanistan: Selling Naan on the Other Side of the Gutter

WAR & DROUGHT THREATEN AFGHAN FOOD SUPPLY: HUNGER IN AFGHANISTAN

September 19, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A story in the 9/19/08 New York Times, “War & Drought Threaten Afghan Food Supply,” brings home the very real problems of that tragic country and its long-suffering people: Underlying the warnings are growing fears of civil unrest. The mood in the country is darkening amid increasing economic hardship, worsening disorder and a growing disaffection with the government and its foreign backers, particularly over the issue of government corruption. Returning refugees are already converging on the cities because they cannot […]

Categories: Afghanistan, Food News • Tags: Afghanistan, Cooking, Drought, Famine, Food, Hunger

The Hindu Kush (Used by permission of AGS Library, one-time use).

AFGHANISTAN … LAND OF THE ENCHANTED SNOWS

August 25, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

It’s a long stretch, maybe, from war to food. But not really, when you think about it. Afghans cook and eat daily meals. Just like you and I do. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that when newspaper stories focus only on battles and bombs. While reading yet another depressing story about the U.S. at war in Afghanistan, I found myself wondering, “Who are these people over there and what do they eat?” Suddenly I had to know what lay behind […]

Categories: Afghanistan, Recipes • Tags: Afghanistan, Cooking, Cooks, Food, Recipes

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life

Category Archives: Afghanistan

Deep Roots: A Love Note to the Lowly Carrot

Of Carrots and Things

WAR & DROUGHT THREATEN AFGHAN FOOD SUPPLY: HUNGER IN AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN … LAND OF THE ENCHANTED SNOWS

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