Welcome new subscribers to the Afghan Culture Unveiled community!
And happy fall to all of you long-time readers. I hope you will take advantage of the beautiful cooking pumpkins dotting grocery stores to make kadoo, braised Afghan pumpkin with a garlicky yogurt sauce.
It’s heartening to see Afghan cuisine is slowly making its way to the mainstream. I was recently featured in a HuffPost article, The Comfort and Joy of Making Afghan Food, that highlighted Afghan comfort food, family traditions, and how the recent collapse of the Afghan government has affected Afghan-Americans.
As I noted in my video, What Just Happened in Afghanistan, Afghanistan has fallen off the front pages of the news outlets but here on Afghan Culture Unveiled, we have Afghanistan in the forefront of our thoughts, all the time.
That is why I’m sharing some inspiring, thought-provoking, and informative ways you can continue engaging with Afghanistan that will warm your belly and open your mind.
I invite you to listen to the Monuments Woman Podcast …
Which is about one extraordinary woman’s journey to preserve Afghanistan’s cultural heritage sites in the past decade. It’s about my friend, Dr. Laura Tedesco an American cultural heritage and preservation specialist working with the U.S. State Department. She lived and traveled throughout Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Uzbekistan overseeing the preservation of archaeological sites, artifacts, monuments, and museums.
I met Laura jan (as I call her) on my second trip to Afghanistan in 2010. Her quiet mannerism, a little like an Afghan, made me immediately decide that she is one of the good guys (well women) doing good work against all the destruction that Afghanistan had endured for the previous three decades.
Monument Woman podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts
I’ve hosted Laura jan in my house, attended her presentations and it never ceased to amaze me how humble and unassuming she is about her incredible work. I was thrilled when she told me that veteran Hollywood producers in partnership with notable oral historian, George Gavrilis had persuaded her to create this podcast.
So have a listen and meet my friend Laura jan the reluctant star of Monuments Woman, and learn about the Ghazni Minarets, the various Bala Hissar fortresses, Mes Aynak, and other cultural heritage sites of Afghanistan. If you are going to listen to only one podcast this year, it should be this one. And, please help me get the word out about this fabulous podcast by sharing it with five of your friends.
I invite you to join me in a free online cooking class at KindWorks...
If you are in the mood for a hearty soup then join me to make aush, Afghan noodle soup with a meat sauce, on Monday, October 25th at 2:30 PST/5:30 ET. More information about the event, along with the session Zoom link is available on the KindWorks website.
If you plan to cook for 4-6 people, buy the ingredients from my aush recipe here, rather than the recipe on the KindWorks website, which has been adjusted to serve 20 people.
I invite you to read my essay about my first Halloween in the United States…
With Halloween around the corner, I feel it’s appropriate to re-share a story I wrote a long time ago, A Howler of a Halloween, about my first Halloween as a newly arrived 11-year-old Afghan immigrant to the United States.
I hope this story warms your heart and opens your mind to what Afghan refugees will be doing through their resettlement in the United States. Feel free to share with others.
As part of my work to promote Afghan culture and bring cultural understanding, I will be doing Cultural Competency Training at universities, schools, companies, and communities welcoming Afghan refugees. If you would like me to speak to your community, you may find more information about my speaking offerings in my speaker kit.
Happy Halloween!