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Before landing here in Chicago in 1982 Nasir Raufi and his wife fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan for Iran, and then Germany. He owned a furniture store for a long time, then he opened Afghan Kabob almost three years ago at the intersection of Elston and Montrose. As far as I know it’s the only Afghan restaurant in the region, ever since the demise of Devon Avenue’s Afghan Restaurant, and the (supposedly) in-the-process relocation of Skokie’s Kabul House. Its novelty may be part of the reason they pull in a multiethnic range of customers from all over the city and suburbs, but it’s more likely the solid, careful execution of his country’s cuisine that keeps them coming back.
Rausi’s signature dish is kabuli palaw, a heaping pile of brown long-grain basmati rice flecked with raisins and dark red shredded sauteed carrot, burying a slow-cooked, fall-off-the-bone lamb shank. This particularly fatty of meat piece is cooked with the rice, lending it its dark brown color and a powerfully hard to resist unctuousness. That, or plain white basmati, show up in abundance on various kebab dishes. If for some reason you find any of these underseasoned, the tables are outfitted with shakers of tangy ground sumac and a blistering thin, vinegary chile sauce.
