Bringing Afghan Food to Columbus

When Sakeena Bary heads into the kitchen, she knows that the dish she loves most is also the most time-consuming to prepare. It is mantu, a delicate, meat-filled dumpling that in Afghan culture is a dish most often reserved for special guests.

Mantu starts with a thin dough wrapper in the style of a wonton. The wrapper is filled with ground beef cooked with onion and spices before the dumpling is pinched closed and then steamed. Before serving, it is topped with a yogurt sauce and stewed lentils prepared separately. It’s a lot of steps for an item than can be consumed in a bite or two.

For Bary, the result is worth the effort. “It just melts in your mouth,” she said. “I’ll make mantu even if I’m home alone.”

These days, her kitchen is in the restaurant she owns and she is making mantu by the hundreds for her special guests—the customers who visit Kabob Shack on Cemetery Road in Hilliard.

“When we were planning the menu, my family recommended against including mantu because it’s too much work,” she said. “There are other places that serve kabobs, but no one else has this.”

Opened in June 2019, Kabob Shack serves a variety of classic Afghan foods, most of them made with beef, lamb or chicken. “These are all recipes from back home, but we just turn it up a notch” by using spices and herbs from both Middle Eastern and Asian cuisines, Bary said. Cilantro and cumin make appearances in many of the dishes.

Mantu

Chickpea Stew

The mantu is one of the most popular dishes, along with the chicken tikka kabob, which uses pieces of chicken breast marinated overnight in yogurt, turmeric, garlic and a touch of cayenne pepper. Another top seller is the beef chapli, which comes as two grilled patties of ground beef mixed with green onions and spices. Those patties can also be ordered as a cheeseburger with French fries, a menu item meant to be both familiar and kid-friendly. “I also put the cheeseburger on the menu because a lot of people who eat halal food can’t find a halal cheeseburger,” she said.

Lamb is a featured entree, available as lamb chops, lamb shank or lamb tikka kabob with pieces marinated in garlic, onions and lemon juice.

Vegetarian items include bolani—a flatbread turnover filled with potatoes, scallions and cilantro—and two flavorful stews served with pita bread. Daal chalau is a lentil stew made with traditional spices, while the chickpea stew is cooked with onions and fresh tomatoes.

All the entrees are served with rice presented in the Afghan style topped with sautéed carrots and raisins, which could be a meal in itself.

Orders also are accompanied by two house-made sauces whose recipes are closely guarded. Bary will say only that her white sauce includes yogurt and dill while her green sauce, which delivers some subtle heat, includes yogurt and cilantro. While Bary won’t tell you what she puts in the sauces, she will sell you a large container of either one if you ask. (When you want some serious heat, ask for the off-the-menu tomato sauce.)

If you’re surprised to learn that Hilliard is the center of Afghan cuisine in this part of the country, it’s all because Bary’s husband was transferred to the area by his employer in 2014. Arriving from Massachusetts, they could find no Afghan restaurant within hundreds of miles. “The closest one we could find was in Chicago,” she said. “It was his idea to open a restaurant.”

Bolani

Kabob Shack in Hilliard

The daughter of immigrants who came from Afghanistan, Bary had the traditional recipes but no restaurant experience. She recruited longtime friend Sheereda Hassan to be co-owner. They had a lot to learn about the restaurant business along the way, but their focus has always been on the food. “Everything is made here and it’s all made to order,” Hassan said.

Because of its small space in a retail plaza set back from Cemetery Road, the restaurant has offered only carryout food since the pandemic restrictions were put in place. Bary and Hassan said they feel lucky that they already had established a strong carryout business, and they continue to see most of the same regular customers coming in.

The co-owners are hoping to educate people about Afghan food as well. For centuries, Afghanistan was a trade route between the Middle East and Iran to its west and Pakistan and China to the east, so its cuisine mixes elements of all those cultures.

“Not many people in this part of the country have tasted Afghan food,” Bary said. “My dream is actually to have Afghan food in every grocery store freezer, where people can just get it when they want.”

• Kabob Shack, at 4568 Cemetery Road in Hilliard, is open daily for lunch and dinner carryout. See the menu at kabobshackhilliard.com.