Durkhanai Ayubi is a freelance food writer and restaurateur involved with the day-to-day responsibilities of two family-run eating places: Parwana and Kutchi Deli Parwana. She has written for a number of international newspapers and websites and is currently undertaking a Fellowship for Social Equity funded by the Atlantic Institute in New York. She is the daughter of Afghani refugees Zelmai and Farida Ayubi who settled in Australia to raise their family. She tells the family story from her perspective, channeling her mother and father's memories and recipes. Parwana: Recipes and Stories from an Afghan Kitchen is her first book.
"Daughter-mother duo Durkhanai and Farida Ayubi intertwine history
and food, and the personal and political, in this rich collection
of Afghan recipes. "Of the millions of families displaced, mine was
one," she says of their flight in 1985 from Afghanistan, when "the
aura of the nation had been scrambled." Tying together the threads
of their journey (they now own two restaurants in Australia) are
family photos and an enticing array of dishes pictured in bold
colors, with their recipes. Ayubi's maternal grandfather cooked
spicy coriander-scented lamb kebabs "over hot coals in the garden"
to celebrate Eid, the end of Ramadan; intricate steamed dumplings
(mantu) filled with cabbage and carrots and topped with tomato and
lamb sauce capture "cross-cultural pollination" along the Silk
Road. Recipes are loosely organized by theme; for example, the
final chapter covers the author's return to Afghanistan in 2012 and
features foods said to represent the "bridging" of influences.
Overall, the dishes, which include sweets such as semolina halwah
with nuts, are traditional in flavor, but Ayubi doesn't shy from
modernity: many, such as one for the Afghan national dish Kabuli
palaw, a platter of rice with chunks of lamb "buried beneath,"
suggest using a pressure cooker for convenience. Parwana - the name
of the family's first restaurant - is Parsi for "butterfly," and
Ayubi's family's story is one of metamorphosis, elegantly told and
deliciously accompanied.
"Restaurateur Ayubi's Afghani relatives fled their native country
to settle in Adelaide, Australia, supporting themselves via their
restaurant Parwana ("butterfly") and, later, a deli. Ayubi begins
the book with a narrative of the Afghan nation, its domination by
the Brits, Russians, and others; the violence there; and the
peoples displaced. Into these skillfully told stories, Ayubi weaves
the cross-pollinating of foods, culture, and recipes there. Many of
the 90-plus dishes here will be recognized by global eaters:
kebabs, naan flatbread, curry, halwah, and other foods. Other
dishes will intrigue: a chutney without traditional sweetness,
three different categories of rice, and street-wise traditions like
stuffed flatbreads and dumplings. Elegant and personal color
photographs expand each recipe's presentation, with occasional
step-by-step directions accompanying more difficult items like
breads. This is an homage to the strength and spirit of refugees,
as well as a delicious reminder of what adventurous U.S. cooks can
create.
"...Each recipe includes clear-eyed instructions and notes on the
dish's origins--and some of the most enticing and colorful food
photography of the season."
"I've been longing to visit Parwana Afghan Kitchen in Adelaide,
Australia, since ex-L.A. Weekly restaurant critic Besha Rodell
wrote about it for her Australian Fare column in the New York Times
in March 2018. The restaurant's cookbook -- written by Durkhanai
Ayubi, who runs the restaurant with her mother, Farida Ayubi,
father, Zelmai Ayubi, and four sisters -- conveys far more than
escapist fantasies during a pandemic. Narratives between recipes
and evocative photos detail centuries of Afghan customs and, more
urgently, the modern political crises that led the Ayubi family to
flee Afghanistan to Pakistan and ultimately to migrate to
Australia. Farida Ayubi's recipes for jeweled rice dishes, herbed
kabobs, mantu (dumplings bathed in yogurt and tomato sauces) and
gently spiced sweets exist as remembrances and acts of
preservation. 'Parwana [the word is Farsi for 'butterfly'] is
underpinned by my mother's vision -- her belief that through her
knowledge of the art of Afghan food, gifted to her from her mother
and her foremothers, she had been entrusted with a treasure of old,
a symbol of Afghanistan's monumental and culturally interwoven
past.'"
"Interspersed between recipes are stories of the Silk Road, the
Mughal Empire, and the Great Game, which illustrate how because of
trade, plunder, and cultural exchange, Afghan cuisine is both
beloved and recognizable. The book walks through classics like
kabuli palaw, shaami kebab, and falooda (all of which, unlike so
many restaurant dishes adapted to cookbooks, are incredibly
achievable for the home cook) and demonstrate how Afghan cuisine
both influenced and was influenced by nearly all of Asia. No matter
what cuisine you're most used to cooking, you'll find a recipe, or
even just a flavor, that feels familiar here."
Parwana is a multigenerational affair, and dining there mimics the
boisterous energy of visiting a large family's home ... Rice is
central ... and it may be Farida Ayubi's greatest gift to the
universe. It is not often that a dish as common as rice will knock
me off my dinner chair, but the aged, long-grain narej palaw at
Parwana left me agog. Shot through with slivered almonds,
pistachios and a restrained amount of candied orange zest, its main
attribute was the toasty fragrance of the rice itself the other
ingredients acted only as brilliant supporting characters. I
couldn't keep myself from repeatedly bending over to inhale the
steam rising from the platter, so much so that I started to make my
table mates anxious. To hell with decorum: If someone made a
perfume that accurately evoked the rice at Parwana, I would bathe
in the stuff.--Besha Rodell, The New York Times
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