Ex-Diss and Friend Bliss

Holy shit! An ex-boyfriend just tried to ignore me off as he walked to Penn Station. I just got back on the LIRR from Long Beach and was walking to the subway with my friend. I look up to see Tom walking straight towards me, eyes lock, recognition on both parts. He keeps on walking, right by me. I reactively break my conversation with Carol to say, "Hey that's Tom." to no one in particular and he hears this. He turns his head, not breaking his stride, to stumblingly say, "Got to catch a train." and he keeps on walking. I've just been hit by an ignore-excuse-and-run drive-by diss!

Afghan Yum and Run

Carol, Lisa and I went to Khyber Pass, an Afghan restaurant in St. Mark's. Comfy setting with maroon tapestries and pillows overflowing. We sat at a table, not the window floor seats. Teh place was rather empty around 8pm when we arrived. The waitress was helpful when asked for suggestions but nicely left us to our own with no annoying hovering or pressure to order.

Enjoyed a lovely selection of treats. Started with more of a dessert. The Boulanee Kadu consisted of fried pillows of sweet potato filling dusted with a sugar spritz. The yogurt dip helped smooth and calm the sweetness.

Carol has the Bouranee Badenjan, a nicely grilled eggplant with mint yogurt and spices. The edges of the eggplant were charred with a good flavor while the insides were soft yet not too mushy. The seasonings with their earthy accents didn't overwhelm the eggplant and its texture. The mint yogurt made this dish the standout for me as it brought the milky sour punch to the otherwise standard rounded, heavier flavors of typical eggplant recipes.

I had the Quorma Sabzee with lamb. It was good but the flavors didn't really distinguish. Instead of giving the dish a layered, exploratory experience of all the flavors, the taste was the same for each bit varying only the texture - meat flakes of lamb, soft spinach clumps, standard sauce. Perhaps the spinach could have been fresher. It as if it had been cooked or sat just a bit too long and all the flavors marinated into one note. But it was still a good one flavor.

Lisa has the Lubia Palow, a vegetarian entree of kidney beans in a tomato-based sauce with onions and spices. It worked nicely with brown rice given its more autumnal savory nature. Beans were perfect, no smushy-soft or hard ones. The sauce was spicy good.

Then the hookah pipes and teenage trash drove us out. There was one trampy 13 year old who came, a girlfriend and two boys in tow. She was a little Brittany wannabe dressing so whorish is seemed campy. I first mistook her micro-mini hot pink jean skirt for short shorts until she tried to ben and maneuver into the platform floor seating table in the front bay window. Well at least the view of her thong brings her up a notch from Lindsay. Her over-the-shoulder black tube top, wrapped around her neck into the boob-hugging main section, was soon wriggled off her neck and shoulder to reveal more flesh but strangely reducing the hooker appeal. Looking around the place at 10ish gives the impression that it is just a hookah place. Too much whore, hookah, and haze for me.