Afghan Market, Edsall Road in Alexandria

[DonRocks]

Just when I thought I'd seen it all, I found myself literally walking over piles of Afghan rugs today in order to pick up my Bulanee ($2.50), a large, potato- and leek-stuffed turnover warmed up in Afghan Market's impressive stone oven.

This same oven is undoubtedly what produces Charlie's pizza, a delivery service whose extensive menu looks like something from a Greek-owned Italian Mom-n-Pop in South Dakota, with absolutely nothing revealing its association with this Afghan market, other than a single Arabic phrase on the bottom of the cover (perhaps saying "Halal meat," because that's what's advertised on the window outside).

Taken in tandem, the two operations are a fascinating case study in culture, economics, and sociology. The Afghan menu is much more interesting, with Tuesday-Saturday specials of Maash Pallow, Kala Paacha, Kichiri Quroot, Chai-nakee, and Qurooti, respectively.

You'll miss Afghan Market if you blink, even if you're looking for it. And who knew that they even had a second location in Chantilly? Click here for their website.

Cheers,

Rocks.

[TheMatt]

Yeah, this place is easy to miss. The best way to get to it is to be going east on Edsall toward Van Dorn so you can turn right. Trying to turn left against Edsall there is a bit...frustrating, let's say.

[ghostrider]

Just when I thought I'd seen it all, I found myself literally walking over piles of Afghan rugs today in order to pick up my Bulanee ($2.50), a large, potato- and leek-stuffed turnover warmed up in Afghan Market's impressive stone oven.

This same oven is undoubtedly what produces Charlie's pizza, a delivery service whose extensive menu looks like something from a Greek-owned Italian Mom-n-Pop in South Dakota, with absolutely nothing revealing its association with this Afghan market, other than a single Arabic phrase on the bottom of the cover (perhaps saying "Halal meat," because that's what's advertised on the window outside)....

Cheers,

Rocks.

Fascinating. Our local Afghan place where I live here in Jersey is also combined with a pizza joint. To enter the restaurant, you walk into what looks like a standard Jersey pizza operation & slip through a beaded curtain to your left. It's very unobtrusive from the street, you pretty much have to know it's there. No stone oven here, just a standard pizza oven which the Afghan guy uses to good advantage to bake Afghan breads & those turnovers.

Makes me wonder how common this sort of combined operation is.

(What am I doing here? Planning a trip, looking for possible dinner spots in Alexandria.)