What about Kabob?

I've been spending my weekdays working and living just south of Toms River, NJ, and luckily have a friend or two who are up for culinary adventures in that area. Unfortunately, the area is mostly culture-less. Lots of Senior Citizen "villages" and such, with the strongest local immigrant population being Mexican. As a result I've had some decent Mexican food down there, but not much else.

Driving down Lakewood Rd. in Toms River on my way home from my friends' house, I'd passed a place called Salang Kabob this summer, and of course it got me curious. Turns out it's a small Afghani restaurant that was getting solid reviews on local food websites. My adventurous friends Frank and Aimee have a townhouse 5 minutes from the place and had been curious about it as well. Now, Frank's family is right off the boat Italian, complete with grandmother whose English is barely intelligable (but whose meat sauce is apparently unbelievable) and family functions where Italian and English are spoken interchangably. Aimee is Irish-American. Her homecooking wasn't really what you might consider exciting, and her exposure to cuisines of the world is quite limited. BUT, I'm stoked on her willingness and desire to try new crazy foods she never knew existed.

I'd never had Afrghani food before, but have eaten more than my fair share of kabobs and middle-eastern cuisine. They hadn't. We decided we had to try the Kabob place together.

The restaurant is small, but cozy and clean. It seems to definitely be a family-run place, and the lovely lady who took our orders and explained what things were made a point to say that everything is fresh and homemade - my two favorite things to hear in this situation. We were given a small plate with a few vegetable dumplings without ordering it, and it was very tasty, with red and white (yogurt?) sauces. Then we were given the hearty, grainy bread to dip in the sauces, and it got our mouths watering.

Aimee's potato dish (a special not on the menu) had a yellow sauce with spices I truly couldn't identify (A RARE EVENT!). We all tried it and were LOVING it. I got a beef kabob that was perfectly grilled and seasoned, over lightly seasoned rice with raisins (sorry, not familair with actual terms for this food). Frank got a light beef stew over rice (also a special not on the menu) that was like a standard beef stew, but AGAIN with flavors I coudn't identify. I felt out-gunned, but in the most delicious way possible. The chutney Frank and I were given to go on the little salad on the plate was pure herbs in what seemed like lemon juice or some sort of slightly sweet acid, and it was spicy and just awesome. We were given more bread to dip in everything, and DIP WE DID!

It was a treat to talk briefly with our waitress about what the restaurant was about and what the food was, and the food itself spoke volumes more than she could have verbally. This picture of our messy table and mostly-cleaned plates tells the tale, folks.