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The Oldest Restaurant in Kabul (2017)

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Re: The Oldest Restaurant in Kabul (2017)

#2
Often I read long form pieces and the signal/noise ratio is so low it feels like someone was blessed with a short point to get across but burdened with a large word budget.

This is one of those rare exceptions; when I reached the end, I found within myself an unexpected feeling of grief—mildly, for the end of a piece that managed to convey such a rich sense of place, and deeply, for the pain our senseless wars inflict on the innocent.

Re: The Oldest Restaurant in Kabul (2017)

#5
post #2

Often I read long form pieces and the signal/noise ratio is so low it feels like someone was blessed with a short point to get across but burdened with a large word budget. This is one of those rare exceptions; when I reached the end, I found within myself an unexpected feeling of grief—mildly, for the end of a piece that managed to convey such a rich sense of place, and deeply, for the pain our senseless wars inflic…

Yeah, even the first paragraph hooks you, it makes me want to go to the Afghanistan that was part of the hippie trail in the 70's, that faraway exotic unknown place, not the place you can look up on Instagram or YouTube...

Re: The Oldest Restaurant in Kabul (2017)

#6
post #2

Often I read long form pieces and the signal/noise ratio is so low it feels like someone was blessed with a short point to get across but burdened with a large word budget. This is one of those rare exceptions; when I reached the end, I found within myself an unexpected feeling of grief—mildly, for the end of a piece that managed to convey such a rich sense of place, and deeply, for the pain our senseless wars inflic…

Signal to noise ratio should be high for signal (in this context the quality of writing) be better. Saying "signal/noise ratio is so low" you are saying that the content is basically useless.

Re: The Oldest Restaurant in Kabul (2017)

#7
post #6
post #2

Often I read long form pieces and the signal/noise ratio is so low it feels like someone was blessed with a short point to get across but burdened with a large word budget. This is one of those rare exceptions; when I reached the end, I found within myself an unexpected feeling of grief—mildly, for the end of a piece that managed to convey such a rich sense of place, and deeply, for the pain our senseless wars inflic…

Signal to noise ratio should be high for signal (in this context the quality of writing) be better. Saying "signal/noise ratio is so low" you are saying that the content is basically useless.

And that's exactly what they were saying.

Re: The Oldest Restaurant in Kabul (2017)

#8
Oldest doesn't seem that old, but maybe that is for historical reasons of local politics. 70 years was frequently mentioned but there are several restaurants in London that claim to be operating in the 1700s and the oldest pub in my city claims to be over 800 years old [1]! The mosque it mentions is old and surely people must have had to eat near there at some point.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Trip_to_Jerusalem

Re: The Oldest Restaurant in Kabul (2017)

#9
If you want authenticish Pakhtun restaurant style food in the Bay Area I recommend the following restuarant locations. Please add any other recommendations to the replies:

Peshawari Kababs in Union City

Shalimar on Jones St (the Jones St one in SF has a couple Pakhtun cooks, the other branches have Punjabis)

On a related note, most of the South Asian restaurants on Jones St/Tandoorloin are Hindko-Pakhtun owned (though Pakwan has gone downhill now that they have Central American cooks).

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