Does anyone know if he also owns the Helmand in Baltimore? I know they're essentially the same place, but I didn't know if maybe a different part of the family owned that one.

Helmand in Baltimore

By Michael Kerpan on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 10:36am.

Just ate there a couple of weeks ago. It is my understanding that the ownership of this and the Boston restaurant are inter-connected. But I didn't quiz the manager over this issue. ;~}

Good food there (btw)

i think it is all the same.

By Ambrose Chapel on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 10:40am.

i think it is all the same. the New Yorker profiled Hamid Karzai a year or so ago and mentioned that his brother owns 3 restaurants in the US - Cambridge, Baltimore, and California.

I've eaten at the Baltimore and Cambridge Helmands - thought Balto was better :)

according to some of the

By pierce on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 2:32pm.

according to some of the articles about this he actually lives in Baltimore

Yep

By ijustworkhere on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 10:44am.

Same guy. Cambridge restaurant OK, kind of mellowed version of Afghan food. Baltimore restaurant a bit closer to authentic taste (spent some time in the 'stan with this, y'know, Waronterror thing; local food was magnificent). Also a third in California, but never been.

I have no connection other than my mouth to the new Af place in Allston, Ariana, but it's the closest I've had over here to the real thing, if anyone's interested.

As for "corruption," eh, we call it dishonesty, Afs call it taking care of their own. Anything that replaces the Karzai clan will just redirect the bounty.

Thanks

By Kaz on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 11:13am.

I'll have to try out Ariana. I had an Afghani roommate whose family recommended Buzkashi on Mass Ave near Porter Square (now called Ali-Baba Tandoor). I liked that quite a bit when I went there. I haven't been back since they changed the name (What? You don't wanna name your restaurant after a bloated headless goat carcass ball game? But it's the national pasttime!).

PS -- I posit that between Linden and Harvard on Brighton Ave has to be the best single block of ethnic restaurants in all of Boston.

Second that

By ijustworkhere on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 2:39pm.

on both accounts, actually.

Buzkashi guy was Pakistani but lived in Kabul back before the king was ousted (that was early '70s) and learned to love the food, and boy oh boy could he whip it up. Sadly, I think it has now moved on from Ali Baba to something like Nepalese and Tibetan - not that those are bad cuisines, but they aren't Afghan.

And yes, that part of the city is chock-full of caloric enticement. If only parking approximated seating ...

Getting there

By Michael Kerpan on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 3:31pm.

To get to these restaurants from Roslindale requires taking 3 buses (or a bus, a subway and another bus). ;~{

And your point is...?

By Allstonian on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 5:02pm.

I don't understand your point. Also, Helmand in Cambridge is a short walk from Lechmere, so reachable from the Green Line; Ariana in Allston is a short walk from the Green line (B) as well.

Option

By Kaz on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 5:11pm.

You'd be better off taking the commuter rail to Back Bay then hopping on the B Line at Copley.

There's also always ZipCar. :)

We have a car....

By Michael Kerpan on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 5:29pm.

... but don't have lots of luck finding places to park in that part of the city. :~}

Going downtown -- and then back outbound via Green Line is definitely another alternative -- but it seems so roundabout (and still takes quite a bit of time).

Hmm...

By Kaz on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 5:42pm.

How much is my resident parking permit worth to you (I have a driveway)? :)

Another idea might be to park close but where parking is more available (like near BU) and then take the bus/Green Line from your car and back.

Thanks for the suggestions

By Michael Kerpan on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 9:13pm.

We'll eventually figure out how to get there (as) efficiently (as possible). ;~}

It just seems strange that it seems so much easier (and faster) to go to restaurants in Malden than in A/B.

Yep

By Kaz on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 10:22pm.

It's a shame we're spending federal money to replace every bridge over the Charles instead of on the Urban Ring Project.

I can get to Logan by car faster than Harvard Square by bus from Cleveland Circle most days. Going around the outer edge of this city is pretty much the worst chore possible without a car.

That's an interesting false

By boblothrope_temp on Wed, 09/29/2010 - 8:56pm.

That's an interesting false tradeoff you're creating there.

The Urban Ring is pie-in-the-sky vapourware. Even if it were built on schedule, nothing would exist for at least 10 years. If there were no budget overruns, it would cost more than $2 billion. I predict nothing will ever happen with it, except millions of dollars wasted on studies.

The Longfellow, BU, River Street, Western Avenue, and Anderson bridges serve tens of thousands of *existing* transit riders every day. If we don't repair them, they'll (continue to) fall to pieces, and the Red Line and 47, 64, 70, and 66 buses will have to stop running.

Wasn't describing a tradeoff

By Kaz on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 12:52am.

I'd rather we'd been keeping our bridges up to date with all the money we've collected previously instead of completely ignoring them until they all became decrepit at once. Our politicians have been completely short-sighted about infrastructure (because bridge repair doesn't buy you votes).

THUS, with all the bridges up-to-code through the 80's, 90's, and 00's...we'd have the federal money to be creating the Urban Ring.

It's only vaporware because there's no money to do anything about it. The problem of getting around the outer edge of this city is a tangible one that nobody has done anything about since Melnea Cass was almost a raised highway that would have passed over the Charles next to the BU Bridge.

PS -- Saying that the 64, 66, and 47 buses are "running" is really generous. These are probably the 3 buses that haven't made their schedule for an entire day solid in the past 7 years.