Clip: Special | 2m 30s | Video has closed captioning.
In Houston, TX, Lidia visits Khalil Arab. Once an interpreter with the U.S. military, Khalil works with wartime allies as they start new lives in the United States. Lidia has picked up the food at a local Afghan restaurant, because Khalil and his wife Ferra have a newborn baby. The food is similar to a traditional Afghan home-cooked meal, and Ferra adds a typical Afghan salad to the mix.
Aired: 05/30/23
- [Lydia] I head across town to pick up a traditional Afghan meal.
(upbeat music playing) One of America's most diverse cities, Houston, has become home to more than 20,000 Afghans.
And has led the nation in resettling Afghan refugees since the fall of Kabul.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
- Khalil Arab, wanted to cook for me, but when I learned he had a new newborn home, I offered to bring some of the food.
My grandmother would make pots of chicken soup and then homemade pasta, and that was what we took when we went visiting a new mother with a new child.
So, food is always the connecting communicator.
- Hi.
- Hey.
Hello.
- Hi, this is Dariya.
- Oh, Dariya.
How are you doing - This is Lidia.
- Got food.
- Oh, thank you.
Come on in.
- Dinner.
Alright.
- It's gonna be daddy's girl.
If I would tell my late mom that I'm having guests coming to my house and bringing food, she will frown.
- [Lidia] This is the.
- [Khalil] So, it's an Afghan flat bread.
Afghan hospitality would not allow that to happen.
It's a very extraordinary circumstance.
- Okay.
- I hope that this will be the closest representation of a homemade meal.
- [Lidia] Khalil tells me that in Afghanistan it is customary to invite travelers into your home for tea or a meal.
- [Khalil] Grand jewel of the table.
It's a Afghan, very typical, Afghan slash Herati salad.
Ferra.
My wife made it.
- Ah, Ferra.
- Yes.
- That's wonderful.
- [Ferra] So, you can start with Bolani.
- [Lidia] Can I take some vegetables?
- [Khalil] Absolutely.
You can take some of the sabzi.
(speaks in foreign language) Literally means bon appetito.
- [Lidia] Alright.
- [Khalil] In our culture, food is everything.
You put a plate of food on a table and you put three people together and then you realize there's so much similarities than there are differences.
- In Italian, we do a saluté.
Is there such thing in Afghan?
- Nosh.
- Nush.
- Okay, nush.
Thank you for having me in your home.
- Thanks for, thanks for being here.
We're very happy to have you.
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To celebrate and the adventures she had making 'Flavors That Define Us', Lidia organizes a potluck-style meal, in Washington D.C., where immigrants, now new friends, share food that is meaningful to them.
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