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Best Bargain Restaurants: Panjshir and Panjshir Ii

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Panjshir
Falls Church
Panjshir Ii
Vienna

Swirling around these casual, colorful Afghan restaurants are the aromas of a Middle Eastern bazaar. Afghan cuisine, which makes use of nuts, dried fruit, and sweet and pungent spices and herbs against a backdrop of lamb, yogurt, beans, and rice, reflects that of Afghanistan's neighbors, Iran and Pakistan. Many dishes can be had in large or small portions and in vegetarian versions, possibilities that enable creative ordering.

For a delicious beginning, try the Afghan answer to ravioli, aushak, dumplings filled with scallions, or muntoo, a beef-and-onion-filled version. Both are drizzled with meat sauce and creamy yogurt. Palows, exotic jumbles of fruits and vegetables that may be ordered with lamb or chicken, are wonderful too. Zardack palow combines lamb, carrots, prunes, walnuts, and chickpeas in a sweetish tomato sauce. In a slight variation, apples replace the carrots and split peas fill in for the chickpeas.

Lamb cooked with turnips, sugar, spices, and tomato sauce is a celebration of sweet and sour. There are also simple kebabs of lamb, beef, and chicken. Possibly the most entrancing dish, though, is pumpkin with tomato sauce and yogurt, also available with meat as an entrée. Other winners are the fork-tender eggplant with tomato sauce and yogurt and the green-tinged spinach rice, either on its own or with puréed spinach and chunks of lamb.

Desserts include firnee, almond pudding; properly brittle baklava; and gosh-e-feel, crisply fried pastry dusted with sugar, cardamom, and pistachios. All are good and go admirably with Afghan cardamom tea.

Panjshir , 924 West Broad Street, Falls Church; 703/536-4566. Open Monday through Saturday 11 am to 2 pm and 5 to 10 pm, Sunday 5 to 9 pm. AE, DC, MC, V. MapIt!

Panjshir Ii , 224 Maple Avenue West, Vienna; 703/281-4183. Open Monday through Saturday 11:30 am to 2 pm and 5 to 10 pm, Sunday 5 to 9 pm. AE, DC, MC, V. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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