Amir's Kabob House

By the sound of it, I pictured it to be a take-out kind of restaurant, where the menu would be hand written on the wall and the smell of charbroiled kabob would be wafting from the smoky open kitchen. But, I was pleasantly surprised to see an ethnic decor, middle eatern music playing in the back ground and a couple of belly dancers who were more than eager to entertain us with their hip drops and belly rolls.

The waitress brought out some Afghani bread to start with. The first round of bread is complimentary. We didn't need any more after that, though. We ordered the Kadu - Pan-fried butternut squash with onions and garlic served on sour cream.

Fantastic. The flavor and texture of Kadu was one of a kind. I haven't had anything like this before. Next, we asked for Bulani Plate - Grilled turnover filled with mashed potatoes and herbs served with plain yogurt.
 

This is very similar to Aloo Parantha, the Indian stuffed bread. We heated the left overs the next day and munched them on the way to Big Sur. Was fresh and as good as new.
A got the Vegetarian Platter - Served with rice, sabzi, gulpee, and banjan.

Sabzi is Sautéed spinach with onions and garlic, Gulpee is Cauliflower steamed with tomatoes, onions, and crushed peppers and Banjan is Pan-fried eggplant baked with tomatoes, onions, and garlic served on sour cream. The rice was very flavorful as well. A fantastic platter! The food was not spicy. It was perfect after the Habanero episode ;). We were really amazed to see so many vegetarian options. I highly recommend this restaurant if you are visiting Monterey.