A restaurant in Oakland scheduled to open January 30 is in search of to convey the delicacies of Afghanistan to new heights. Jaji, co-owned by Sophia Akbar and Paul Iglesias of Parche, will stroll the road between acquainted and iconoclastic, with mantu-like wonton dumplings with confit duck and cocktails blended with yogurt and Silk Highway spices.
Jaji occupies the house beneath the Kissel Uptown Oakland lodge beforehand held by Occitania, Chef Paul Canales’ French restaurant that shuttered in 2023. The spacious eating room is decked out with Afghan artifacts like native drums and headpieces, and from the ceiling droop a whole lot of colourful swatches that should recall poppies. Within the again, a speakeasy known as B.Akbar channels David Lynch “red room” vibes with its crimson decor, old-but-comfy-looking furnishings and vinyl information spinning on turntables.
Jaji is the second endeavor from the husband-wife workforce who run Parche, a Michelin-recognized restaurant that celebrates chef Iglesias’ Colombian heritage. This time, it’s Akbar’s heritage coming into play: She grew up in Walnut Creek in an Afghan-American household, studying within the kitchen from her grandmother make the fragile dumplings known as mantu. “Jaji is the expression of an Afghan-American woman paving way into the culinary world,” Akbar stated in an announcement. “Watching how well received Parche was, it felt like the right time and place to execute a similar concept with our next venture.”
The dishes at Jaji are bold and, just like the meals at Parche, fairly lovely, filled with daring colours and dashed sauces and pops of contemporary fruit and spices. They’ll be recognizable to anybody hailing from the Afghan diaspora, however current twists and turns in idea and presentation. The usually unfancy mantu listed below are filled with confit duck legs and floating in a duck-broth consomme tinged with white miso. The fried snow trout is a complete butterflied fish whose head is positioned towards the heavens, as if to ask “Why me?,” doused with Afghan chili oil and accented with saffron and grilled lemon.
Leaning extra conventional is the braised lamb shank — a must have at true Afghan eating places (with an incredible model down the road at Kamdesh) — that’s accompanied with mastawa, a Tajik/Uzbek dish with rice and broth typically generally known as “liquid pilaf.” And there are skewers, as there must be: One with Wagyu prime sirloin marinated in pomegranate-ginger syrup, one other with floor lamb and mint and one other with springy chunks of king-trumpet mushrooms.
The drinks menu was designed by Iglesias and Parche’s beverage director, Eric Syed, and contains eyebrow-raising choices like a Zira Gold with mezcal, cumin syrup and black-pepper tincture, recalling the historical past of spices getting used as foreign money alongside the Silk Highway. There’s additionally a Salaamati with scotch, Rooh Afza syrup and dogh (a Persian yogurt drink), and a sturdy menu of zeroproof cocktails that may be sipped within the B.Akbar that — be aware to squatters — sits 20 folks for what the Jaji workforce calls a “90-minute curated drinking experience” with “small bites, encouraging conversations.”
Particulars: Open 5:00-9:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 5:00-10:00 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 422 twenty fourth St., Oakland; jajioak.com
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