brainer. “When I came here, I saw nothing German,” he
says of arriving in town, where family members already
had an Afghani food stand going at Saturday Market. “If
you go back into history, Germany and Afghanistan were
always best friends.”
In culinary terms, the friendship is a match made in
heaven. On the European side, Wahed offers a scrumptious
selection of bun-meats including rindswurst (the classic
Frankfurter beef sausage), bratwurst, currywurst,
Thuringer and a chicken sausage filled with feta and
spinach, all served on fresh rolls he gets from a German
baker in Lebanon (Oregon, that is). “I like everything
fresh and original,” he says.
Wahed explains that the staple of Afghani cuisine is
rice, after which your standard dish includes a lot of spiced
vegetables heavy in vinegar, cilantro, garlic and jalapenos.
His spinach side is particularly tasty. The simple menu
includes either chicken or a vegetarian option, and a side
of bolanis is highly recommended — folded tortilla filled
with seasoned potatoes and green onions.
An affable guy with an easy manner, Wahed enjoys
shooting the breeze with the folks who saunter up to his
cart in Kesey. “I enjoy life,” he says, and he particularly
seems to enjoy feeding people. Wahed points out that,
every year for the past 20 years, a group of Australians
attending Oregon Country Fair has eaten breakfast, lunch
and dinner at his cart. The story tickles him.
Of course, Kesey Square has been in the spotlight
lately, and Wahed — often the sole food cart standing in
the square — is at ground-zero in the debate of whether to
leave the southwest corner of Willamette and Broadway
as an open public space or, rather, fill it in with more
apartments and retail.
Kin
of the
Square
abdul-Waheed wahed says the pairing
of his native Afghani cuisine with
standard German street food like
sausages was a no-brainer.
The story of Abdul-Waheed Wahed and his Kesey Square cart
T
hirty years ago, Abdul-Waheed Wahed was
sitting in the Frankfurt airport, waiting for
his flight from Germany to Eugene. Wahed,
a Kabul native who’d earlier fled the Soviet
conflict in Afghanistan, had some time to kill.
So, perched at the airport bar in 1986, he had
a few drinks. A woman he knew sat down
beside him. They shared a whiskey, then a few
more. Wahed missed his flight.
Wahed, 61, is the chef and proprietor of the
Afghani-German Cuisine cart that sits weekdays in Kesey
Square, and his life story is as fascinating as his food is
delicious. As a member of the Afghanistan national soccer
team, he left Kabul in 1979, relocating to Bombay (now
Mumbai), India, for nine months before rejoining the team
in Frankfurt.
In Germany he was courted by a handful of pro soccer
clubs, including the New York Cosmos. But three days
before signing as a forward with the Eintracht Frankfurt
team, Wahed broke both his legs in a serious car accident. It
took a couple years of rehab to recover, after which Wahed
played a bit of second-tier ball. But things had changed.
EUGENEWEEKLY.COM/CHOW
By Rick Levin
He kicked around a few years in Frankfurt, carousing
and enjoying the nightlife. He worked construction during
the day and pulled hours at night as a barkeep. Eventually
Wahed opened his own restaurant, where he learned
to prepare the cuisine he’s been dishing out in Eugene
for the past three decades. “As a boss, I’d like to know
everything,” Wahed says of becoming a chef in Frankfurt.
“I should know how to cook.”
Which brings us back to that night in the Frankfurt
airport. “I sold all my stuff,” he recalls. “I had just my
handbag and my boarding pass.” But, as Wahed says,
things happen, and the female friend who joined him
in the terminal lounge invited him back to her brother’s
apartment, where they had a glass of wine. Wahed says
that, next thing he knew, he woke up and it was morning.
Two years later, they were married, and in 1989 Wahed
and his wife finally caught that fated flight to Eugene, where
for nearly three decades he’s been serving up his distinctly
multicultural cuisine as a fixture in Kesey Square as well
as Saturday Market and the Oregon Country Fair.
Wahed says the pairing of his native Afghani cuisine
with standard German street food like sausages was a no-
PHOTOS BY T R ASK BEDORT H A
‘If you go back into history,
ABDUL-WAHEED WAHED
SERVES A PLATE OF
AFGHANI-GERMAN
CUISINE
Germany and Afghanistan were
always best friends.’
BOLANIS
“For the people, for downtown, it’s the most fun
place,” Wahed says of Kesey Square, adding that, instead
of building more residential structures on the property,
more should be done to draw people into the revitalized
downtown core. “The people should be here,” Wahed says.
The Afghani-German Cuisine cart in Kesey Square is open 10:30 am to 7
pm Monday through Thursday, and 10:30 am to 3 pm and 6:30 pm to 2
am Friday. Catering available. For further information, call 554-5581 or
email a.waheedwahed@yahoo.com.
CHOW WINTER 2016
9