In one of the most dangerous cities in the world, you can still buy tom yam gung
When you arrive outside the Mai Thai restaurant in Kabul, you could be forgiven for thinking that you're about to dine out at a prison. With high, reinforced concrete walls, topped with barbed wire, and forbidding security guards armed with rifles, it certainly doesn't look like an average Thai eatery.
After making it through the barricades, however, you'll find that the restaurant is an oasis rather than a jail. The welcoming staff - including a smiling Thai waitress - and the faint scent of lemongrass and coconut in the air, give you the impression that you're on holiday in a Thai resort, rather than in the centre of one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
The exterior security measures are the norm for the restaurants in Kabul that cater to the expatriate community. And as the security situation for expatriates deteriorates, the walls of the restaurants are getting higher and thicker.
Kabul has only a handful of restaurants that expatriates can go to, but the range of cuisines includes Italian, French, Mexican, Korean and Croatian. The Mai Thai is the only option for Thai food, however, and it is here that you can find the good old favourites, including pad thai, laab and tom yam gung, at prices ranging from US$7.50 to $16.50 (240 to 530 baht) per dish. But diners don't have to go to the restaurant to get Thai food, the Mai Thai also uses a delivery service called "Easy Food".
Run by an enterprising young Thai woman, Piyaporn "Bee" Lektragoonchai, the Mai Thai (previously called the Lai Thai) has been in operation since 2003. Bee and her Afghan business partner, Matin Hamkar, took over the restaurant from the previous owner, Lalita Thongngamkam, in 2006.
According to Ms Piyaporn, customer numbers have grown over the past four years and business is booming. Ms Piyaporn believes that the secret to her success has been simple hard work. Her restaurant is open every day between 11.30am and 11.00pm and Ms Piyaporn is on duty for up to 16 hours a day. Her two Thai chefs and her waiters are also hard-working, though they don't work every day as she does.
Ms Piyaporn has had problems in the past with staff, and even had to send some back to Thailand, but she is very happy with her current team. "But it wasn't easy finding reliable Afghan staff," she says. "The culture here is very different." She found that some of her previous Afghan staff only wanted to work when they needed money, so didn't necessarily come to work every day. "That was difficult to manage," she said.
Staffing is becoming easier and so is finding the right ingredients for the Thai dishes, Ms Piyaporn says. Four years ago she scoured the local markets without success and was forced to import most ingredients from Thailand, via Pakistan. But nowadays there is more local demand for the ingredients and they are therefore easier to find. Ms Piyaporn now has secure arrangements with reliable suppliers, and no longer spends much time in the markets.
Although Kabul has a reputation as a dangerous city, Ms Piyaporn feels safe. "I'm not a target here," she says. She feels confident enough to walk around the city, unescorted and without a veil; and even drives her own car. "Everyone knows me," she explains, "and I've never had any problems with Afghan people. And if you do good things, it keeps you safe."
Through running a business in Kabul over the past four years, Ms Piyaporn has become an expert on the Afghan procedures and laws relating to restaurants and foreigners. As there is no Thai Embassy in Afghanistan, Ms Piyaporn's knowledge of rules and regulations makes her the Kabul go-to person for information. Thais living in Afghanistan (population estimated between 100 and 200, working mainly in beauty parlours and military camp restaurants) often come to her for advice, and she has even provided assistance regarding Afghan procedures to staff from the Thai Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Ms Piyaporn has conquered Kabul, but her ambition is to create an empire. Given the huge number of military personnel in Afghanistan, she believes opening a Thai restaurant on a military base would be a profitable enterprise, and that she would have an edge over competitors. "The food they currently serve in those bases is fattening - pizza, hamburgers, etc," she explains. "I can offer healthy, non-fattening and tasty Thai food." She is currently designing a menu for a new restaurant and is making plans to import the necessary cooking equipment and decorative items from Thailand, via Iran.
With all her work, Ms Piyaporn doesn't have time for a social life and rarely gets a chance to visit her home in Thailand.
She misses her family, and in particular her twin daughters, aged nine, but believes that working hard is important. "You have to eat, so you have to work," she says.
"I'll probably stay here for another two to four years," she says, and adds that after Afghanistan she'll probably go to another country in conflict, where business is difficult, but profitable.
Asked what she'll miss about Afghanistan, Ms Piyaporn immediately says "Camels!" She finds this animal fascinating and takes photographs whenever she sees them. But she can't fit a camel into her restaurant oasis, so makes do with a massive dog, a former fighting champion, the size and colour of an oversized tiger, which patrols the garden. "He looks mean, but he's gentle and sleeps a lot," she says reassuringly.
Ellie Meleisea worked for an NGO in Kabul until last May.
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