In Brisbane Times’ Heartlands series, Food and Culture Editor Matt Shea seeks out the migrant restaurants, cafes and stores that give the city’s scene its rich texture. This month, a Camp Hill restaurant that serves fragrant Afghan food.

Driving lessons. Studying English. Looking for a paying job. For a Hazara Afghan woman like Zahra Ali Askary, Australia felt like an entirely different world.

The Hazaras, one of Afghanistan’s largest ethnic groups, have a long history of persecution in that country, most recently under the Taliban when it came to power in 1996. Infamously, in 2001, the Taliban destroyed two monumental Buddhist statues in the Bamiyan Valley, the Hazaras’ traditional home in Afghanistan, 130 kilometres north-west of Kabul.

By then, Ali Askary and her husband, Nawab Ali Askary, were in Australia, having arrived in 2000 as refugees.

“We were on a temporary protection visa for three years, not knowing what was going to happen to us,” Zahra says. “I think it was 2004 that we got our permanent visas, and in 2006 we became citizens.

“It was very hard, not knowing what was going to happen, but it worked out very well for us in the end.”

The Ali Askarys made hay in those early years. Zahra worked as an interpreter before landing an administration job with the Brisbane City Council. Nawab drove a taxi but, ever since arriving from Afghanistan, had thoughts of opening a restaurant.

“We started food testing with my fellow council employees,” Zahra says. “I invited them to my house, put on a lot of food, just to see how they enjoyed it. Because Australian people know the taste of Chinese and Italian food. But they don’t know the taste of Afghanistan, not at all.”

Turns out, the food was a hit. The Ali Askarys found an Indian restaurant for sale in Camp Hill, bought it and reopened it in 2014 as Bamiyan, naming the venue after their traditional home. In the 10 years since it’s become a southside icon, winning hearts with its fragrant, generously portioned curries, dumplings and breads.

“I remember we opened in August of that year,” Zahra says. “We had a big pre-opening. We called our friends and everybody, and that led to a wider circle finding out. There were people of Afghan background, but also a lot of Indians and people from Saudi Arabia who knew the taste of our food.

“So for the first month we were a little bit quiet on Monday and Tuesday nights, but then we started picking up on the weekend and by December we were spilling out onto the street.”

“There are a lot of fresh tomatoes, fresh ginger and garlic. It’s the freshness of the food. That’s why people love it.”

Bamiyan co-owner Zahra Ali Askary

What were people coming back for? Dishes such as the banjan borani, with fried eggplant lathered in a tomato-based sauce, and finished with yoghurt and coriander; marinated lamb mince and chicken seekh kebabs cooked in the tandoor; and what might be some of the most enormous naan breads Brisbane has ever encountered.

There’s also the kabuli palaw, with lamb or chicken served in steaming piles of cumin-flavoured rice and topped with carrots, sultanas, almonds and nuts. And perhaps the restaurant’s most essential dish: house-made mantu – or beef dumplings – steamed and served with yellow lentils, yoghurt and coriander.

“It’s all about the fresh ingredients in Afghan food,” Zahra says. “We don’t use a lot of canned food. There are a lot of fresh tomatoes, fresh ginger and garlic. It’s the freshness of the food. That’s why people love it.”

That formula hasn’t changed much over the years. The Ali Askarys opened a second restaurant in New Farm (which featured an enormous photographed mural of Bamiyan Valley, minus the destroyed statues, on one wall – it has been reproduced in a smaller format and mounted on the Camp Hill restaurant’s wall), but decided to shutter it after the challenges of the pandemic and the family being stretched between two suburbs.

The Camp Hill restaurant, meanwhile, has moved to a neighbouring tenancy – a former Thai restaurant – with more space. It’s still just BYO booze, but that means the restaurant forms a neat two-hander with a bottle shop in the same strip of shops.

“We were making customers for them as well,” Zahra says.

“But when people come, and they’re happy with the food, that makes us very proud. So we always try to make the food as fresh as possible and everything is made that day, so we keep our guests happy.”

3/82 Bennetts Road, Camp Hill, (07) 3172 2912