December 15, 2025 Issue

I relish specificity. Hannah Goldfield’s delectable “All Rise,” in this week’s issue, is loaded with it. Her subject is bread, particularly a classic Afghan flatbread called naan-e panjayi. She visits the Afghan bakery Diljān, in Brooklyn Heights, where naan-e panjayi is made. She talks with Diljān’s baker Bryan Ford. She writes,

Using a smaller, circular version of the naan-e panjayi, Ford began to assemble a matryoshka doll of carbs, stuffing the bread with a Jamaican-style patty that was in turn stuffed with a spiced potato mixture typically found inside bolani (a deep-fried Afghan flatbread), plus spoonfuls of green chutney and white sauce. It was a clever homage to the iconic beef-patty-on-coco-bread sandwich, popular in the Caribbean neighborhoods of the North Bronx, and beloved by all three Diljān co-founders. 

My favorite part of “All Rise” is Goldfield’s sensuous description of an ingenious Afghan-inflected confection created by Ford:

From a small tray of sheer pira—Afghan milk fudge, made with cardamom and orange-blossom water—he used a cookie cutter to extract glossy circles to fit into a Danish-like pastry, between layers of a vanilla pastry cream and diplomat cream. The texture of the finished product was delightfully riotous, shards of crisp golden crumb collapsing into the pleasingly claggy fudge and luscious custard.

Mm, I’ll have one of those, please.