FROM AFGHANISTAN, with Love and a
James Beard Nomination DUMPLING / PHOTO BY BAHAR AMIR
BY APRIL NEALE
Hollywood couldn’t script a more heart-stopping story of an escape from the Taliban. A family with four Afghan sisters escaped the oppressive regime back in 2003 and wound up in Boise. How the Shams sisters—Bahar Amir, Khatera, Narges, and Homeyra—became small-business owners is an epic tale of tenacity and luck. Their hard work has earned them the esteemed James Beard Foundation 2022 nomination in the category of Outstanding Baker, for sister Khatera. Could they ever have imagined this honor as children, when their journey out of Kabul was fraught with danger at every turn? They walked all night, passing borders illegally in Iran and Turkey. Their father hid them in a hearse, put them in trucks, and then when faced with a cold river, they had to swim across to escape the Taliban that had come knocking on their door one fateful day. They were looking to take girls of marriageable age, and their father, whose portrait hangs inside the Sunshine Spice Bakery & Cafe today, instinctively knew he had to get his family out of Afghanistan to safety. Homeyra Shams describes how they all came to Boise, saying, “In Turkey, we applied for the UN as refugees, and America was the country that accepted our case. It took one whole year to finish the interviews and testing. They asked if we had any family in the United States, and in which state, but since we did not know where our relatives were living in 34
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America, they chose Idaho for us to live because we were all young girls. They said that Idaho was safer for our family.” The Shams family arrived in 2003, and the sisters grew up in the City of Trees and eventually opened their business, Sunshine Spice Bakery & Café, in Boise’s bench neighborhood on Fairview, back in 2019. Then COVID threw them a huge curveball, but they reopened in August 2019 after a five-month closure and have been serving excellent small meals and specialty treats ever since. Boise now has an extensive Afghan population that also supports and spreads the word about this tasty eatery. Bahar and Khatera are the creators of their addictive baked goods and recipes infused with Afghanistan’s flavors. The front of the cafe, when you walk in, boasts the arresting art and jewelry designs of Narges and Homeyra, including the portrait of their late father. The sisters have also raised funds for women in Afghanistan. However, Bahar says they continue to worry for relatives, including one sister left behind. “Boise is our home now. We love it here,” says Bahar, whose sister Narges has created an iconic poster featuring something her birthplace and her new home in Idaho have in common: a skyline filled with snow-capped mountains. The artsy vibe and tempting food are addictive qualities that keep regulars coming back to their cafe as Bahar walked us through some of their most popular and favorite items to order. Namely the dumplings, the saffron pudding, pistachio baklava, and the saffron green tea.
