FROM AFGHANISTAN, with Love and a James Beard Nomination

FROM LEFT, NARGES SHAMS, KHATERA SHAMS, HOMEYRA SHAMS, AND BAHAR AMIR / PHOTO BY ANGIE SMITH

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 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.

SAFFRON GREEN TEA

PHOTO BY RASE LITTLEFIELD

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.

DUMPLING

PHOTO BY BAHAR AMIR

“Mantu are Afghanistan-influenced dumplings–wonton wrappers filled with spiced ground beef mixed with yellow onions and steam-cooked, served with tomato sauce, seasoned yogurt sauce, cilantro, green onions, and a little dry dill to give it the last touch. Mantu is not an everyday dish, but one of the popular dishes throughout Afghanistan often served in celebrations.”

SAFFRON PUDDING

PHOTO BY RASE LITTLEFIELD

“Saffron pudding (Firnee) is a traditional Afghan dessert made with whole milk, cornstarch, sugar, rosewater, saffron, cardamom, and pistachio. Firnee is one of the desserts often made for celebrations, too.”

PISTACHIO BAKLAVA

PHOTO BY BAHAR AMIR

“Pistachio baklava is a sweet Turkish dessert made with phyllo dough, finely ground pistachios, butter in each layer of the phyllo, and the syrup is a blend of sugar, water, and lemon juice. In Idaho, Sunshine Spice Bakery & Cafe is the only place that makes fresh pistachio baklava.”

The sisters’ humanitarian efforts are growing as Sunshine Spice Cafe sells Saffron Green Tea. As Bahar noted: “This is solely to support Afghan women in Afghanistan. Saffron grows in deserted regions of Afghanistan, and its main harvesters are Afghan women. In Afghanistan, women do not have the freedom to work outside their homes like women in the West and are dependent on the men in their lives to provide financially for them. Widowed women do not have any other options but to work in the fields of saffron to support themselves and their children. Every purchase of our saffron tea supports these women.”

As for the 2022 James Beard nomination? It caught them all by surprise.

Homeyra says, “The day the award nominations were announced, we received a phone call from one of our customers who visited us once when we first opened. He was the one who informed us about the James Beard Nomination and that my sister Khatera was the nominee. We didn’t believe it, but then he said to search online and that was when we were shocked. We were never reached directly from the James Beard Foundation. We do not know how they found out about us and we do not know which pastry item was judged.”

The 2022 future is all sunshine for these sisters as downtown Boise is where they plan to expand this year. Homeyra says, “We are planning to open our second location in downtown Boise and already have the space, and we are just waiting for the current tenant to move out.”

Sunshine Spice Bakery & Cafe is at 6911 West Fairview Ave, (208) 991-3920.

Hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM, Saturday and Sunday from 9 AM to 4 PM.