If an army marches on its stomach, let's see if I can appeal to the Talibans. Hidden in the back street is a kitchen and I love cooking pasta.

"What I am gonna cook for the, the Afghans around here is what's called puttanesca- it's an Italian pasta. First thing we do is cut up lovely fresh tomatoes. "

But be warned, they are often fertilized with human waste, so wash them very carefully.

"Ah, there's actually a very funny story about a guy who was, one needs to smuggle opium out of Afghanistan and hide the smell he actually put the, put the opium down underneath a truckload of onions. Of course he gets to the border, and he gets arrested for smuggling onions, because you are not allowed to take onions out of Afghanistan, they didn't care about the opium."

By now I am acquiring quite an audience. The sight of a westerner cooking for Afghans must be strange indeed.

"And that is puttanesca, Afghan style."
"See, I'm very hungry."
"Could you pass that around?"
"Oh, thank you."
"Oh, thanks a lot."

Now, for the moment of truth.

"I'm very pleased."
'Oh, it's very delicious.'
'I think Afghans are just very polite.'
"No, no."

Fortunately one of my guests is from the ministry of information. Maybe he can put a good word in for us. He obviously likes my cooking. But what about Abdul?

'It's nice.'
'Do you like it?'
"Yes, but not so. I think you, did you forget salt?"
"No, but it, it's got capers and, and anchovies. They're very salty. "
"Can I use some ketchup?"
"You want to put some salt and ketchup on it?"
"Ok, I don't, somehow I don't think I am gonna change the culinary tastes of Afghanistan in one, one meal, but you know, we can but try."

Well it seems to have worked. In the morning I'm summoned to meet Mr. Fiaz, Muhammad Fiaz, Taliban head of Information and the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is a powerful man indeed. Maybe he can grant me permission to see the Buddhas.

"We are very happy that with the formation of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, from the very beginning it has brought security or stability to the country."

But Mr. Fiaz is also a religious scholar, and a strict adherent of Koranic law. So on the one hand his law forbids the depiction of any human image, on the other he wants to rebuild tourism and promote Afghanistan to the world. That's his dilemma. He doesn't want to be filmed. But to get his message out, he has to be.

"And what do you want the outside world most to understand about the administration here in Afghanistan."

"We have put an end to the anarchy, to the civil war in our country. And with that not only the tourist but (and) the journalists (had) could freely visit (on) corner(s) of the country, and they could succeed to go wherever they want to and they could succeed to visit many places."

And that includes us. We get the go-ahead. Ironically, to celebrate the good news, Abdul takes Mr. Fiaz's photograph with my Polaroid camera. So we can go where we like, and film who we like? Well, not exactly. What Mr. Fiaz neglects to tell us is that we are still not allowed to film people in towns.

Pasta Puttanesca:(Italian Penne alla Puttanesca) is a traditional Italian pasta dish made with a sauce named sugo alla puttanesca.

anchovy: a small shoaling fish of the herring family, an important food fish with a strong flavour