Magic Carpet Ride
Just a mile from my home, is a portal to Casablanca. The outside of the restaurant is plain and unassuming, but once you step inside it’s like being sucked into the bottle from the television show “I love Genie.” The atmosphere within is just amazing. Had I not been surrounded by obnoxious “local” haoles, I would have guessed I needed a passport to be there (okay, not really, but I really enjoyed it).
The menu was a little confusing for me. Fortunately, I have a boyfriend (what? did you say boyfriend?--- yes I did…) who can read and pointed out the lovely page with the glossary for those not familiar. We settled for some lamb shish kabobs (I’m not the professional critic, so I have no idea what it was called) and the couscous with chicken and vegetables. We also ordered the fresh mint tea. Our meal started off with a ceremonial hand rinsing, followed by a magic carpet ride of flavors. The first was some sort of lentil soup. Next, an antipasto type dish with hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, tomatoes, olives, and carrots. They served it with bread and your meal is eaten with your fingers. The third dish that came out was puzzling for both of us. it looked like an upside-down pot pie with powdered sugar and cinnamon sprinked on top. I thought they had forgotten to serve the main entrée and just skipped to dessert. We were pleasantly surprised to find it was an amazing blend of sweet and savory. Filled with what appeared to be chicken, eggs and some sort of nuts (I thought pecans). We found out it was almonds. It tasted like a chicken baklava. Yum. I looked it up on the internet, being the inquisitive OCD librarian that I am, and it is called Bastilla (see definition below).
Once that tasty treat was devoured, our main entrees came. We were almost too full to eat it, but had to try it because everything else preceding was so good. I am not a huge lamb fan, but I was willing to try it. It was really good, hell, everything was really good. We couldn’t even finish half of our dinner. We stopped. Then, came dessert. Before the finale, there was another sort of ceremony. We were blessed by a pleasant fruit-scented water on our hands and head. Then it was followed by more tea (which was also very good) and a small honey-coated funnel cake. The dessert was the least impressive of the entire meal, but it was light and tasty.
The staff of the restaurant were also very pleasant. The service was excellent. We felt really sorry for one of the girls. She was treated badly by the rude, snobby party on the next table. MO was very kind to her and let her know that he thought she was doing a great job and to not pay attention to what they were saying. She was grateful for the comments and we were treated very well throughout the evening.
If I were a food critic, I would give it the highest ratings. It was one of the best eating experiences of my life. I was sad to see our journey ended.
My mood: great
From Wikipedia:
Pastilla, Bsteeya, Bastilla, B’stilla or Bstilla (pronounced Pastiya) is a North African dish made usually of pigeon. Cooks in the U.S, however, usually use ground or shredded chicken as a substitute. It is a pie which combines sweet and salty flavours; a delicious combination of crisp layers of phyllo dough, savory chicken slow-cooked in broth and spices and shredded, and a crunchy layer of toasted and ground almonds, cinnamon, and sugar.