1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (179 page)

Where:
In Paris
, Le Mansouria, tel 33/1-43-71-00-16,
mansouria.fr
; Timgad, tel 33/1-45-74-23-70,
timgad.fr
;
in New York
, Boulud Sud, tel 212-595-1313,
bouludsud.com
; Barbes Restaurant, tel 212-684-0215,
barbesrestaurantnyc.com
; Poseidon Bakery, tel 212-757-6173,
poseidenbakery.com
;
in Boston
, Kasbah, tel 617-539-4484,
kasbahrestaurant.com
;
in Washington, DC
, Marrakesh, tel 202-393-9393,
marrakeshdc.com
;
in San Francisco
, Café Zitouna, tel 415-673-2622,
sfcafezitouna.com
.
Mail order:
For phyllo, The Fillo Factory,
fillofactory.com
; for squab, D’Artagnan, tel 800-327-8246,
dartagnan.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Book of Jewish Food
by Claudia Roden (1996);
The Food of Morocco
by Paula Wolfert (2011);
epicurious.com
(search squab b’stilla).

A Marrakesh shopkeeper surveys the variety of sweets.

In an effort to make much out of little by enhancing leftover ingredients or stretching costly ones, many cultures wrap such foods in pastry that is then steamed or fried into nourishing dumplings and turnovers. In Morocco and Tunisia that effort results in
briks
and
briouats
, thin, crackling triangles of crisp pastry enfolding a number of succulent fillings, spiced ground lamb or tuna being particular favorites. As with
b’stilla
(see previous page),
warkha
, the paper-thin, crêpe-like pastry cooked on a griddle, is the traditional wrap for briks and briouats, but the more readily available phyllo is often substituted. They make a tempting first course or between-meals snack, no utensils needed, and are widely sold at street and souk stands.

Though designed to be eaten out of hand, the almost diabolically irresistible Moroccan briks present a challenge. Lurking in the middle, perhaps nested in ground lamb or accompanied merely by spices and fresh cilantro, is an egg. Placed there raw, it lightly cooks as the turnover fries in vegetable oil; the white gently sets, but the yolk remains liquid, ready to spurt out if bitten into with abandon. A ready napkin is a wise precaution.

Smaller but with a greater variety of fillings, briouats are prepared with the same pastry as briks, but are often stuffed with spiced ground lamb or fish, brains or sweetbreads, chopped spicy merguez sausage, or any combination thereof. All are good accompaniments to cool white wine, icy beer, or the milky, anise-flavored spirit, arak. As sweet nibbles served with glasses of hot mint tea, briouats are filled with chopped peanuts or cooked rice, and scented with anise seed, cinnamon, sugar, and grated orange rind or orange blossom water.

Where:
In Fez
, Restaurant Al Fassia (in the Sofitel Fes Palais Jamias), tel 212/535-634-331;
in Paris
, Le Mansouria, tel 33/1-43-71-00-16,
mansouria.fr
; Timgad, tel 33/1-45-74-23-70,
timgad.fr
;
in New York
, Boulud Sud, tel 212-595-1313,
bouludsud.com
; Barbes Restaurant, tel 212-684-0215,
barbesrestaurantnyc.com
.
Further information and recipes:
moroccanfood.about.com
(search briouats; khobz).

The dessert with mint tea.

Crunchy with freshly made almond paste and perfumed with orange blossom water or rosewater, the tapered, elongated cookies known as
kab el ghzal
, or gazelle horns, are a standard in the pastry shops of Morocco. Traditionally served with mint tea (see
listing
) or coffee, they also make for sophisticated accompaniments to dessert wine. With their pleasantly sandy texture, gently sweet almond essence, and generous dusting of confectioners’ sugar, the tempting pastries are reminiscent of Mexican wedding cookies (
pastelitos de boda
) and Greek Christmas cookies (
kourambiedes
), also made with ground nuts and with a similar texture and pleasantly toasty richness.

Gazelle horns hold a place of particular honor on bakery shelves, along with the round and crunchy, almond-topped, butter-laden cookies called
ghoriba
, and the crisp
briwats
—honey-soaked phyllo leaves folded around a delicate almond filling. These sweets, as well as the Tunisian date cookies called
makroud
, are the favored desserts when daytime fasting ends during the month-long holiday of Ramadan, served after the traditional dinner that begins with bites of dried dates and bowls of
harira
(see
listing
), a lentil-or chickpea-based soup.

Further information and recipes:
Café Morocco
by Anissa Helou (1999);
The Food of Morocco
by Paula Wolfert (2011);
moroccanfood.about.com
(search gazelle horns);
food.com
(search moroccan gazelle horns);
youtube.com
(search gazelle horns).

Although Morocco’s culinary specialties can be enjoyed throughout the country, at restaurants both humble and highbrow, there is no more exciting and entertaining place to sample them than within the medinas of Fez and
Marrakesh. Strictly speaking, medina means a city or a town, but as many urban centers were modernized, the term came to be reserved for the oldest non-European part of a city, where the market stalls or souks are grouped. Within the medina in Marrakesh, you will find the kasbah, an unused fortress whose antique walls enclose narrow streets and shops.

The medina menu is an awesome one, and food is usually available from midday on, though it takes on far more magic in the evening. At the famous square Jemaa El Fna in Marrakesh, visitors can work up an appetite watching storytellers, snake-charmers, fortune-tellers, jugglers, dancers, and more, all performing for tips amidst the swirl of activity. The atmosphere is that of an enormous, convivial house party, and the air is filled with scents of frying oil, lemon, mint, coffee, oranges, almond paste, and the caramelized sugar of hot sweets.

Lured by the mouthwatering aroma of meat grilling over wood fires, diners may choose to start with the tiny, tender kebabs or brochettes; usually of lamb but also made with chicken or beef or tender innards such as livers or kidneys, they are seasoned with onion, cumin, coriander, garlic, and perhaps a touch of lemon juice. Wedges of flaky
b’stilla
(squab pie, see
listing
) or snails simmered in a broth redolent of grassy green herbs may be the next course. From there, one can move on to small, manageable bowls of
harira
soup (see
listing
), a plate of couscous (see
listing
), or a
tagine
, (see
listing
). There may be sticks of fried eggplant and a rainbow of salads made from beets, carrots, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and cauliflower. Surely the most astonishing dish on offer is the boiled sheep’s head, a shocker to the uninitiated but familiar to those who have encountered the
capozelle
(roasted whole sheep’s head) of southern Italy. In Morocco, unlike Italy, the well-cooked head is not presented intact, but rather in tender bite-size pieces, so it can be savored easily, with bread as the only utensil. For a sweet finish, there are slivers of orange-, yellow-, and red-fleshed melons and chewy almond-or pistachio-studded nougat served on lollipop sticks. Fresh orange juice, almond milk, and the ubiquitous teas and coffees wash down petite honeyed pastries.

Of course, food is not the only thing to sample in the crowded, colorful, fragrant, clattering confines of the medinas. Save time and energy to shop for mother-of-pearl-inlaid wooden boxes, objects large and small made of gleaming brass, newly dyed wool, carpets, djellabahs (traditional North African robes), jewelry, leather goods, and more—all hawked and haggled over, providing a sense of accomplishment to buyers and sellers alike, and a sure way to work up an appetite.

Where:
In Marrakesh
, Jemaa El Fna, tel 212/661-350-878, jemaa-el-fna.com;
in Fez
, Fes el Bali.
Further information and recipes:
Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco
by Paula Wolfert (1987);
The Food of Morocco
by Paula Wolfert (2011);
noteatingoutinny.com
(search eating out in marrakesh).

At first glance one might think it’s baklava, and although it bears a great resemblance to that sticky pastry, form is everything where
m’hanncha
—“the snake”—is concerned. As with so many Arabic and Middle Eastern pastries,
this one starts with a stack of phyllo leaves brushed with melted butter. Spread with almond paste redolent of orange blossom water, sugar, and mastic, the sheets are tightly rolled and coiled into a single spiral, to achieve a tidy presentation and compactly toothsome texture. Once out of the oven, the crisp, flaky, and golden-brown pastry is dusted with confectioners’ sugar and crisscrossed with cinnamon before being cut into slightly curved wedges. Sweet mint tea or the strong, heavily spiced Arabic coffee are the traditional accompaniments to the delicious little snake-cake, but it also pairs well with cold, dry white wine, for a nicely astringent note. Straying even farther from tradition, dabs of crème fraîche or thick yogurt neatly mitigate the chewy pastry’s intense sweetness.

Where:
In New York
, Poseidon Bakery, tel 212-757-6173,
poseidonbakery.com
.
Mail order:
For phyllo, The Fillo Factory,
fillofactory.com
.
Further information and recipes:
A Taste of Morocco
by Robert Carrier (1997);
The Food of Morocco
by Paula Wolfert (2011);
mideastfood.about.com
(search m’hanncha);
epicurious.com
(search snake cake);
morocco.com
(search m’hanncha).

Cured lemons are quintessentially Moroccan.

The honey-gold salted lemons curing in tall glass jars are among the most dazzling sights in the conserve shops of the souks, part of a rainbow of fruit and vegetable pickles that suggest three-dimensional stained glass. Providing what is probably the most iconic and tantalizing flavor in Moroccan cookery, salted lemons,
mssiyar
, combine the sweet, the sour, and the salty with a faintly mysterious bitterness. Their meltingly tender rinds taste every bit as beautiful as they look, whether they grace salads or are cooked in chunks along with meats, poultry, or fish.