Tajine

I've been wanting to try out this Moroccan restaurant in the Tenderloin for a while. Suprise ... nobody wanted to go with me and I'm too much of a chicken to go on my own. Today, while cruising the web reading about it, I found that they have moved to a new location ... only 3 blocks away from my work.

I knew I wasn't going there for the decor. Afterall, I first found out about the place reading the "bargain bites" section on the local paper. As a yelper remarked, the place has a sort of divy-cozy feel to it.

I ordered the chicken bastilla to-go. It's actually an appetizer that's made with chicken, spices, almonds and eggs baked in a filo dough and then dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon on top. As I've only had Moroccan food at one other place, I can't comment on how authentic it was, but I can say it's its much fancier counterpart's equal in terms of taste and texture.

The guy behind the counter offered me some Moroccan mint tea (served sweetened and piping hot). It was surprisingly refreshing. The minty-ness is pretty subtle. He very patiently answered all my curious questions "what's this? ... what's that?" and told me about the rosewater silver container. Apparently, they fill them with rosewater and spritz it about by shaking it.

All in all, I'm glad I have yet another place to go to for variety. Prices aren't bad either. And the nice guy gave me some free bread and a piece of their home made shepakia (dessert made with flour, almonds, sesame seeds, honey and orange blossom water). It was quite good, though I'm not sure if I'll be ordering it. Too bad they don't serve it with ice cream ...

Next time, I'm definitely going to try their lamb tajine ...

Which brings to mind ... tajine's basically this cone shaped clay dish that people from African nations uses to bake (usually) meat dishes with, which ends up with a very tender stew-like dish. I wonder how it'll differ using Asian clay pots. Ummmmhhhhhh ... gonna start another kitchen experiment soon ...

Not for Pet

This was a sign found at the Farmer's Market in front of cages of live chicken by D.

Last week, the guys at work were trying to joke around and gross me out by announcing that we're having chicken feet for lunch that day. Instead of succeeding, I was actually rather excited by the notion since I like the stuff (when it's served at dim sum) with black bean sauce ... yum! At that time, our Asian mailman walked in the door and he got really excited and animated by telling stories about how you're supposed to kill animals by first chasing them around to get their blood circulation going.

I relayed the story to D and he found it quite amusing. We got to talking and he wondered if his cooking lady knows how to kill a chicken. I asked her about it the next day and D found himself expecting a really fresh chicken for lunch the next day. Since he had never had the pleasure and have always wondered about it, he wanted to film the event. Unfortunately, the chicken was already killed by the time he got his camera to the kitchen.

Final review of the chicken? D said it tasted very fresh, but found the meat too rubbery (tough?) for his liking.