catch up (no, not THAT kind!)

happy new year (yes i know it's summer) food lovers!!


i've traveled far & beyond, so the next few posts will be the best recollections of culinary adventures and velvetly nights out.


recently, i had a mouth stuffing night of fantastic moroccan food. on a saturday of entirely too much sun, too much walking around in that sun & too many things on the 'to do' list to even whip up a salad, the man & i went just around the corner in brooklyn 2 a place i'd once had brunch. babouche on fifth avenue in brooklyn did not disappoint. careful not to order too much food, as we normally do, we opted to stick close to the moroccan fare, rather than order 'french' leaning dishes and in this fashion, were determined to only have wines from tunisia or algeria. sadly, the wine from tunisia wasnt available, the rose from morocco was also not to be had, so we settled on a red from algeria that was so light it could have been chilled to further explore it's juiciness as we waited for our appetizer.


in classic french fashion, we were offered bits of baguette (both white and with a bit of caraway seed mixed in to some loaves) with moroccan olive oil, heavy with fruit and pepper. we both swooned at the delicious fragrant oil (again, we were exhausted and starving, making any sustenance all the better) while waiting for our zaalouk to arrive. the succulent, chilled eggplant was rich with harissa and peppers and tomato and the perfect amount of garlic to not be overwhelming to the spices in the harissa and the saltiness of the few fantastic olives which were rained in. we snapped up the entire order with pita bread which was sadly only lukewarm and were sated until our next course.


the couscous aux legume was fragrant with tender chickpeas, carrots, bits of cabbage and plump raisins. each pearl was perfect and separate, filling the mouth with a warm comfort, even on a 90 degree night. the garnish of a few slivers of the resplendent perseved lemon accentuated how creamy and lush the simple couscous was.


the brouchette de crevette were 4 baked shrimp, amply seasoned and herbacious and cooked just to the point that they were velvetly and meltingly tender, not an easy task, as often the shrimp are undercooked for fear of the dreaded tough, tasteless result or just plain blasted so that nothing saline or tender remains. chopped sweet garlic and cilantro dressed the shrimp so much that i was inclinded to 'suck the head' as they do back in panama city, but i resigned myself to be a lady & kept with the fork & knife. the kebab dish was served without it's traditional spear, over a lovely mixed mesclun salad, with enough of that delectable perseved lemon to drive the tastebuds mad. alongside were a salad of rich, ripe olives, cured and salted just so as to provide a balance to the dish.


desert was the crown jewel on this beautiful night. layers of pastry dough, almost like that left over from a b'stilla were dusted with chopped toasted almonds (delicious) and a bit of rosewater scented cream (creme anglaise? - EGGS? the HORROR!)and sliced strawberries (unnecessary as the rosewater cream could stand on it's own). the desert was accompanied by the quintessential mint tea, flush with sugar and infused with rosehips, giving only a hint of their existence behind the freshness of the mint.


we sat back and sipped our tea out of glasses so small they were more like moroccan shot glasses and took in the atmosphere once more. the lighting was perfect, with beautiful wooden lanterns let light thru star patterns and henna lanterns illuminated the smooth cream colored walls so that everything appeared candlelit and mysterious. the only complaint we could come up with (and we absolutely were too tired to be bothered by ANYTHING this evening with such delicious fare) was that the music kept moving away from authentic arab music to techno or neo-soul or something other than african. this was remedied by a quick chat with our host, who immediately revamped a playlist on an ipod to something more our liking. the beautiful decor did nothing but lend itself to an atmosphere of relaxation, smiles and enjoyment. it's pretty enough to just have a sit down at babouche and not even experience how fantastic the food is.

we gave babouche 4 our of 5 stars for a wonderfully tasty experience and will definitely go back for more and more and more...