A Blogger is Born

My little niece Collette is a poet and wanted her own blog. So guess who helped her start Collette's Creations yesterday? I also wanted to broaden her food horizons, and so took her to Tajine for her first official photo shoot.

Since she had photos on her phone camera from previous fun times, I was able to teach her how to transfer them from her phone to her blog. Here she is taking her first intentional blogging photo, of the Moroccan bread at Tajine.

Here's my photo of the delicious bread. The proprietor and chef stopped by to talk a bit, and we discovered that we lived in Paris at the same time, both arriving in 1980. However, he stayed a lot longer than I.

The Vegetarian Bastilla was as lovely as delicious. Collette is a vegetarian, but still being 11 found that sugar and cinnamon in a savory dish with vegetables was too 'weird' to try. Someday she'll be excited to try this, I'm sure.

However, the Vegetarian Couscous was a hit! The proprietor explained that he cooks the grains three times before serving, the first being a steaming step that can't be left out for authentic and delicious couscous.

I asked Collette which vegetables were her favorites out of the Tajine choices, and she said green beans. So we tried the Casa Tajine, which had green beans and potatoes. However, it was a bit spicy for her taste, while Dad and I liked it very much. It is traditionally eaten with the Moroccan bread, which we did. I also enjoyed giving Collette a little cultural background about Morocco -- how mostly food is eaten there by scooping up with bread rather than using utensils, and bits about the colonization by France so everyone speaks French as well. She associates Morocco with Casablanca and naturally thinks it must be a very romantic place.

We really weren't hungry for dessert, but were quite tempted to try what to us was an unusual dessert - Shepakia. They added a little piece of baklava since there were three of us. Made of flour, almonds, sesame seeds, boney and orange blossom water, it was sticky, yet wonderful. The friendly waitress brought over flower water to rinse my hands with afterwards. And oh, I didn't mention that we had the best mint tea poured into little glasses. I could go just for that.

Collette was fascinated by the eclectic collection of Moroccan lamps inside and out. Besides the food being delicious, it was friendly and authentic and easy to recommend.

Last review:
March 24, 2008

Since we were in San Francisco already, and Collette wanted to get some more blogable photos, we drove around a little bit. The first stop was China Beach.

And I prefer taking photos with her smiling face showing.

She enjoys art, so we drove past the Legion of Honor, and she wanted to stop to get a photo of Chihuly's glass sculpture in the courtyard. This is a must see since Collette was so excited about it. And naturally, being from Seattle, I've enjoyed his work for some time.

In search of good couscous

So my experience with the not quite right couscous the other day had the effect of making me crave the real thing. So I tried looking around the bay area, and came up with Tajine on Polk Street in San Francisco as a place to try not so far from Marin. (Chowhounders also recommended Aziza which I will have to try too). I wasted no time getting there.

First up was a large pot of mint tea. The server poured it with a flourish, which was the first good sign. Then I sipped it, and I KNEW I was in good hands. Slightly sweet with deep mint flavor, this took me back to another place and time.

Next came our appetizer, the vegetarian bastilla. The description read that it is made of baked fillo dough stuffed with sweet vegetables, raisins, and topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon. This was delicious and very satisfying. I'm wondering what the actual vegetables were as I had a hard time identifying them all. I do know that one was yam.

Then on to the focus of my attention, the vegetarian couscous. It looked right, large chunks of vegetables (these are simmered a long time so larger pieces hold their shape better) floating atop very fluffy couscous! Brilliant! The vegetables had obviously simmered long enough to have an intense deliciousness. It contained garbanzo beans, turnips, carrots, squash, zucchini and tomatoes. I never imagined myself waxing enthusiastic about turnips, but the chunk of turnip in this was so well flavored it provides a new and improved relationship with that healthy vegetable.

The server also brought us some fresh bread.

Dad tried the grilled chicken kebab sandwich. He was thrilled with it. Not only did it taste good, but it was wrapped up such that it made it easier for him to eat. And I have to say the mint tea was a hit with him as well, I've never seen him drink so much tea before! Another staff person (or owner?) came in part way through our meal with a cheery "Bon Jour" to all. There were also three travel posters about Morocco in French (one in Spanish) on the wall. So it looks like there is some French influence although this is a Moroccan place rather than Algerian. This is definitely a good place to enjoy very genuine and delicious food in comfortable surroundings.