Chicago Sun Times
Andalous boasts authentic Moroccan tastes
(Friday, August 18, 2000)
In recent years, Chicago diners have be come more familiar with Turkish and Middle Eastern restaurants as they have established a notable presence on the lo cal restaurant scene, but few Moroccan restaurants have emerged. So it was partly educational and partly hedonistic motives that prompted me and a group of friends to go to Andalous, a Moroccan restaurant that opened early this year in Lakeview.
The dining room is decorated with pastel hued Moroccan photos. a shepherd's cloak and other folk artifacts. We chose the out door patio, which was not nearly as interest ing. Unless they spruce it up with some greenery, flowers and better lighting, we'll head for the dining room on our next visit. Owner Mohammed Akaahrir, better known as 'Hadj," came to greet us after we settled in. He vowed to teach us all about Moroccan food and what's more, he promised us we would not pay for our meal if we didn't like it. We ate a leisurely meal, sampling many of the dishes from soup to dessert.
Andalous means 'Andalusian," referring to southern Spain, which is only nine miles from the northern coast of Morocco, from which Hadj hails. Moroccan food has been influenced by Spanish and French cuisines, because they ruled parts of Morocco in the past, but differs from them by a penchant for very piquant spicing. This comes in the form of fierv harissa, a puree that is made of cayenne peppers, garlic and coriander. It is placed in a bowl on each table along with pita bread and replenished so that each diner can add it to enliven soups, couscous or tagines. we also were treated to a bowl of ripe, flavorful Moroccan olives, reddish in color from a marinade of peppers. lemon and garlic. Hadj guided us in our selection. He urged us to try the hareera. a Marrakesh specialty. The dark brown lentil soup had a rich beef broth spiced with cilantro, cumin, and chili powder and was interspersed with crunchy chickpeas. The combo platter was an array of delicious appetizers, which included Zaa louk (Moroccan eggplant. tomatoes, garlic and oil), taktouka (chopped tomatoes and green peppers), kebda mshermla (tender beef liver marinated in garlic, cilantro, sun- dried lemon zest and olives) and carrole a La sharmoula (marinated carrots).
Entrees consist of a variety of tagines (stews), couscous, or pastilla, a pie often made with pigeons in Morocco, although chicken is also common. We tried several of the tagines, including our favorite Fez tagine which was lamb cooked with prunes and garnished with almonds and hard boiled eggs. The Meknes tangine had marinated chicken laced with lemon con fie (sun dried lemon skin and zest) and sided with red olives. And the Tangier tangine uses cat fish cooked in either a red, white or sweet sauce spread inside the fish along with lem on confie, which is sewn up, broiled and served with couscous and mushrooms.
In the famous Couscous. sauteed lamb or chicken is combined with chunks of zucchini. turnips, carrots, cabbage, eggplant. onions, and chickpeas, all stirred with the marvelous ly fluffy couscous. Pastilla had layers of chicken accented with saffron, parsley, cori ander and cinnamon, all in a phyllo dough, which was lightly dusted with powdered sug ar and cinnamon. The spicing was exquisite and it would have been the tour de force if the bottom crust hadn't been overcooked.
You haven't really had a complete Moroccan meal unless it ends with a time-honored tradition, a pot of mint tea and a selection of three pastries. The aromatic blend of Chi nese green and jasmine teas is made even more enticing by adding some orange blos som water and then infusing it with fresh mint leaves. Our first pot was sugar saturat ed, as is the preference in Morocco; we re quested the second one unsweetened, which emphasized the aromatic components. The pastries were marvelous little wedges, all almond based and sweet, but crumbly, rather than overly syrupy. They included salloo (hand-shaped domes of almond and golden brown sesame seed in flour), kaabcz (almond and orange blossom water in a flour crust) and briwat (almond and sesame seed in phyllo dough boiled in honey). Hadj re peated his offer to let us leave without pay ing if we weren't satisfied, but we were