In the interest of full disclosure; I spent three years totally unable to eat Moroccan food. Nary a date passed my lips since my spring break trip to Morocco, when what seemed like a delicious dinner Marrakesh's famous open air market had me curled up in ball swearing to myself I would never eat food again for two days.
So it was with some hesitation that I tried Aziza the first time, a year ago, after a die hard "foodie" recommended it during San Francisco's restaurant week. It was the only restaurant we went to that week that had more that the standard chicken, veggie, and less-expensive fish offering. Which I relieved to see after a week of looking at sub-standard restaurant week menus.
The details of this dinner is a little foggy. I remember watermelon radishes, because it was the first time I had ever seen them - they look exactly like mini-watermelons. I remember the beet, walnut, and goat cheese salad because Adam ate the goat cheese and liked it, but only because he didn't know he was eating goat cheese. I also had the beef tangine, which was cooked to perfection. And dessert, which we devoured, but I don't recall what it was.
Flash forward to last Friday: my folks were in town and I wanted to take them to a fabulous restaurant they hadn't heard about in Gourmet, Bon Appetit, of Food & Wine. Of course, right before she arrived, my mom excitedly told me she read about Aziza in Food & Wine's "Where to Go Next" list. But what can you do?
When we finally arrived, starving, we were immediately seated. The restaurant looks like something from Disney's Aladdin, all burgundies and golds, velvet booths, and dark wood tables. The service was a bit slow to start but they eventually put fresh Moroccan bread and olive oil on the table. We finally got a hold of the waiter, and by this time we were ready to order drinks and appetizers. We ordered the spreads, eggplant, piquillo-almond, yogurt dill, served with flatbread. The yogurt dill was delicious - it was thicker than a typical yogurt suace, tangy - it tasted healthy! The eggplant sauce was sweeter, with a hint of spice at the end. The picquilo almond was my least favorite, but I chalk that up my dislike of peppers. Everyone at the table had a different favorite. We also ordered the arugula with parsimmon, pomegranate, almonds, and burmuda triangle cheese, the canelli beans, ras el hanout (a blend of spices used in the Middle East and North Africa), sheep's milk feta, bread crumbs, and oregano. Finally, we ordered the basteeya - which is a puff pastry filled with almonds, beef, and cinnamon, and topped with powdered sugar. OMG it tasted like a meat doughnut, which, trust me, is delicious! We were literally fighting over the crumbs of this dish.
Some time after we were licking the suaces the drinks arrived. (Except for my mom's, who stuck to wine - her's came almost immediately.) My guess would be because they were all muddled, they took a couple of extra minutes, but they took ages to get to the table. Thank goodness they were good. My dad had the strawberry with rose papaya and teguila, I had the meyer lemon, with basil and vodka. Tasted like a lemon drop! Adam had the watermelon, with tequila, and jalepeno. My dad and I hated it (I thought it tasted like salsa), my mom and Adam loved it.
For dinner we split three dishes - although we probably should have stopped at the appetizers. First we had the cod with saffron broth, fennel, carrot, and potato. The fish was perfectly cooked and the sauce was so heady with saffron I could have drank it. We had the couscous with beef, prawns, and chicken. It was really good, but the dish didn't really shine. Finally we had the rabbit with paprika, carrot, parsnip, and dried cherries. I don't think there was anything but bones left.
We ended up walking the 45 blocks back.
http://www.aziza-sf.com/
So it was with some hesitation that I tried Aziza the first time, a year ago, after a die hard "foodie" recommended it during San Francisco's restaurant week. It was the only restaurant we went to that week that had more that the standard chicken, veggie, and less-expensive fish offering. Which I relieved to see after a week of looking at sub-standard restaurant week menus.
The details of this dinner is a little foggy. I remember watermelon radishes, because it was the first time I had ever seen them - they look exactly like mini-watermelons. I remember the beet, walnut, and goat cheese salad because Adam ate the goat cheese and liked it, but only because he didn't know he was eating goat cheese. I also had the beef tangine, which was cooked to perfection. And dessert, which we devoured, but I don't recall what it was.
Flash forward to last Friday: my folks were in town and I wanted to take them to a fabulous restaurant they hadn't heard about in Gourmet, Bon Appetit, of Food & Wine. Of course, right before she arrived, my mom excitedly told me she read about Aziza in Food & Wine's "Where to Go Next" list. But what can you do?
When we finally arrived, starving, we were immediately seated. The restaurant looks like something from Disney's Aladdin, all burgundies and golds, velvet booths, and dark wood tables. The service was a bit slow to start but they eventually put fresh Moroccan bread and olive oil on the table. We finally got a hold of the waiter, and by this time we were ready to order drinks and appetizers. We ordered the spreads, eggplant, piquillo-almond, yogurt dill, served with flatbread. The yogurt dill was delicious - it was thicker than a typical yogurt suace, tangy - it tasted healthy! The eggplant sauce was sweeter, with a hint of spice at the end. The picquilo almond was my least favorite, but I chalk that up my dislike of peppers. Everyone at the table had a different favorite. We also ordered the arugula with parsimmon, pomegranate, almonds, and burmuda triangle cheese, the canelli beans, ras el hanout (a blend of spices used in the Middle East and North Africa), sheep's milk feta, bread crumbs, and oregano. Finally, we ordered the basteeya - which is a puff pastry filled with almonds, beef, and cinnamon, and topped with powdered sugar. OMG it tasted like a meat doughnut, which, trust me, is delicious! We were literally fighting over the crumbs of this dish.
Some time after we were licking the suaces the drinks arrived. (Except for my mom's, who stuck to wine - her's came almost immediately.) My guess would be because they were all muddled, they took a couple of extra minutes, but they took ages to get to the table. Thank goodness they were good. My dad had the strawberry with rose papaya and teguila, I had the meyer lemon, with basil and vodka. Tasted like a lemon drop! Adam had the watermelon, with tequila, and jalepeno. My dad and I hated it (I thought it tasted like salsa), my mom and Adam loved it.
For dinner we split three dishes - although we probably should have stopped at the appetizers. First we had the cod with saffron broth, fennel, carrot, and potato. The fish was perfectly cooked and the sauce was so heady with saffron I could have drank it. We had the couscous with beef, prawns, and chicken. It was really good, but the dish didn't really shine. Finally we had the rabbit with paprika, carrot, parsnip, and dried cherries. I don't think there was anything but bones left.
We ended up walking the 45 blocks back.
http://www.aziza-sf.com/
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