A is for Algeria
You would think one would do more research when choosing a country. I was chatting with an Senagalese friend and Algeria came up. All I knew about Algeria is that it was located in Northern Africa and was near Morocco. Given my trip to Turkey, I guessed that it would have a very similar feel and taste--Mediterranean pallet, geometric design from the Islamic influence, and the deep essence of history.
New York is super diverse, but I had a harder time finding a Algerian restaurant than I thought. Inspired by this New York Times article about The Nomad, I decided I would give this place in East Village a shot. I wasn't wholly impressed by the Yelp reviews (I generally bypass 3.5 stars), but this was the best choice. The ambience seem to fit. The article raved about the pastries--of which I am a sucker for. It's all about the overall experience, right?
A bunch of girl friends from all different social circles came and we sat down to get to know each other and explore the menu. Our ice breaker question was, "What is the most exotic food you've eaten?" It's a classic :). Amongst the answers my favorite was whale and desert spider (the spider was my answer).
The menu itself didn't look a whole lot different from what I've seen before. Mediterranean ingredients like hummus, lamb, grape leaves were pretty familiar and commonplace. We went with a couple of appetizers and a couple of entrees. The grape leaf dish caught me by surprise. Unlike the familiar greek dish--rice wrapped in grape leaves, these little guys were covered cheese. A friend who was not a fan of ‘grape leaves anything,’ exclaimed in pleasure when she had a taste. As it came to looking at the dessert menu, I was saddened. There were no pastries liked promised on Yelp! But we carried on. Evidently there were some others with sweet tooths in the group and so we ordered three desserts and I split a Moroccan mint tea. Let me tell you! The tea was absolutely divine--reminded me of sitting in Paris at a Moroccan restaurant and sipping the refreshing drink after a meal. The stunner of the night in my opinion was the dried fruit with hazelnut ice cream dessert. Oh my goodness! WOW!! We were all a little nervous about it, but the fruits seemed to have soaked in a syrup. It tasted like heaven in your mouth.
This was such fun first global table event. Coming up soon is B for ‘Balkan region’. More to come.