I have eaten at the Algerian restaurant Couscous Café at 20th and M many times, and by now am friendly with the family that owns it. Today, I had the Sephardic meatballs, which is a common special. The meatballs are made with ground lamb, onion, and parsley and are finished with lemon juice and fresh chopped parsley, and served over rice. They have a soft yet chewy texture and a nice flavor. I am told that this dish usually comes with peas, but today it did not.
Other dishes that I have enjoyed at the restaurant include their b’stilla, and couscous a la royal. B’stilla is chicken, almonds, and peanuts in phyllo dough. The couscous a la royal consists of chicken, merguez (spicy lamb sausage), lamb, chickpeas, summer and winter squash, carrots, potatoes, and turnips on a bed of couscous with a flavorful tomato sauce. They also serve vegetarian, lamb, and chicken versions of the couscous entrée.
Couscous Café also has an appetizing case filled mostly with vegetarian side dishes like hummus, ratatouille, baba ghanouj, lentil salad, beet salad, carrot salad, and carrot with garlic and spice. I often take some of these side dishes home when I am cooking an entrée and want easy –because I didn’t make them- vegetable side dishes.
One of my favorite side dishes is called torche in Algeria and mama houria in Tunisia. It consists of pureed carrots with cumin, coriander, garlic, and harissa, which is a hot sauce made with hot peppers and garlic. The torche is served cold and eaten with pita bread. If you ask for hot sauce at the restaurant, they hand you a squeeze bottle containing harissa.
The restaurant always has Middle Eastern music playing, and today was no exception, with the sounds of Electric Oasis’s CD, Exotic Arabian Grooves. Couscous Café has free wireless access, so it’s a nice place to use your laptop while listening to interesting music, and drinking hot or cold mint teas.
I mainly recommend the place as a lunch spot, since later in the day they tend to run out of dishes like b’stilla and falafel.
Couscous Cafe
1195 20th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
(202) 689-1233
8am-8pm, Monday-Friday
This guest blog is by Jason over at http://jasonsfood.blogspot.com/