Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Wow!

Has it really been that long since my last post! Crazy!

Anyway, now that I am striving to be regular on my blogging, I thought I would tell you about what I did for my birthday. Yes, I am officially ancient and old.

Abby, Beth, Rachael, and Brett (Rach's BF) took me to this Moroccan restaurant in Seattle called Kasbah. I have never been for Moroccan food, and well, this was fabulous!

From the outside it looks like a dump (it is in Ballard after all), but when you walk in.....wow! They have lush tapestries, water fountains, metal objects of all sorts. We were lead to the back corner on the room surrounded by red drapes, the ceiling had white fabric draping from the center, which reminded you of being in a tent. They had this big metal plate with a raised edge that served as the table. On two sides were benches with pillows and the other two sides had poofs. I choose the bench as my balance leaves something to be desired.

They have a 5 course dinner thing, where you get to choose your entree. While we were deciding, this man comes up in traditional garb with a big teapot/kettle and a basin. We washed our hands while he poured the water, and then dried them on the towels at the table. Then another guy came around and asked what we wanted. I got the Vegetable Tagine. Thankfully, I was familiar with what a Tagine is (thank you Andrew Zimmer from the Food Network). The others got Lamb and Chicken dishes.

The meal started with this amazing soup....it was really good. Tomato based with Garbanzo beans, lentils, veggies and spices. They served this with a Caraway bread. The next course was the salad...which didn't have lettuce. There was some spiced carrots, some tomato salad and something else which I didn't know what it was, but it tasted divine! Once again, more bread, and....you got to eat with your fingers. After that came the appetizer, which was something called B'stilla, which was ground chicken, eggs, and spices wrapped in Filo dough, cooked and then sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon. I didn't like this dish at all. The combo of the meat and sugar just didn't work for me.

Our main dishes came out next. All I can say is that it was great! So flavorful! Served with more bread. After they took the plates away, the guy came back with rosewater which he shook into our hands and then after rubbing our hands, we dried them off. They smelled, well....like roses (imagine that). Then came dessert which was honey poached pear drizzled with chocolate and served with a sweet mint tea. The perfect ending!

Oh, during our meal there was a belly dancer..she was not bad.

Anyway, it was a blast...the company, food, environment, and music was all wonderful. I would highly recommend this place. I put the website below, so check it out.


http://www.kasbahmoroccanrestaurant.com/

4 comments:

Kristi said...

Good to hear from you! I'm glad you enjoyed the restaurant and gave a link. Sounds like fun :)

Amber said...

That sounds great. What a place! Im glad you had a great birthday!

Tim and Holly said...

It's good to hear from you again! Your birthday sounds like it was fun. :)

Lindy said...

Ooo, that sounded like an awesome restaurant! A belly dancer too? That must have been interesting. Would you say it was too seductive or actually beautiful?