Cafe Morocco [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Anissa Helou (Author)

Book Description

Series: Conran Octopus | Publication Date: February 1, 1999

The Moroccan cuisine blends African, Arabian, and European influences to make some of the most exotic food in the world. The subtle and fragrant flavors of the cuisine are adapted for the modern kitchen in this cookbook. Many of the 75 dishes featured are the same offered at Moroccan bistros, where strollers can stop and have kebabs or steaming couscous. Most important, the recipes are simple to prepare and healthy to eat!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

You'll find a two-page color photo of büzrüq gracing the table of contents in Anissa Helou's Café Morocco. It's the visual equivalent of a throaty-voiced muezzin calling the hungry to come admire a plate of Mediterranean mussels. Mussels with Tomatoes and Cilantro struggles so hard to say büzrüq and falls short of the mark. The same is true of Hüt bel Chermüla, fried fish with spicy cilantro sauce. These Moroccan names for food are words you want to shape for yourself with a mouth filled with exotic deliciousness.

And just such deliciousness is beautifully conveyed by Helou in her introduction to Café Morocco. She walks you right into the medina to sample a fabulous array of what she loosely calls street food. In Morocco, Helou writes, "people eat on the streets because of necessity rather than laziness or greed, and they expect the food to be similar to that in their homes.... The only difference between the food they will eat on the streets and that at home is that the former will be cooked by men and the latter by women." Mint and Caraway Soup. Does that sound like street food to you? Or how about Grilled Pepper and Tomato Salad? Or Quail and Almond Bastiya?

For main dishes, Helou includes recipes for Mechoui (Roast Lamb), Tagine of Lamb with Prunes, another Tagine of Chicken with Sweet Potatoes, Squab Stuffed with Couscous, Spiced Onion with Honey, Lentils with Swiss Chard (also known as 'Adess bil Silq, which seems and sounds much more like it), and Potato Cakes with Cilantro. They eat dessert in Morocco, too. Rice Pudding with Almonds, Orange and Cinnamon Salad, Pastry Crescents with Almond Paste. This is a colorful, well-illustrated little book. The visuals complement the high standards Helou sets with her food writing. Where Paula Wolfert makes you feel like you are back in an anthropology classroom, feeling a little stupid, Helou surrounds the reader with the heart and soul of the food at hand. Short of buying a plane ticket and flying there, Café Morocco takes you right to the streets where the best of Moroccan food is found. --Schuyler Ingle

About the Author

Anissa Helou is a journalist and food writer with a special interest in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. She has also written Lebanese Cuisine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809226677
• ISBN-13: 978-0809226672
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > African
  • #45 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Middle Eastern

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the essence of Moroccan cooking, August 30, 2001

By 

Tamara Manik-Perlman "ttmp" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cafe Morocco (Paperback)

While living in Morocco for six months, I learned to cook with my host mother. When I returned home I began to look for a cookbook with which to recreate my experiences. I hoped to find something that included both simple staples and more elaborate recipes that show off the potential complexity of Moroccan flavoring. I looked through a lot of cookbooks both here and in France (where there is a large Maghrebi community), and finally decided that this book was the best of the lot.

"Cafe Morocco" is suitable for both novices and those more familiar with Moroccan cooking. Many other cookbooks focus too much on lush photography of Moroccan souqs and too little on the recipes. This book centers on the food without sacrificing aesthetics, and presents an accurate, tasty interpretation of Moroccan cuisine. In addition to being filled with gorgeous, colorful photographs, the book is well laid-out, with clearly marked ingredient lists and simple instructions. At the front of the book are descriptions of ingredients essential to Moroccan cooking, and a brief discussion of cooking equipment and techniques.

Included are several basic bread recipes and a fairly large selection of tajines and couscouses, based mainly on lamb or fish. Helou also presents an unusually wide variety of vegetable-based side dishes that are so essential to Moroccan meals, but are often overlooked in restaurants and cookbooks. Consequently, this book is an excellent purchase for vegetarians (like myself) who love Moroccan food but can't eat meals centered on meat. Although the dessert section is a bit thin, it includes most basic dishes and a number of drinks. Most importantly, there are instructions on how to prepare fresh mint tea, the quintessential Moroccan gustatory and cultural experience.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple Yet Great Recipes, August 15, 2006

By 

J2 (Sharon, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cafe Morocco (Paperback)

I borrowed this book from my local library and enjoyed it so much that I purchased my own copy. Every recipe is tasty and not very difficult to put together. I own quite a few cookbooks, and this is one I refer to over and over. What a find!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Artistic, simple, unpretentious, July 18, 2005

By 

Kevin Komisaruk (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cafe Morocco (Paperback)

This is a beautiful and useful book, simplicity itself, that is written in a way that is as poetic, soulful, simple, and unpretentious as the cuisine it explores. The book instructed me not only how to prepare these dishes technically, but also how to appreciate their profound artistic and culinary value. As a great amateur of all things Middle-Eastern, this book is one of my most prized posessions.