Dinner in Morocco

We drove downtown tonight to have dinner and exchange Christmas gifts with our friends K and B, who will be leaving for Egypt next week. It's their annual "adventure tour," which they take every year in December. They counted up the countries they've been to over the years--- 23. Still a lot more places to go, and they're getting nervous that they will run out of stamina before they run out of countries.

But...... dinner. We went to a Moroccan restaurant near the Montrose section of downtown. I believe the name of it was Saffron.... the exterior of the restaurant was so pretty and unusual that I paid very little attention to to the name over the front door. And the inside was a dream...... I was waiting for Humphrey Bogart to come out from behind the bar.

K and B had been there before, and this was our first time, so they suggested that we get a family style dinner which gives four food selections for each of the five courses. Yes. Five courses. Let's see... I've been walking nearly three miles every day... I guess I should increase that to five miles from now on.

I told the waitress that I preferred not to eat meat, so one of each of the main courses was always a fish selection. We split each of the dishes four ways, so we all got to taste everything that was put on the table (Except that I passed up tasting the meat dishes.) I don't remember the names of the dishes, but they all looked lovely and smelled heavenly--- sweet rolls filled with shrimp and cheese; light pastry triangles stuffed with spinach and goat cheese; salmon topped with thin slices of tomatoes and roasted potatoes; baked chicken mixed with honey and walnuts and wrapped in pastry; roasted chicken sitting on top of couscous and chick peas and surrounded with sweet potatoes and carrots and acorn squash; beef roasted with stewed prunes; baked lamb topped with sweet apricots and caramelized onions; goat cheese sitting on top of warm raisins and caramelized onions, then sprinkled with chopped pimento. (Hot raisins and onions-- that taste alone was worth the drive there.) Before the main courses, we were served two kinds of soup--- one with vegetables, one with beef; then there were four kinds of salads, each with a different dressing, each with different vegetables.

And just before we thought they couldn't bring anything more delicious to the table, out came dessert: four sweet little cakes (one chocolate, one with custard, one filled with quince, one layered with pineapple).... then a sweet tea boiled with fresh mint leaves and served in glasses after the waitress poured the tea from a beautiful silver teapot held at least twelve inches above the serving tray. The sweet mint tea was worth the drive there.

It was a meal to remember...... it was more like a banquet, more like a feast than a mere dinner. I don't know when we've had a more enjoyable, delicious, feast-for-the-eyes meal in a restaurant. Everything was delicious before we even tasted anything just because it all was served so beautifully and presented with such kindness and dignity and humility. This sounds like over-the-top descriptions for "just a dinner out," but it truly was an over-the-top dinner.

We usually don't eat dinner so late in the evening. And we certainly don't have five-course meals. I was able to get through that meal because I just took one tiny taste of the bread, just one small forkful of the couscous, and I didn't taste any of the roasted white potatoes. I ate just half of the vegetable soup-- even though it was delicious, hot soup fills you up too fast, and I knew there was more food to come. Had I not just concentrated on the fish, salads, and the vegetables, I don't think I would have been able to taste the desserts. And those desserts.... so light, so pleasing-to-the-eye... those alone would have been worth the drive.

We left the restaurant and were walking to the car, and the four of us were already planning our next trip there for another five-course dinner. My birthday is at the end of January, so we'll all meet there around that time. Between now and then, you will find me walking... and walking... and walking.