This weekend my wife and I campaigned for Steve Harrison in Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst. My wife used to live in that area, but I have seldom been there. So, in this diary I am not discussing politics. I have already written about what a sleazy Bush lap dog Vito Fossella is, and I have already written about what a great, intelligent person Democrat Steve Harrison is. But after covering 2 election districts in Bay Ridge, my wife, son and I were starving. And we had noticed a Moroccan Restaurant in Bay Ridge called La Maison du Couscous, 484 77th Street in Brooklyn.

Excellent food and excellent service. The short review is that La Maison du Couscous is well worth the trip out to Bay Ridge. But don't take my word for it. What would bring Japanese tourists out to the edge of Bay Ridge? This restaurant! It is even featured in a Japanese guidebook.

I first tried Moroccan food in Los Angeles at the restaurant Koutoubia on Westwood Blvd. I have even met the owner of Koutoubia when I was dating the step-daughter of a restaurant critic for GQ. Koutoubia is still the best Moroccan food I have ever had. But La Maison du Couscous is a close second and is about half the price.

La Maison is run by an extremely nice and capable couple who immediately made us feel welcome and at home. They pay close attention to every customer even when they are overwhelmed with a full house. Service is not fast. It is, however, excellently attentive and accomodating. Unlike most restaurants, substitutions are encouraged. If you want a dish altered, just ask and they will listen.

The Hrissa (spicy pepper sauce served with the bread) is homemade, but better than my homemade Hrissa. The Moroccan anise seed bread is also homemade, quite fresh and is superb. This is another thing I used to make, though I have lost my old recipie. A far more ambitious dish that they have (which I tried making once with delicious but somewhat disasterous results) is Bastilla, a pie made with philo dough stuffed with delicious, sweetened chicken and almonds. This is not an easy dish to make, but at La Maison it is excellent. Bastilla is one of my all time favorite Moroccan dishes. At Koutoubia they treated Bastilla as an appetizer, but the owner of La Maison prefers to serve it after the entrees with the sweet mint tea that is traditional in Morocco.

The House Couscous is a nearly perfect combination of lamb shank (or chicken) and dried fruits (apricots, raisins, prunes, figs...) and almonds. Lamb shank can so easily be greasy and gristley, but at its best is tender and comes off the bone easily. The lamb shank in the Couscous at La Maison was nearly perfect. The figs were added whole, which seemed odd to me at first, but it worked very well, keeping the figs from soaking up too much water (which is what happens when they are added chopped). The almonds were perfectly toasted adding crunch and flavor.

With a rapidly gobbled basket of bread, couscous and bastilla with mint tea, we were stuffed. Perhaps we could have forced a dessert, but with a baby rapidly becoming cranky, and with more customers clamouring for tables, we decided to go home. But many other things on the menu sounded (and smelled!) wonderful. Wonderful Tagines tempted us. And one table was discussing a whole slew of dishes they wanted that either had Merguez sausage or the owner offered to make with Merguez, making us wish we had orderd Merguez.

La Maison du Couscous seemed an odd find in Bay Ridge, and it could easily hold its own among the many restaurants in my own Park Slope. But they seem to be doing quite well in Bay Ridge, with a local following, people like us coming from other parts of New York, and, apparantly, with a following of Japanese tourists, they do fine. So if you ever want some excellent, and very reasonably priced Moroccan food, take the R train to 484 77th Street in Bay Ridge. It'll take you right there and you won't regret it.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

| | | | | | | |