gutfud – the food, es ist gut

This was my second visit to Karim’s since word went out he’ll be retiring his restaurant at the end of March.

This time, it was two of us, which is what I prefer over a large group. Karim’s is a great place for a party and group environment, but when I want to concentrate on the Moroccan food, an early evening with just one friend is the way to go.

Many others are coming to Karim’s in the last days of the restaurant, hoping for a final feast; this is the only Moroccan food to be had in Santa Barbara. Other diners included Sonny and his family, who run Spice Avenue just around the corner on State Street. His family also owns Naan Stop, where I’d eaten lunch just earlier in the day. Sonny always remembers me, from over six years ago, when I first ate at Spice Avenue. After paying my bill, he came out to ask who in my group was from England. It was just me, an American, and Brett an Australian, sitting there. Sonny clarified: the bill was paid using an English bank card, whose was it? Well, that was me, from when I lived and worked in London. Sonny smiled and said he was from east London and was happy to meet someone from the area. In future visits, he would always say hi.
Tonight, it was hugs all round and he asked why I hadn’t been to Spice Avenue lately. Dammit, how does he know?!?! Well, props for him noticing. It was beyond my control, I now worked in Ellwood. But in my defense, I went to his IV business earlier in the day!
Another family there was the Osters. Friends from nursery school and Nancy writes for Edible Santa Barbara. Yes, food fans were getting their last bits of Karim while they could.

The FEAST

It starts with hand washing from the host, before diving into menus and appetizers.
Karim’s feasts are determined by the main course, and then all the other courses fall into place around it.

First course: a selection of salads and bread. Hummus and another dip, with marinated carrots and green salad is offered with a large basket of Moroccan bread. The bread is our spoon and we scoop up the cold vegetable dishes with our fingers.
Second course: hot lentil and vegetable soup. You can sip straight out of the bowl, or dip more bread into it.

Third course: my favorite, the b’stilla! This dish is probably the most exotic to the uninitiated diner. Even I never ate it during the month I was in Morocco, although I did know about it. It is both a sweet and savory dish, made with tender chicken (traditionally it is pigeon), eggs, phyllo pastry, powdered sugar and cinnamon. It is inexplicable, and it is very good. It is the dish I’ll miss the most from Karim’s because its preparation is complex and difficult. I can make hummus and tagines, but I can’t make b’stilla. Sigh. My last b’stilla tasted great.

Fourth course: the main course, our special orders of lamb with prunes and sesame, and chicken with preserved lemon and olives. These are traditionally slow cooked in an earthenware tagine, and when I ate them in Morocco they were served in a tagine. But here, they can easily be done in any claypot, or a pressure cooker or even a slow cooker.
The lamb is sweet, falling off the bone, and there’s still lots of bread of scoop off the meat or dip into the sauce. The chicken is also tender, but intact, and flavored with ginger, pepper, ras al hanout, and preserved lemons. Not a hot spicy dish, but very very *spiceful*. It can take a while to grow on this flavor combination, but once you like it, you can pick out the scent from just about anywhere and know exactly what to expect.

Fifth course: Couscous with vegetables. Most don’t realize the couscous can be a completely stand-alone dish. It’s served just moments after the main dish comes to the table, and most think it’s just a side accompaniment, but in Morocco, this is a very traditional meal on its own. Generally served Fridays, the day of worship in Islam, and people have extra time during the mid-day break for prayers and a meal with the family. Couscous, when properly done, is a lengthy preparation with repeated steamings of the couscous, laying it out, mixing it, adding broth, adding the vegetables to the couscouserie throughout the process to ensure they finish cooking at the same time. I was lucky enough to spend a Friday afternoon in Morocco with a woman while she made the couscous. Wow, the time and care that went into it. It even has its own clay serving platter. So when the couscous comes out, don’t relagate it to the side as something worth dabbling into if there’s not enough other food to sate the appetite, it’s something to savor as well. And this time, it’s okay to use a spoon. Couscous is small!

Sixth course: assorted desserts and tea. The syrup cookies are good, but I am so full at this time I rarely eat more than half of one. Instead, I concentrate on the fruit basket piled high with apples, banana, strawberries, oranges and whole nuts. More often than not, this was how I wrapped up meals in Morocco. A little fruit and fiber feels better, too, than more cooked food after such an overwhelming feast. Karim’s normally serves the tea at this time, but really, you can have it any time. Tonight, I started having tea with the first course, and got a top up at the end as well. The tea is a combination of black gunpowder tea, fresh mint leaves and lots of sugar. LOTS of sugar. The tea here seems to be about half the amount of sugar of the tea drank in Morocco (which is also served with sugar on the side, that many use to make it even sweeter). No matter your tolerance level for sugar, the tea comes from a silver teapot and pour high above the cup, to areate the tea as it pours out.

Depending on timing, you may be pulled up to join the bellydancer. Early diners sometimes get away without dancing. Like us!

Past entry.

Karim’s
1221 State St Ste 2
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
www.chefkarim.com