I LOVE Morrocan food. Lucky for me, North African food is extremely trendy in Paris. In researching great places to have dinner while in the City of Lights, I visited David Lebovitz’s blog. In a post called “My Paris” he mentions L’Atlas as having “superb Moroccan food.” “Ooooh, let’s check it out,” said my inner piggy.
I’ll be honest with you, when you visit the L’Atlas’ website, you get the impression that it’s quite a bit grander than it actually is. It is funny how photos can be manipulated with some special lighting and fancy Photoshop work (can you say “Tastespotting” my dears?). Still, it was a lovely place (just not as fancy as the website makes it seem), and judging by the certificates on the wall in there, it looked to me like they have won their share of awards.
When we got to the table there was a little bowl of olives and another little bowl of spicy potatoes. Both were really nice and Mr P and I enjoyed munching on those before our food arrived (sorry, no pic of those). Behind us were some other patrons, Americans. I wondered if they were also there based on Lebovitz’s recommendation. Well, they got served first. Hubby and I were craning our necks and squinting our beady little eyes to see what smelled so freaking good. Yes, it smelled soooooooo good. It was a big plate of couscous and a tagine (which kind, I couldn’t tell you cause I’d have had to get up from my table and really ogle… and that wouldn’t be good manners).
Now Hubby and I are getting super excited. I am looking a bit manic, actually.
Okay, now Moroccan food is not necessarily a Hubby favorite. He is not into the mixing of meat with fruit –go figure (though not all Moroccan food is like that), and so he chose the safe option, the mixed grill. That turned out to be a huge mistake. Mr P was so not impressed. I think his favorite part was the bread, which was really lovely. It was kind of crumbly and ever so slightly sweet. It also comes with a teeny portion of cous cous. The mixed grill was made up of merguez (a Moroccan sausage, which neither of us tend to care for), grilled chicken which was a bit dry and bland, and some lamb and beef which were just very unremarkable.
In contrast, my food was AWESOME, and when I left there was a huge smile on my face. My dinner was without a doubt one of the best meals I had this year. I had the lamb tagine with figs and nuts. For those of you who don’t know, a tagine is a special kind of earthenware pot with a conical top, with which these dishes are cooked.
Anyways, my tagine arrives at the table, and the waiter lifts the top of the pot. It is so fun and theatrical, and inside my plate of food is still bubbling. It is so cool!!!!!!!!! The meat was so tender you could break it up with your spoon. And the figs in there… sublime. The delicious walnuts and sesame seeds were such a lovely compliment. Oh my god you guys, you got to go to Paris just to eat this. Hubby liked it too. Even the figs–and normally he doesn’t like that kind of thing. My dinner also came with a bowl of cous cous. The best cous cous I’ve ever eaten. Sometimes cous cous can be quite tasteless, but this was very fragrant, buttery, and so light in texture. I got a lot of food but I ate every scrap! Poor Hubby, he really should have listened to Mr Lebovitz, who recommended the tagines. Boy, was he ever sorry!
For desert we had mint tea and they added some drops of orange flower water in it. I have never had mint tea like that before, it was fantastic. As for the deserts, they were just ok. Moroccan deserts can be very floral. It’s an acquired taste, one which I have grown to like, but these were maybe a bit more floral than I would have cared for. The gazelle horns did not have a regular cookie texture, like I was expecting (this was my first time ever trying them). The best description I can offer is, it was kind of like a dried ravioli. I thought they were okay, the filling was nice. Hubby didn’t think so though. We also got a plate of mixed deserts, which were pleasant, but not memorable–again, Mr P was not impressed.
Gazelle horns with little fruit pieces
Assorted deserts, pretty, but nothing amazing
Mr P and I would most definitely come back to L’Atlas. Next time though, we will stick to the tagines and the tea and maybe have some sweets elsewhere–there’s no shortage of sweets in Paris, I can assure you. That tagine alone was worth the trip to Paris. Mine was certainly a meal that I will remember for a very long time.
