11:35am Monday 30th October 2006
By John Nesbitt
FOR those who don't know, the tajine is a cooking vessel originating from Morocco, most famous for spicy lamb stew cooked with fruits but also ideal for cooking meats, curries and the like.
The cone-shaped lid of the tajine collects the steam and returns the condensation to the base keeping the meal moist and tender while slowly cooking. The tajine can be used in the oven, on the hob or on chiminea.
Wander along to the north-eastern end of the dining strip of Charminster and you'll find another Tajine, the newest restaurant, where this cooking pot is put to good use. Opened three weeks ago by Addi Mohamed, the restaurant at 181 Charminster Road serves authentic Moroccan food in authentic surroundings.
The ceiling is covered with exquisite hand-painted wooden tiles and colourful drapes hang from the walls. Much of the woodwork is handcarved and your tea is poured from ornate silver teapots. Paintings and numerous colourful tajines add to the Moorish atmosphere.
Tajine has room for about 20 diners and has a comfortable bar area with a long sofa where you can sit and shoot the breeze while sipping tea.
Tea, soft drinks and juices, including almond, are available as the restaurant is unlicensed, but Addi is happy for diners to bring their own wines or beers along.
Starters are soups or salads and range from £1.80 to £3.50. The main courses start from £4.50 for a pasta dish up to £12.50 for Seafood Pastilla, a seafood dish with a special sauce, wrapped in filo pastry, with fresh lemon on a bed of lettuce, which has to be ordered 24 hours in advance.
Most mains are around the £6.50 to £7.50 mark and others include fish, grilled meats, couscous, vegetarian and a variety of tajine-cooked dishes.
We finally settled on Bisara, Moroccan Salad and Rice Salad for starters, to be followed by Koufta, Mixed Grill and Bab Monsour Tajine for mains.
I enjoyed a pot of Moroccan Mint Tea while waiting the brief time before the starters appeared. The other two had rather less interestingly opted for Coke (the full sugar version, ooooh).
The Bisara (£2.20) is a soup made from broad beans, which I am not normally fond of, but on a chilly evening this made a thick hearty and warming soup - in part due to the chilli powder, cumin and paprika with which the soup is dusted. Wholesome.
The Moroccan Salad (£3.50) consisted of diced tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, feta cheese and seafood vinaigrette on a bed of lettuce. A nice light starter, fresh and refreshing.
The Rice Salad (£3) was rice, served cold, mixed with tuna, sweetcorn, peas, freshly hardboiled egg and mayonnaise. Nicely moist, light and tasty with no flavour too overpowering.
The main dishes were served very shortly after we finished the appetisers and when the tajine dish arrived I regretted not having ordered something similar.
The Koufta (£6.50) is spicy minced lamb served on spiced rice beside a fresh mixed salad, with bread and the Mixed Grill (£7.50) that I had chosen is very similar but includes chicken and lamb brouchette (spiced grilled meats) and merguez - small spicy Moroccan sausages. Both dishes were served with a thick chilli sauce.
The meat was lean and, along with the rice, full of flavour, with the salad perfectly refreshing the palate as you tuck in. The chilli sauce is good if you like plenty of zing to your dish.
And so to the tajine. Correctly titled Bab Monsour Tajine (£7.50), this dish is brought to table in the pot, the conical lid being removed before you. It was at this point that I thought I may have missed out. Because, good though my Mixed Grill was, this looked great. Lamb, slow-cooked, with carrots, lemon and olives, served with bread and salad. The meat looked fall-off-the-bone tender and the vegetables, perfect. And so it proved, the recipient devouring it so enthusiastically that the other two of us struggled to get a taste!
None of us had room for dessert, but you can choose between ice cream or a selection of homemade Moroccan cakes, which I have tried and are worth a taste if you can squeeze them in.
The people are friendly and very welcoming, the food is wholesome, flavourful and a little different, and at £32.70 for the three of us, including our drinks, I'd say the Tajine gives very good value and is Moorish in more ways than one.
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