AZIZA
so i finally made it to eat at aziza with mark and armand on sunday. it was pretty damn good. We all got the 4-course tasting menu which i'm pretty happy about, but it was way too much food. I was stuffed silly by the end of the third course. There's just something i really like about not having to think about what i want to eat. i'm pretty content w/ the chef's choice of food.
For our first course, we had a choice between asparagus/crab soup and a tomato-based lentil soup. being the tomato fan that I am, i opted for that one and am muy content w/ it because it was muy flavorful and not a creamy soup which i'm sick of because we always have cream of ____ soup at alamo.
For the 2nd course, it was chef's choice of appetizer. We got the spreads (eggplant, cucumber dill, and roasted pepper topped w/ pine nuts) with bread, kebabs w/ meatballs and grapes with a cucumber slaw, and lima beans w/ feta gratin in a tomato sauce. these are not exact descriptions, but what i remember them to be. i think this was probably my most favorite course of the meal. all the selections were muy muy good.
Oh yeah, and for our first round of drinks, armand and i ordered cocktails and mark ordered a glass of riesling. I had the lavender & honey gin cocktail and armand got the celery & vanilla bean cocktail. armand got the better cocktail. i was never a fan of celery, but oddly enough the combination of celery and vanilla bean works really well together. it was a very flavorful drink. and i was happy to nibble on olives. ever since wine appreciation, i've been a fan of the kalamata olives with dry sherry. so fricken' good. The dry puckering from the sherry just balanced out the salty olive so well. maybe we can shoot for tapas for next month's dining spot.
Anyways, the third course was the basteeya, which i was pretty excited about especially because the top of it was dusted with powdered sugar with the aziza emblemed in cinnamon. It's a savory-sweet pastry dish of phyllo dough filled with braised chicken. However, the taste doesn't top the memory i have of bisteeya from chef karim's in sb. I feel there was too much chicken and not enough phyllo. I think it was kinda like a pork bun w/ chicken wrapped in phyllo. my memory of it is more of a napolean filled with meat.
By the time i got to the fourth course, I was stuffed silly. I ordered the lamb stew and armand got the lamb shank. mark got the fennel-crusted yellowfin tuna which probably made the most sense to get because it had the smallest portion. Everything was really good, but i was too full to eat. My lamb stew came with purple potato mini pommes duchesse topped with an purple olive and that was good. there was a sauce with salty deep-fried capers floating in it that I liked. I was initially disappointed w/ my stew when my first bite was mushy eggplant, but once i found the braised lamb, i discovered the good parts of the dish.
The wine we paired with our entrees just brought our food up to a whole different level. i got a pinot with some smoky oak hints and when i tasted it w/ the food it just fumed vanilla up my nose. armand had the most complex wine. it was a robust red from the rhone and it paired well w/ his shank too. we also agreed that mark's tuna would probably have been better if he had gotten a sauv blanc instead of opting for a 2nd glass of riesling.
Lastly dessert. i wasn't too impressed. the meyer lemon tart is practically something you can get at the tart to tart. the choc souffle had a crack covered in choc sauce. my pomegranate walnut angel food cake was good, but i feel like it's something i can get at a chinese bakery.
so that's my report on aziza. good overall and same with the service (excellent!). i look forward to next month's eating venture.
For our first course, we had a choice between asparagus/crab soup and a tomato-based lentil soup. being the tomato fan that I am, i opted for that one and am muy content w/ it because it was muy flavorful and not a creamy soup which i'm sick of because we always have cream of ____ soup at alamo.
For the 2nd course, it was chef's choice of appetizer. We got the spreads (eggplant, cucumber dill, and roasted pepper topped w/ pine nuts) with bread, kebabs w/ meatballs and grapes with a cucumber slaw, and lima beans w/ feta gratin in a tomato sauce. these are not exact descriptions, but what i remember them to be. i think this was probably my most favorite course of the meal. all the selections were muy muy good.
Oh yeah, and for our first round of drinks, armand and i ordered cocktails and mark ordered a glass of riesling. I had the lavender & honey gin cocktail and armand got the celery & vanilla bean cocktail. armand got the better cocktail. i was never a fan of celery, but oddly enough the combination of celery and vanilla bean works really well together. it was a very flavorful drink. and i was happy to nibble on olives. ever since wine appreciation, i've been a fan of the kalamata olives with dry sherry. so fricken' good. The dry puckering from the sherry just balanced out the salty olive so well. maybe we can shoot for tapas for next month's dining spot.
Anyways, the third course was the basteeya, which i was pretty excited about especially because the top of it was dusted with powdered sugar with the aziza emblemed in cinnamon. It's a savory-sweet pastry dish of phyllo dough filled with braised chicken. However, the taste doesn't top the memory i have of bisteeya from chef karim's in sb. I feel there was too much chicken and not enough phyllo. I think it was kinda like a pork bun w/ chicken wrapped in phyllo. my memory of it is more of a napolean filled with meat.
By the time i got to the fourth course, I was stuffed silly. I ordered the lamb stew and armand got the lamb shank. mark got the fennel-crusted yellowfin tuna which probably made the most sense to get because it had the smallest portion. Everything was really good, but i was too full to eat. My lamb stew came with purple potato mini pommes duchesse topped with an purple olive and that was good. there was a sauce with salty deep-fried capers floating in it that I liked. I was initially disappointed w/ my stew when my first bite was mushy eggplant, but once i found the braised lamb, i discovered the good parts of the dish.
The wine we paired with our entrees just brought our food up to a whole different level. i got a pinot with some smoky oak hints and when i tasted it w/ the food it just fumed vanilla up my nose. armand had the most complex wine. it was a robust red from the rhone and it paired well w/ his shank too. we also agreed that mark's tuna would probably have been better if he had gotten a sauv blanc instead of opting for a 2nd glass of riesling.
Lastly dessert. i wasn't too impressed. the meyer lemon tart is practically something you can get at the tart to tart. the choc souffle had a crack covered in choc sauce. my pomegranate walnut angel food cake was good, but i feel like it's something i can get at a chinese bakery.
so that's my report on aziza. good overall and same with the service (excellent!). i look forward to next month's eating venture.