New Outdoor Café for Got Kosher?’s French- Tunisian “Sun Cuisine”(06/09)

 

 

 

Themed Shabbat and Kosher holiday meals, even plump whole rotisserie chickens prepared just in time for dinner, are features not uncommon in a kosher market. 

 

But at owner-chef Alain Cohen’s “Got Kosher?” so many gourmet innovations have led to a new meaning of “kosher,” and a whole new mainstream audience.  Brand- new, for example, is the variety of pretzel challahs made in the back bakery.  The challahs have become so popular that Got Kosher? is planning a bakery just for them in the future.

 

Made-to-order sandwiches are inspired by Cohen’s stint with master Nancy Silverton at La Brea Bakery, who taught him, “the power and the art form of gourmet sandwiches.”   A variety of  house-brand of Nashama sausages add to the list, such as the authentic merquez.   Got Kosher? also offers Provencal rotisserie chicken, Tunisian couscous feasts, cooking classes, and fresh kosher sushi prepared on site.  Sunday now marks the ritual of pulled beef brisket and barbeque, a day when up to 1200 sandwiches are prepared in the back kitchen.

 

As with Hugo’s Meat Market in West Hollywood, customer demand led to seating for up to 20 with service, here at at casual outdoor tables on the sidewalk.  It’s perfect  for eating the array array of hearty sandwiches, which inspired the menu in the first place.  Espresso, a line of old-fashioned sodas and natural fruit drinks and desserts are also offered. 

 

Nothing’s more fun to chat with friends and people watch over delicious food on a tree-lined street when the sun’s out and the red checkered tablecloths gently flutter in the wind – unless it’s nasty weather, which has curtailed outdoor eating so many days this year.

 

And even for the gourmet food, from the popular street sandwiches to the sophisticated salads and sophisticated botarrgue (mullet roe at $85 a pound), paper plates and plastic utensils, recyclable though they may be, are for the adventurous diner.  And it can be a real challenge to cut the barbecued meats.  The café will expand as soon as a nearby space is available.

Got Kosher? evolved from a successful wholesale sandwich business to a small market for affordable, gourmet kosher provisions and take-away meals.  As Cohen put it, “restaurant cuisine at take-out prices.”  Frozen prepared meals, doubled wrapped, so they can be heated in a non-kosher oven are also available. The “to go” Shabbat menu, for pre-orders only (faxed by Wednesday) offers many more options, from a half-dozen fish dishes (e.g., Grilled Salmon with lemon caper sauce $12.99/lb.), a dozen or more poultry entrees (e.g., Apricot Chicken $11.99/lb.), sliced meats (e.g., Roasted Turkey Breast $15.99/lb.) and ethnic foods (e.g., Tunisian Couscous with meatballs and broth-Beef-Chicken ($16 per person). Fresh and refrigerated gourmet challahs (some being green olives, fennel and salt, turmeric and hazelnuts, $6.99 each for 2 lb loaves; $9.99 for 3 lbs.) are also available

The restaurant offers, in addition to those salads and sandwiches, gourmet Neshama brand kosher sausages, ranging from Country Apple and Italian sausages to Parisian-style Moroccan Merguez (beef or beef and lamb) with onions, parsley and harissa sauce served on a French roll with house made condiments ($5.99 each). “House Special Sandwiches”

 

Off-site kosher catering is already popular and Got Kosher? has long provided individual meals for caterers Wolfgang Puck Catering and Patina.

The unique, authentic French-Tunisian cuisine reflects the heritage of owner Alain Cohen, born in Tunisia and raised in Paris, France.  From the age of nine, he worked in his father’s kosher restaurant, Les Ailes (The Wings).

True, Tunisian cuisine is a blend of Mediterranean and desert dweller’s culinary traditions, just as Moroccan cuisine,which became popular in Los Angeles in the 1980’s,usually with a belly-dancing floor show,  . But its distinctive spicy fieriness comes from neighboring Mediterranean countries and the many civilizations who have ruled Tunisian land: Phoenician, Roman, Arab, Turkish, French, and the native Berber people.

Since many of the cooking styles and utensils began to take shape when the ancient tribes were nomads, it was limited by what locally made pots and pans they could carry with them. A tagine is really the name of a conical-lidded pot, although today the same word is applied to what is cooked in it.

Like all countries in the Mediterranean basin, Tunisia offers a "sun cuisine," based mainly on olive oil, spices, tomatoes, simply cooked fish and meat from rearing (lamb).

Tomato is another vital ingredient in Tunisian cuisine of Tunisia. Tuna, eggs, olives and various varieties of pasta, cereals, herbs and spices are also ingredients which are featured prominently in Tunisian cooking.

Tabil, pronounced "table," is a word in Tunisian Arabic meaning "seasoning " and refers to a particular Tunisian spice mix,  Today tabil, closely associated with the cooking of Tunisia, features garlic, cayenne pepper, caraway and coriander seeds pounded in a mortar and then dried in the sun and is often used in cooking beef or veal.

Tunisian cuisine is distinguished from other North African cuisines by the spicy hot flavors, starting with harissa. A popular condiment and ingredient used extensively Tunisian cooking, harissa is a hot red pepper sauce made of red chili peppers and garlic, flavoured with coriander, cumin, olive oil and often tomatoes.

“Spicy” is so valued in Tunisian that there is even an old wife’s tale that says a husband can judge his wife’s affections by the amount of hot peppers she uses when preparing his food. But, not to worry, food prepared for guests are toned down however to suit the possibly more delicate palate of the visitor!