Arabic delights

Qafe Pasha in Punjabi Bagh has some interesting Moroccan food on its menu

Authentic fare: The Moroccan harira soup at the restaurant.

Qafe Pasha at New Delhi’s 1 Club Road, Punjabi Bagh (West), stands out from your regular stand alone restaurants in that part of the city. It specialises in Moroccan cuisine. A comfy café with a Moroccan décor, it presents to diners foot tapping Arabic dance every Thursday evening.The chef offers a variety of Moroccan delicacies such as the famous Moroccan harira soup, the original Greek salad and not to forget, the yummy fattoush. It also serves Indian and Oriental dishes keeping in mind the popular local taste.

To set my palate to the Moroccan taste, I start with the minty Moroccan tea — Morocco’s favourite oolong tea served with mint leaves crushed in it. It has a nice, soothing flavour. Next in front of me is the harira soup. A popular dish in that country, it is a tomato lentil soup with some chicken chunks. It has a well seasoned and balanced taste, not at all spicy.

Starters at Qafe Pasha are interesting too. There is Shish Touk, a marinated chicken cubes in skewers and grilled in charcoal. It is served with a yummy garlic sauce. The chef says he has to pay special attention while grilling the chicken pieces so that the heat reaches its core and doesn’t get a hard crust.

It also has a mezze platter. It comes filled with traditional dips of hummus, babaganoush, tzazaki, mukhalil, falafel, fattoush and marinated olives served with pita bread. Pita bread here is fresh and soft and I savour it best with hummus and the authentic mouhmmara, a red pepper dip.

Sadly, Qafe Pasha has very little to choose from its Moroccan menu in the main course. Not left with much option, I reluctantly go for the Indian dishes and zero in on murg lababdar and the popular West Delhi favourite, butter chicken. Must say, the dishes don’t disappoint you, best eaten with laccha parantha. The butter chicken has the perfect amount of cream and butter in it.

In dessert, I go western and put my finger on its Caribbean Calypso. Date and walnut cake with vanilla ice cream topped with honey and almonds can also be a good dessert option here.