fall guide
Date night
RN&R’s
BAGELS Baked In House Daily BAGELS- Baked In House Daily Serving Bagels, Bagel Sandwiches, Real Fruit Smoothies, Espresso, Locally Roasted Coffee and Teas
495 MORRILL AVe #102 RenO, nV 89512 CALL US: 775-786-1611 www.thedailybagelreno.com
Open
Tuesday-Friday: 6:30am to 2pm Saturday-Sunday: 8am to 2pm
on stands sept. 15
The chicken was tender and moist. My wife just pulled it off the stick and tossed it into her salad. The combination was delicious. A tagine—or tajine—is a shallow earthenware cooking dish with a conical Zayna Flavors of Morocco is a welcome lid used to slow-roast stews and meats, a addition to Reno’s increasingly diverse centerpiece of North African and Middle food scene. My wife and I took advantage Eastern cooking. The term tagine is also of an introductory “Sultan’s Feast” sixused to denote a dish cooked in this fashion, course meal—including a glass of house thus the chicken and lamb tagines that were wine—for $34.95 per person. Moroccan served as entrees. music playing in the kitchen lent the proper Both meats are soaked in spices and vibe without making it difficult to hold a cooked with onion, olive and prepared conversation in the dining room. I’ve heard lemon, resulting in fall-off-the-bone meat that belly dancing often accompanies these with a powerful punch of flavor. The four meals, but we apparently chose the dancer’s chicken thighs were served with rice pilaf night off. made with spices, bell pepper and a lot of A serving of hummus paired with chicken flavor. In an odd way, it reminded olives and soft pita bread comprised our me a bit of my Czech grandmother’s first course. The hummus was unlike most comfort food, chicken and rice. from the eastern end of the Mediterranean. The lamb tagine featured a pair of lamb From the color and lack of nutty sesame shanks with all the characteristics of the flavor, I’m thinking there was either very chicken, yet the cooklittle—or no—tahini in ing method seemed to the mix. If it was there, have concentrated the it was overpowered by rich, iron-laden flavor the flavor of preserved of the dark leg meat. lemon, a key ingredient If you like liver, in Moroccan cuisine. 800 W. Second St., 440-0974 you’ll probably love Zayna is open Tuesday-Saturday, 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. The intensely floral (or later when busy). this dish as much flavor was actually quite as my wife did. I good once my expectafound it to be almost tions adjusted, but the bouquet reminded overpowering, though definitely worth me of—so help me—Froot Loops breakfast the experience. A salad of couscous—tiny cereal. semolina pasta—with grape tomato, bell The first round was followed by sweet pepper, cucumber, cilantro, mint and spices, mint tea, dates and a pastry date cookie. served as an excellent side to the lamb. It The tea was ceremoniously served tableside was tasty on its own and a perfect palate by the chef—a young man of Berber balancer with the lamb. descent—with a long pour, explained Something called cucumber soup turned as being necessary to properly mix the out to be a sweet, chilled combination of ingredients. The dates and cookies were not mint, shredded cucumbers and cucumber too sweet, which helped cut the spearmint water that seemed more a combination candy effect of the tea. dessert and digestif than soup. This was Our next course was one of my favorfollowed by yet another serving of mint tea ites, a simple skewer of spiced chicken and and date cookies. My wife declared any tomato with a salad of mixed greens, shredmeal that starts and ends with dessert is ded veg and a fantastically spicy dressing. high on her list of best things ever. Ω
Zayna Flavors of Morocco
fall guide
Abbey Kent, Abdellah Matboua and Vlad Kochanzhi prepare and serve the Sultan’s Feast at Zayna. PHOTO/ALLISON YOUNG
RN&R’s
by Todd SouTh
08.25.16
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RN&R
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