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In fact, this could be any generic North American café, and the only suggestions that it isn't are a few photographs on the walls and a scattering of artifacts, all small and easily overlooked. One that did catch my eye was a miniature tagine -- one of those charming, earthenware, conical-lidded cooking crocks but, in this case, probably too small to be anything but decorative. Tagine is also the name of one of the main courses, but we'll get to that one later too.
It's probably safe to say that no other restaurant in the city offers the specialties that are served here. I could wish for a greater selection but one can't fault a restaurant for what it doesn't serve; we can only, in this case, be grateful for what it does. The short menu offers three soups, three salads and a mere five entrees, the latter with variations depending on the choice of main ingredient -- i.e. you can have your couscous with beef, chicken, lamb or fish. In any case, the menu makes up for its brevity with affordable prices.
The first foods that come to table, gratis, are a little basket of nicely chewy house-made breads with a slight hint of anise, and a wee saucer of marinated carrot and (I think) turnip slices. Then you might start, for instance, with hissou, a big bowlful of a hearty soup that is piquant with vinegar, aromatic with mint and garlic, and floating several little meatballs -- near meal-size at $3.25. Other soups are douida with pasta, vegetables and meat ($4.75) or chicken vegetable with beans ($5.99).
Or you might start with one of the salads (from $4.75 for a small to $8.90 for a large). We chose the roasted vegetable salad, which didn't turn out to be what we'd thought it would be. The menu description of grilled eggplant, green pepper and tomato let us to expect individual roasted veggies, but what we got was probably better than what we'd expected -- a finely diced mixture, dressed with olive oil and lemon juice, and garnished with tuna, capers, olives and a hard-boiled egg (ingredients that turn up often in other dishes). A surprise, yes, but a delicious one.
Also listed under salads, for some reason, is the brik, possibly because it comes with a salad (head lettuce, but nicely dressed), and whatever else one eats here, this one is a standout that alone would make les Jasmins worth a visit ($5.50). At other times, in other places, I've had this deep-fried triangle of puff pastry filled with cheese, parsley and tuna, but this is the first time I've been lucky enough to have it in the trickier version, i.e. containing the traditional boiled egg -- not spurting out, true, but soft enough.
The sampled entrées, if less spectacular, were savoury and good, much like superior home cooking. Our couscous, for instance -- an almost nutty-flavoured kind of semolina -- came topped by a savoury stew, rather skimpily fleshed out with such veggies as squash, onions, carrots and chickpeas ($13.95). But those who expect a chili-fired harissa sauce may be disappointed -- it wasn't in the least spicy. In fact, although all the entrées sampled were good, none was particularly spicy.
Not all of those listed were available. We were disappointed to learn that there were no farcis, i.e. peppers, eggplant or zucchini stuffed with seasoned ground beef in a tomato sauce. But we did manage to sample at least one version of the remaining entrees: the ojja royale, for instance, a savoury dish of meatballs and housemade merguez sausages topped by a hard-boiled egg ($7.95). Also koucha, a simple but tasty tomato-based dish of tender baked beef tenderloin pieces with "marinated potato strips" -- fries, in other words ($10.75).
There are also tajines, not to be confused with the slow-cooked stews of other North African countries. The Tunisian version is more like a frittata, or a crustless quiche, an oven-baked, egg-based dish with a choice of filling -- ours was a lovely mixture of chicken, spinach and grated cheese ($8.99). Other fillings include eggplant, spinach or parsley, and there is also an oven-baked pastry version filled with chicken, cheese and egg, and served with a salad ($9.75).
For dessert you couldn't do better than the sample plate of Tunisian pastries, which offers four little baklava-like beauties. My memory is a little hazy, but I do remember one stuffed with almonds, another with hazelnuts, another (I think) with dates, and at least one of them fragrant with rose water ($3.99). A delicious alternative is the Tunisian cake filled with custard, bananas and almonds ($2.75). To go with them, try either Tunisian mint tea ($2.50), or a little demi-tasse of dark Tunisian coffee ($2.90).
A knowledge of French would come in handy (the English spoken here is pretty basic) but the menu comes in both languages, with descriptions, and the staff knock themselves out to please. Our server actually prevented us from ordering more than he thought we needed -- service doesn't come much nicer or more considerate than that.
marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca
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