Nadia's Moroccan Kitchen, Brooklyn , Restaurant/cafe

Nadia's Moroccan Kitchen

Restaurant/cafe

Smorgasburg Kent and N7th
Brooklyn
United States

Phone: 2127291403

Website: www.nadiasnyc.com

Opening times:
Sun 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sat 11:00 am - 6:00 pm

Growing up in Morocco, I was immersed in a rich culinary culture. With Nadia’s Kitchen, I hope to bring an overlooked, diversely rich cuisine to light by presenting classic Moroccan dishes to serve street style. My sister and I would come home from school for lunch together, and on our way up to our third floor apartment, we would talk over each other trying to guess what the midday feast would be by the aromatic, heady scent that would float down the stairs.
Food and family are complementary in Morocco; this has left an indelible mark on my life, especially since moving to New York, where meals are eaten out, lunch is half an hour, and fresh markets are either seasonal or hard to find. Whenever I feel homesick for Morocco, I cook one of my mother’s dishes, and if I really want to feel as if I’m back in Casablanca, I always make b’stilla (ba-stee-ya).
B’stilla is the Moroccan interpretation of a meat pie; the perfect combination of sweet and savory, it is Morocco’s essential dish. It is made with slow-braised chicken in aromatic spices and caramelized onions folded over a bed of crushed almonds, wrapped up in flaky layers of phylo dough, and finally topped with a decorative pattern of powdered sugar and Saigon cinnamon. B’stilla was only served once or twice a year on truly special occasions. When I want to cook something truly representative of my Moroccan childhood, I choose b’stilla.

B’stilla will be the main cooked item that I will offer on the stand. I’ll also incorporate a weekly tagine special, changing the ingredients every week. I would also love to feature Moroccan pantry essentials: my own homemade, authentic staples of Moroccan cooking, such as preserved lemons and complex spice blends. Moroccan-preserved lemon rinds are a vital part of Moroccan tagines. The lemons are preserved in their own juices and rubbed with kosher salt. Our signature spice blend will be a handmade Ras El Hanout blend. Ras El Hanout means ‘the head of the shop,’ and each spice store in Morocco produces their own special blend. Nadia’s Kitchen will have our own version as well: over thirty-five spices harmoniously spun together and dry toasted before being ground and packaged by hand in our prep kitchen.

After spending the last fourteen years working in various food establishments in New York, the time is right for me to share my personal culinary memories and my own love for cooking. Moroccan food is often experimented with in other restaurants, but there is no place where Moroccan cuisine is the sole focus. I want to create an authentic source to share the warm, aromatic food I grew up with, and present the true vision of Moroccan cuisine. I hope to be able to join a great family of vendors in New York with my team at Nadia’s Kitchen, and to share my love of Moroccan food with the city that I love the most.