Cape Town is an international city where you can find every kind of food like Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Irish, British, German, Portuguese, Ethiopian and many more. The Cape Town chefs are quite adventuresome and so the different kinds of food often come with a unique twist.
An example would be a Mexican restaurant we went to recently called Hacienda. The menu didn’t have photographs so when our various dishes arrived we were quite surprised at how they looked. They were not the standard version of similar dishes in Canada or even in Mexico where we once spent the winter in a rented home in the city of Merida.
Here was our complimentary tortilla chip and sauce dish before the meal. It had three different kinds of tortillas which were made right in the restaurant fresh daily. One called Tierra Verde was made with coriander and spinach, another called Al Carbon was made with coal-smoked corn flour and a third called Achiote was made with achiote spice which comes from an evergreen bush. The chips were offered with three different sauces-Pasta De Frijol- a spiced black bean sauce, Salsa Verde-a green tomatillo sauce and Adobo Oaxaca- a red adobo rub sauce.
We also ordered margaritas because they are half price for an hour and a half each day and we just happened to be there at the right time. They were unique as well, but delicious.
The first dish we shared was a chicken quesadilla. Not what we were expecting but made with corn mustard seed and avocado cream and amazing. The second dish we shared was brisket adobo. Again not what we expected but wonderful. The brisket was so tender it melted in your mouth and was served with pineapple sesame seed salsa, radish and pickled watermelon.
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We ended with a shared dessert of churros which we remembered eating lots of when we were in Spain. These were very different however in shape and size- served with banana dulce, and chocolate chilli ice cream. We probably would not have ordered dessert if we had realized that every meal came with a complimentary swirl of cotton candy. The waiter assured us it didn’t contain as much sugar as we thought.
But in the meantime, it’s been great to explore world cuisine with a twist during our time here in Cape Town.
If you’ve ever been to Mexico City, you’ve probably had tacos al pastor: warm tortillas filled with marinated pork that’s been sliced off of a vertical spit. And if you’ve ever been 9,000 miles away in Marrakech looking for a late-night snack, you’ve likely ducked into a shawarma shop where the man behind the counter is slicing lamb off of a spit into a warm pita. Despite the differences in meat, bread, and geographical location, the two dishes are similar in style and flavor.
Chef Mourad Lahlou noticed this similarity in his own restaurant’s kitchen. “When I hired the kitchen staff at my first restaurant over 16 years ago, many of them were from Mexico and Guatemala, places where I didn’t have much of a point of reference for their native cuisine,” says Lahlou of the cooks at his now-closed Michelin-star restaurant Aziza in San Francisco’s Outer Richmond neighborhood. “But I remember watching them cook stews for staff meals and at first, I always thought they were cooking Moroccan food because of the way that they used spices and developed layers of flavor. It was so Moroccan to me.”
Lahlou saw similarities between Moroccan and Mexican cultures beyond food, too. While touring the empty storefront that would eventually be his first restaurant, Lahlou noticed that the archways and tiles of the former Mexican restaurant’s decor reminded him of being in Marrakech. He didn’t think much about how or why this was possible and instead looked at it as a convenience, letting him focus on the developing the menu, rather than the decor, of Aziza.
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Nearly 17 years later, he’s finally channeling that cultural connection for the concept of his new restaurant, Amara. Spanish for “Moors,” Amara is an opportunity for Mourad and his chef de cuisine, Louis Maldonado, to explore the roots of their respective cultures.
But don’t call it fusion. Instead, the two are hitting the sweet spot between Mourad’s Moroccan heritage and Maldonado’s Mexican background, where flavors and ways of cooking and eating are similar. Think cumin, cilantro, mint, coriander, cinnamon, using a flatbread or tortilla as a utensil, and long-simmering stews. Most importantly, gathering around the table to share a meal is essential in both cultures, and Lahlou will be emphasizing that at Amara.
A spread of Moroccan dishes showcasing the rich flavors and spices.
“When I first came to America, I was baffled by how people ate. When I saw people taking food to go or eating while they were walking, it was devastating to me,” said Lahlou. “In Moroccan culture, everyone eats around a table and from the same platter. I grew up feeling like every meal was like a celebration and eating a meal was the great unifier. It brought us all together for nourishment from the same vessel, and it was important for me to bring that essential aspect of Moroccan culture to the restaurant. It’s also something you’ll find in Mexico, and it’s more meaningful than any ingredient or dish.”
So which came first, the lamb shawarma or the al pastor taco? After hundreds of years of Moorish reign in Spain, many North African ingredients, spices, and techniques seeped into Spanish cooking, such as long-simmered and heavily seasoned stews, the ubiquity of bread with every meal, and the use of beans as a source of protein. And so, the flavors and cooking techniques of Northern Africa-such as roasting seasoned meat on a spit-made their way to Mexico when the Spaniards traveled to what is now North America many centuries ago. The Spaniards famously brought pigs to Mexico as well.
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Historical connections aside, Moroccan-Mexican wasn’t the first idea that came to mind when Lahlou thought about opening a new restaurant in the Aziza space. Originally, it was simply “let’s reopen Aziza” (after a ”temporary closure” turned into two years) and have Maldonado come back to run the kitchen while Lahlou focused on Mourad, his Michelin-starred modern Moroccan San Francisco restaurant. But as the two began brainstorming, the idea of a concept change came up and Maldonado started thinking about putting the two cuisines together.
“I texted Mourad and said ‘Hey, let’s do Mexican-Moroccan’ and he said ‘Sure, that sounds good,’ but I don’t think he took me seriously,” said Maldonado. “So I wrote a menu, ran it by my fiancé [who’s now the pastry chef of Amara], and she approved. When I brought it to Mourad and discussed the historical context, he was intrigued. We started working on the food, and we both realized and understood the connections and similarities between the two. It just made sense to us to open Amara.”
So what exactly will you find on the menu of a Moroccan-Mexican restaurant? Don’t expect to book a table for your next taco Tuesday meal at Amara-there won’t be guacamole, salsa flights, or a tortilla in sight. Nor, at this point, will there be anything roasted on a spit like al pastor or shawarma. Instead, you can expect recognizable Mexican flavors put together using the techniques and ingredient combinations brought to Latin America by the Spanish conquistadors who’d spent hundreds of years cooking with Moorish ingredients during the Moors’ reign in Spain.
Although the menu hasn’t been finalized yet, diners will likely find beef cheeks braised in mole sauce, a play on fish Veracruz, and a twist on salsa guisado with lamb belly instead of chicharron. Lahlou was clear with Maldonado that he didn’t want to just put Mexican and Moroccan ingredients together and hope for the best. He wanted each dish to have a backbone and history to it. Diners should be able to get a sense of the genuine Moroccan and Mexican flavor profiles and both cultures in each bite.
“I think the one thing that people are going to be really surprised by with Amara is how harmonious the two cultures are and how similar we all are on so many levels,” says Lahlou.
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What do you think about when you think of African cuisine? Is it the couscous, lamb, or beef? Or do you think of the influences that Morocco, Arabic, and other European nations has had on the cuisine? Or is this the first time you have even given thought to North Africa as a producer a food culture?
Well, if you are intrigued to get a taste of North African cuisine fused with more familiar local Mexican flavors, head to Revolutionario North African Tacos on our doorstep in South Central. Walking out from my accounting mid-term, this time sweating from the stress rather than the Guisados spice, I decided that the best way to distract myself from my sub-par performance was to indulge in an above-par taco. I had heard of Revolutionario tacos from a handful of friends that avidly frequent this food spot and I too had tried to visit this well-acclaimed North African taqueria in 2017 but was unfortunately met with a closed sign - my first indication that perhaps this taqueria does not primarily serve the USC student night-owl population.
So, when faced with task of tasting a Los Angeles eatery that reflects fusion of Latino cuisine, naturally, Revolutionario came into mind. Walking to Revolutionario on Jefferson Boulevard, a brisk 15 minute walk from USC’s campus, I was welcomed by the iconic rainbow colored parasols that mark many sidewalks in Los Angeles and have become a familiar Angeleno sign for fresh fruit. Moreover, before even entering the taqueria, I saw countless cultures that ranged from a Korean National Association memorial building, an Igelsia de Jefferson, and to countless murals that displayed Spanish language.
Besides the parasols, Revolutionario doesn’t display a lot more color, preferring a dusky palette of darker colors. Opening up the front door into the small dining area of about 7 tables surrounded by dark metal chairs, the only color that ordained the eatery came from the colored fruit juices lining the back wall.
Revolutionario was brought to South Los Angeles in Summer 2015 by chef Farid Zadi, an Algerian-French man of indigenous North African Berber descent, and his wife Susan Park. The indigenous berber population once inhabited one third of Africa, especially concentrated in the Northern regions now home to Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya.
As years progressed, the Berber people were exposed to many cultures, cuisines, and practices as Arabic and Islamic influences spread through the region. Just as “ethnicity…changes constantly with the shifting patterns of politics, conquest, and trade,” food too clearly moves in parallel with ethnicity as the Berber foods shifted in flavors and tastes as they adopted ingredients from those cultures that they came in contact with (Anderson). As an example, Revolutionario grounds its North African relationship in its sauces used which are enriched with spices indigenous to the North African area. However, the meat used in the dishes claims its heritage from Arabic and Islamic cultures, often citing lamb as a main ingredient in their dishes.
Example of North African-inspired tacos, showcasing the fusion of flavors.
However, our scope of study focuses on Latin cuisines, and Revolutionario presents me with an opportunity to taste how North African cuisine is combined with Mexican tastes. Besides complimenting one another’s coastal lines, the two regions are over 6500 miles apart.
Before me in line stood two Hispanic men on their lunch break, clearly seeking a fulfilling dish to ease their mid-day hunger but at an affordable price. Sat in one of the corners of the room were two Asian students with two open books placed before their taco plates. Behind the counter were the owners, with the chef of indigenous Berber heritage. And then there was me, a caucasian British international student. So, when Portnoy and Pilcher talk about how “fusion cuisine [is] not just a mixture of cultures, it also reflect[s] the cross-class encounters of the Los Angeles streets,” Revolutionario really does represent a site of immigration and fusion of cultures.
Therefore, if we consider fusion in terms of the food experience and not solely restricted to the food flavors and ingredients, then Revolutionario exhibits globalization and fusion as it acts as a site for a mix of cultures and ethnicities. Flicking through the off-white paper menu stained with greasy fingerprints of former visitors, my limited knowledge about the cuisine of North Africa - let alone North African-Mexican fusion cuisine - presented me with difficulties when choosing what to eat. Rather than relying on closing my eyes and pointing randomly, I asked the server to decide what best represents the fusion between North African and Mexican food cultures.
I was in luck. The server was in fact the owner of the taqueria, the chef’s wife, Susan Park. So, as you can imagine, I was well cared for during my visit to Revolutionario and sampled only the best North African-Mexican food. Susan took a moment to scan the menu and decided on the pozole taco. To my surprise, I was familiar with pozole, having sampled it a handful of times during my visits to Mexican restaurants in the past. So, as you can imagine, I was slightly confused with how I could indulge on a pozole dish and a taco all at the same time.
In Mexican cuisine, a pozole is a traditional soup or stew. Typically pozole is made from hominy, seasoned with cabbage, chile peppers, garlic, onion, avocado and/or salsa. With its soupey nature in mind, you can probably understand how I was confused with the intersection of a soup with a taco. Nevertheless, I was not about to revert to my familiar food choice, and opted for the pozole taco.
The Revolutionario pozole taco takes the taco form with its corn tortilla but with a North-African twist; placing a mix of chicken, lamb, and beef seasoned with spices exclusive to North Africa, the Revolutionario pozole grounds its fusion in the multiple Arabic-inspired meats instead of the typical pork that is often found in the traditional Mexican pozole.
As a waited for my taco, I was able to steal five minutes of the owner’s time to talk to her about her food and what North African Mexican fusion meant to her. The fusion at Revolutionario, according to the owner, is rooted in the meats, spices, and tacos used in addition to the food prices and accessibility.
Revolutionary represents “chef driven cooking and exhibits laying of flavor shown in any Mexican taco” but, “just like other regions of Los Angeles, it has its international influences” referring to the North African cultural influences behind the dish. Portnoy and Pilcher’s discussion of fusion cuisine as the site for cross-class encounters was similarly reflected in my discussion with the owner. As the owner explained, “the name Revolutionario presents the idea revolutionizing accessibility and access to food that is high quality but cheap.”
Given the taqueria’s proximity to USC and Downtown Los Angeles and, thinking about the continued gentrification of the area and rising house prices as higher income residents move into the area, Revolutionario serves people of all varying socioeconomic status. Therefore, I think of Revolutionario as a magnet that attracts a wide range of individuals that come together to enjoy the cuisine and leave having left a bit of their culture behind that influences future visitors’ experiences.
A visit to Revolutionario would not go without noticing the interesting decor that clutters the walls of the taqueria, providing physical evidence of the fusion of global cultures in one spot in South Central. Almost all of the wall space is monopolized with foreign currency, ranging from the Chinese yuan, Hong Kong dollar, British pound sterling, to the Czech koruna. In fact, over 20 countries litter the wall space. I was to not only consume a multicultural and globalized dish, but I was too be immersed in an environment that draws inspiration from countries around the world.
My taco arrived on a styrofoam plate and, not moving too far from the traditional Mexican pozole, a soupey broth ran the perimeter of the plate framing the center taco. Eating my way through the pozole taco, I couldn’t help but notice the strong spices that emulated through the thick sauce, spices that I had not tasted before.
The three meats in the pozole created multiple meat textures in one bite - the chicken easily fell apart while the beef’s meat held its tenderness a little longer. Interrupting the bites of meat, peppers and onions sautéed in a strong garlic butter made a pleasant interruption to the barbacoa beef. As I took my last bite of the taco, the strong tastes of North Africa lingered allowing me to reflect on the fusion dish that I had engulfed.
Similar to the guisado in its marinated stew nature, the barbacoa is marinated in chermoula sauce, a pungent Moroccan spicy herb sauce. Whereas the cauliflower that garnished the taco was roasted in a ras el hanout Moroccan and Arab spice mix. Instead of the typical salsa tray available at many Mexican taquerias, Revolutionario opts for a garnish tray that offers Curtido, fermented cabbage, carrot, onion, and hot peppers, in addition to both red and green harissa.
As the smells of the Maghreb circulated the room and the tastes of the spices and meat lingered on my pallet, I realized that the fusion dish’s flavors are not extremely different from those flavors of traditional Mexican food. Rather, the differences come in small changes whether it be the meat choice, garnish options, or spices.
Considering the mix of cultures enabled through colonial conquest and trade, the Spanish and Moorish cultures have historically had frequent interactions with one another. Revolutionario displays how food cuisine is influenced by colonialism that underpins the movement of cultures, especially between Europe and Latin America. In fact, using terminology described by Portnoy and Pilcher, Revolutionario represents a site of transculturation in that its fusion food emphasizes “the effects on conquistador as well as on the conquered” shown through our understanding of how North African cuisine migrated across an ocean to Latin America.
Throughout my time at Revolutionario, Pilcher’s question of “are ethnic entrepreneurs ‘selling out’ if they change a recipe to market food to a wider audience?” was kept in mind. Before my visit to the taqueria, I wondered why the eatery did not cater solely to North-African cuisine? What did it exactly mean to create this North African-Mexican fusion rather than remaining within one culture’s cuisine?
As I think about the authenticity of the food Revolutionario serves, I don’t believe I can judge the food on whether it meets traditional concepts of Mexican or North African food because the food is neither Mexican nor North African, it is a fusion of both cultures. As Anderson states, “ethnic food has never respected ethnic boundaries. In fact it is their crossing of boundaries that makes them ‘ethnic’ food” and if we are to consider that “ethnicity is not a God-given trait” and is continuously evolving, taking influences from its host region and adapting to the tastes and ingredients of the area, then I believe Revolutionario presents an authentic experience of North African-Mexican cuisine.
Next time you are enjoying food of any culture, consider how the food has changed along side the context with which the food is consumed in. The change in food culture and ethnicities is not a historical concept, rather the change can be noted today. For Revolutionario, the vegan and vegetarian taco options represent how the taqueria has interacted with the surrounding audience to adapt to the need to provide vegan and vegetarian options.
For both North African and Mexican cuisine rooted, meat is central to familial, cultural, and religious traditions. So, by offering meatless dishes, the taqueria shows how food culture changes in the present.
Is it a surprise that North African food has become fused with Mexican fundamentals here in South Central? Given that North Africa has historically served as the epicenter of Islamic voyages, the food culture has forever been influenced by cultures outside of its own. So when the Spanish, who were of Arab and Berber descent, set sail to Latin America, the flavors of North Africa were already accustomed to fusing with different cultures.
