Supper Club: Baraka Cafe

The supper club ladies used to meet up roughly bi-weekly at one of our house and took turns hosting at our various abodes. We even had a blog of our exploits!

Sadly one by one members moved away

First, Fiona moved to New York(?) or some other state, and then back to Ireland!

Then Rachel Moved to California and then to Kansas city....

Then Sarah- our resident tiny -awesome-Japanese supper club-ee moved to California!

Then Laura moved back to California! (Whats up with that California?!)

There are still some of us in the area- but even smaller moves, like me moving from Cambridge to Gloucester have made supper club less feasible. But a few of us decided to get together nonetheless this Tuesday! Instead of our usual cooking escapades, we decided to meet up at a local restaurant, Baraka Cafe in Central Square, Cambridge.

The place was very tiny, cozy and cute! Jen had been there before and recommended we meet early, as it fills up fast!

Baraka Cafe "offers traditional Algerian-Tunisian and North African cuisine in a cozy space reminiscent of eating in the chef's home kitchen in the Mediterranean." None of which I was familiar with so it was all new and exciting! I decided to be that obnoxious person in the restaruant with a camera.

The 4 of us split a couple of appetizers and entrees.

For Appetizers we got:

Special of the night: Dates with Cheese

They were quite good! Just plain old dates with African cheese, which tastes a bit like ricotta cheese.

M'Chermlat El Sanaria :: spicy carrots in m'chermla sauce with oregano, raisins & onion jam
Very good! I wish there had been more if.

Zaatar Coca :: traditional Bedouin galette of sage, thyme, sesame seeds, lemon juice, caramelized onions on hand-stretched grilled Berber bread
I was not a huge fan of this item, it was a bit to hard and not too exciting. It could have used something for dipping.

and we didn't order this.. but they brought it anyway so we ate it

Karentika :: Oran famous savory chickpea custard with harissa tapenade
We were all quite happy with this order mess up- it was one of the better apps we got!

This was my tasting plate of chickpea custard, bread and carrots.

For Entrees we got:

Melfouf la Kasbah :: grilled marinated varieties of white & red meat with tchektchouka & pommes frites drizzled with h'rissa vinaigrette ::
A very interesting combination! I really liked the salad it came with and the french fries-- the meat was good too, though split 4 ways it was pretty small portions.

M'Katef :: New Zealand baby lamb chops delicately marinated in ras-el-hanout served with "ehbah essoufra," an Arabian almond tartlet layered in sweet saffron shallots, mint sauce & leeks spinach t'biykha ::
The leeks and spinach were the best part in my opinion, the lamb chop was a bit too fatty.

For Drinks we split a pitcher of their famous Rose Petal infused Lemonade. It was AMAZING. I could have drank the whole pitcher... but I am glad I did not.

All of the food was very good, but the portions were modest and we all left feeling satisfied but not stuffed.

We headed to Green Street Grill for a drink.

I first had a Malbec which was much too earthy for my taste, followed by a glass of Syrah, which was sweeter and more to my liking.

We all split a piece of pumpkin cake with mascarpone.

The fact that we were out and about led to much less drinking than our group usually does, which is probably for the best! I slept over Phoebe's in Fenway anyway to avoid my excessively long commute home. All in all, another very successful supper club night!

How do you like to spend your girls nights??