~ Belly Dancing + Great Food at Casablanca ~

My wonderful friend organized another dinner this past weekend. This time, we explored Moroccan cuisine at Casablanca in Alexandria,VA. Overall, the food was good and it was very entertaining. Get ready, this is a lot of pictures of food. Close the browser now if you are hungry.

Before you eat, of course you have to wash your hands. They will hand you towers and come by with water to wash your hands. Pretty cool!

When you are all clean, you can eat. First, the bread. Of course there was bread. What else were we supposed to eat while we wait for everyone to show up? I have never had this kind of bread before. It was very soft on the inside and just a little bit crunchy on the outside.

Of course there's the dip for the bread. I have no idea what it was. Probably chick peas? It was good though. Not really sweet or salty. Just....nutty. It's served cold though. For some reason, I thought it would be warm.

Food is served family style. They have 5 course, 6 course and 7 courses "feasts". We chose the 6 courses one for $23 each person. It has Harira soup or salads, Bastilla appetizer, two entree choices, homemade bread, mint tea, and pastry. We chose soup. It was like a tomato soup.

The Bastilla appetizer was the best part of the meal! I was skeptical at first because I see the powder sugar and cinnamon and I thought I wouldn't like it. I am not a big fan of cinnamon. I actually didn't really look at the menu at all so I have no idea what this was.

Then, the forks started flying and all I heard were mumbled words of appreciation. It was good! It is "Phyllo dough pie filled with chicken, eggs, almonds, walnuts, onions, parsley and sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon." I didn't taste the parsley at all! It's a little bit salty and sweet at the same time.

The chicken was very tender and soft. It was very flavorful, but not too much.

5 minutes later....completely consumed. This is the girl's table by the way. We had two tables and the guys all sat in the other table. Surprisingly, we ate more than them :)

Yeah, there's Moroccan beer!

We were able to order 4 entrees to share. We ended up with 2 lamb dishes and 2 chicken ones. At our table, the Lamb with Zucchini and Tomatoes. I actually dislike lamb. Everyone else says it's good. I tried it. It tasted like lamb. Very strong taste of lamb. Yuck.

The other table got the Lamb with Sesame Seeds and Prunes. Uh...prunes?? I tried it too. But, again, too lamby for me.

My favorite was the Chicken in harrisa sauce. It was supposed to be spicy, but it wasn't. The sauce was good! It was a whole chicken. Every piece was very tender and juicy. Even the white meat was tender. I didn't get a picture of the other chicken dish, but it wasn't all that. I ate some, but dipped it in the harissa sauce because it was a little bit bland.

All of a sudden, the lights dimmed. The entertainment had begun! This beautiful, tall woman in red started belly dancing! It was very fun to watch and she even dragged two of the guys up there to dance a little bit. Then, she dragged some of the girls! There's a video of this on Facebook, but I am not going to post it here. I am shy :)

After the show, sweetened mint tea and cookies were served. Both were good. Mint tea was a little too sweet for me though.

Since the place was empty as we were getting ready to leave, we decided to take some pictures. They have these little alcoves with nice plush seating and round tables. It feels very intimate and comfy in there.

I like these lights. They looks so fun and colorful. The decor definitely feels Moroccan.

They have 20% off coupons for the feasts valid from Sunday - Thursday. 12% Friday and Saturday. It was a pretty good deal. $25 for good food and entertainment. It was not crowded at all when we went on Sunday, which was good. Less noise and more relaxing. I really like the alcove seating, but it's further from the stage. So, if you are there for the belly dancing, pick a table on the main floor.

Next week is DC Restaurant Week. More and more eating!!