IN A RIGHT TIZI

Couscous (as you all know) is the staple dish of the Maghreb, i.e. Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Basically it involves a bowl of steamed cracked wheat accompanied by root vegetables cooked in a soup, plus some meat, spicy mutton sausages called merguez, or (in Tunisia only) fish. The soup includes five basic vegetables: carrots, celery, turnips, onions, and courgettes. You can also add tomatoes or tomato paste, broad beans, chick peas, or capsicum peppers.

I am an expert on couscous, having criss-crossed the Sahara on a camel with my very own Berber tribe, and can tell you there is a world of difference between the insipid Moroccan style couscous you will get at fancy-ass places like Kasbah or Le Petit Chouia and a real Berber couscous. I actually make my own in time-honoured fashion, rolling the dampened and oiled cracked wheat gently under my armpit whilst ululating wildly, then steaming it in a traditional stainless steel couscoussiere over the meat and vegetables in their sauce.

Squatting improves the flavour

If you are making it at home, let me give you a couple of tips: whatever it says on the packet, do NOT prepare the cracked wheat by pouring boiling water over it and leaving it for five minutes! The warm salted water has to be added a little at a time and allowed to swell the grain which is then gently sifted with the fingers (or a fork) to separate them. A little olive oil at some point in the preparation can help lift and separate. When an equal amount of water (i.e. one cup for one cup of grain) has been added in stages, then the grain is steamed for 20 minutes or so, if possible over the soup and vegetables in which you may also cook the lamb or the chicken to add flavour. If you don't have a couscous steamer, you can use a regular vegetable steamer with a layer of clean cotton or muslin in the bottom to stop the grains trickling through. The prepared couscous should be pale yellow and fluffy, with the grains moist but separate. My second tip is, don't buy your merguez at a supermarket. Only a halal butcher (plenty around St Josse or Anderlecht) will supply authentic spicy mutton sausages as well as mutton and lamb.

You may have tried couscous for the first time here in Brussels and been somewhat underwhelmed. There are not many couscous restaurants which get a star rating from me, and those that do will likely be in Marrakesh or Paris rather than Brussels. Real natives (of North Africa, not Belgium) will tell you the best are to be found in St Gilles, all of them on the Rue de Moscou. It's a small street, with four restaurants in it, ALL of which are couscous joints! With some relief I located the perfect Berber couscous at one of them, Le Tizi Ouzou, which is Algerian, as opposed to Moroccan. This does matter, believe me. Tizi Ouzou, or “Tizi” as it is known to its denizens, is the capital of Kabylie, the predominantly Berber coastal region between Algiers and the Tunisian border whence hail Zinedine Zidan, and the fathers of actors Isabelle Adjani and Dany Boon. The restaurant was the first couscous house to open in Brussels over 40 years ago, and despite the competition that has opened up in the street, is still going strong.

Le Tizi Ouzou is an unpretentious little place offering a selection of couscous and tagine dishes as well as classic starters such as “brik à l'oeuf” (a kind of egg roll, make with a type of filo pastry called “brik” in Algeria and “warka” in Morocco), “pastilla” (pigeon pie) and chorba spicy soup Don't bother with a starter before a couscous as it usually comes as an “All you can eat” deal, and they will top up your bowl on request. The grain is light yellow, devoid of raisins or any of that Tunisian frippery, and perfectly fluffy. The sauce is a full-bodied soup with plenty of colour and flavour. The vegetables are not overcooked, and the kick-ass hot paste known as harissa is served in a little pot on the side. The "couscous maison" is served with stewed mutton, which you may never have tasted and is worth a try – it is succulent and melts in the mouth, at a most reasonable 17 euros. The wine list includes such Algerian specialities as Médéa, Mascara and Cuvée du Président, as well as house wines. The restaurant is simple and clean, with typical North African blue and white tiles on the walls. The waitress is a jolly motherly type who pours a mean mint tea, serving it in the traditional silver teapot with a shaker of orange flower water. If you've got any room left after your epic couscous you could accompany your mint tea with an oriental pastry or some fresh dates.

The eyes follow you round the room

We came out, stuffed, having spent 25 euros a head, including wine, mint tea, a tip and a visit to Chef in his kitchen. As I departed I had an overwhelming urge to ululate.


Le Tizi Ouzou
Rue de Moscou 36
1060 St Gilles
Tel: 02 538 1533

IL PICCOLO PADRINO

Il Piccolo Padrino and its listed wall

There are a number of Italian pizza joints down avenue Georges Henri, and I thought I'd tried them all, but it turned out I was wrong. Il Piccolo Padrino on the corner of rue Prekelinden is a cut above the others. You can't miss it, it's the one with the very old original advert painted on the wall, which dates from 1925 and used to alert passers-by to the pharmacy underneath. The advertisement was listed in 2004.

The seasonal menu boasted that "la saison des cèpes" had arrived. "Oooooh cèpes!" cried Scouse Doris and Rupert Posh-Geordie in unison. Cèpes, as you will know, are a type of mushroom, known variously as porcini, boletus edulis, penny buns or, in remoter parts of the north-east "squirrel's bread". The specials board boasted "escalope aux cèpes" and some other dishes featuring the famed fungus.

I often order veal in Italian restaurants as you can't find it anywhere else. Rupert, an exiled Prince of Northumbria, shares my love of the tender calf meat. Despite having grown up in various royal palaces across Europe, he is not squeamish about eating the dear little calves with their big eyes. In perfectly slurred Italian he ordered "escalope di vitello ai porcini", and I ordered a classic escalope milanese. His came swimming in rich gravy adorned with the prized fungus and roasted cherry tomatoes, and mine was lightly fried in golden breadcrumbs and served with the traditional lemon and a bit of salad on the side, with a separate bowl of spaghetti in tomato sauce. Doris went for tagliolini aux cèpes, and we washed it all down with a litre carafe of house red. The cèpes were delicious, quite sweet and tender. The mushroom season is starting, and I resolved to dig out my favourite mushroom recipes for the colder weather.

Squirrel's bread - boletus - porcini - cèpes - penny buns

The Padrino is quite a smart modern restaurant, no murals of Vesuvius or Venetian gondolas here thank you very much. I would only mark it down on two things: (a) the toilets, which were clean but very basic; and (b) the panna cotta. I did ask - as I always do - if the panna cotta is home made, and they replied - as they always do - "of course!" I do believe their panna cotta was home made, however it was not really a panna cotta. The chef had mixed stiffened egg whites in and turned it into a panna cotta flavoured mousse. It was very nice, but it wasn't a panna cotta, which should have a consistency somewhere between jelly and blancmange. Next time I'll go for the tiramisu.

They offer a wide selection of pizza, to eat in or take away.

Damage, around 30 euro a head, without starters.

Il Piccolo Padrino
350 avenue Georges Henri
1200 Woluwe St LambertTél: 02 736 50 01