Nomad, 78 Second Avenue (Fourth Street), East Village, New York

[Al-khiyal]

I like cookies. You probably like cookies. Cookies are likable.

But cravable, eye-opening cookies are not an everyday thing. Maybe that’s why, thinking back on my meals at Nomad, a new French-North African restaurant on Second Avenue in the East Village, I’m thinking first about the things I ate last: cookies.

A plate of four cookies and minipastries is $8 and, should you go to Nomad, please consider it required eating. Will the little diamond of rosewater-spiked baklawa (not so different from baklava) be your favorite? Or will it be the cherek, a crescent of house-made puff pastry cradling a sugary almond filling? Chocoholics, such a predictable bunch, will fall hard for the bniin, a nut-sprinkled nugget of hazelnuts, walnuts, biscotti, halvah and chocolate ganache.

A sweet little cigar-shaped pastry might round out the four-cookie offering; other nights it might be a samsa, a fried triangle of phyllo dough filled with ground nuts and honey. There’s no going wrong, whatever the selection.

Salima Zebentout, wife of Mehenni Zebentout, the restaurateur behind the place, makes the cookies much the way she learned to make them in the kitchen of her grandparents’ restaurant in Theniet el Had in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria. And when she’s not pitching in at her husband’s restaurant, she’s studying for her endocrinologist’s certification.

Mrs. Zebentout makes the cookies, and Hisham Khiri makes the sausages. Mr. Khiri, a Casablanca-born chef, stuffs a batch of his own merguez every couple of days. The resulting sausages, incorporated into various dishes or grilled on their own as a $5 “tapa,” are plump torpedoes of lamby goodness, aggressively and expertly spiced.

He also oversees the production of some of the better specimens of labor-intensive savory North African pastries around.

Boureks, crispy pastries stuffed with a juicy beef and lamb, are done as they would be in Algeria, said Mr. Zebentout, who called himself “Algerian-Algerian” when I inquired as to his nationality.

Briwats are stuffed with ground almonds and pulled chicken, as they would be in Morocco. No matter where they are from, the ones I tried were unimpeachably good.

Pastillas, entree-size savory pastries, are put together with a deft hand. None I tried evinced even the faintest sogginess; as my fork cut through the decorative crosshatch of cinnamon atop the sugar-dusted pastry, it crackled and shattered and gave way to a layer of buttery, fatty ground almonds and a moist and richly seasoned chicken filling.

The menu has a few French standbys, including steak frites with a peppercorn sauce ($18), as good as any at other modest local bistros.

Mr. Khiri trained in Brussels after leaving Morocco before coming to New York, which might be one reason the frites are so good. They fare equally well as a main ingredient in a tajine of chicken, olives and French fries that proves that conscientiously fried potatoes used as a vegetable are a good thing.

The narrow space that Nomad inhabits is broken into dining rooms and a bar space, and festooned to within an inch of overkill with North African lamps, murals and decorations. Angle for a table in the back room or the little fenced-in garden if it’s good weather (and if the peace and quiet isn’t yet obliterated by the hum of air conditioners sagging from windowsills). Either would be more comfortable than the tables crammed into the front room.

Mr. Zebentout said there won’t be any belly dancing, so there’s no threat that the comfortably tight space will turn uncomfortably intimate. And you won’t have to guard your lamb and couscous royal — a huge helping topped with merguez, lamb, chicken and more ($16) — against whirling tassels or scarves.

Nomad

78 Second Avenue (Fourth Street), East Village; (212) 253-5410.

BEST DISHES: All the savory pastries; cookies; grilled merguez with anything.

PRICE RANGE: Appetizers and salads, $5 to $9; main courses, $12 to $18; dessert, $6 to $8.

CREDIT CARDS: American Express only.

HOURS: 3 to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 3 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. Mehenni Zebentout, the proprietor, said he plans to extend the hours to noon to midnight daily at the end of April.

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Accessible.

Algerian temptations, speaking a little French

[Al-khiyal]

Nomad

[Al-khiyal]

Consider the Tcherek

December 6, 2007 -- The tcherek (sometimes spelled cherek) is a traditional, crescent shaped Algerian cookie stuffed with almonds that have been pulverized into a paste bound with orange blossom water and sugar. After the cookie is baked it is briefly steeped in more orange blossom water, then rolled in toasted almonds. Nomad’s tcherek recipe substitutes confectioner’s sugar for a less nutty exterior, and on the dessert plate ($6) of 4 house-made cookies at the East Village restaurant, what appears to be nothing more than a powdered white doughnut gives way after one crunchy bite to a fragrant, marzipan-like interior. Nomad owner Mehenni Zebentout’s wife Salima actually makes the restaurant’s cookies using family recipes from her native Algeria. She’s graciously provided Gothamist with her tcherek recipe.

Tchereks

Salima Zebentout, Nomad

Filling

2 cups blanched almonds, lightly toasted and finely chopped
(you can use a mortar and pestle if you have one)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
orange blossom water

Dough

3 cups A.P. flour
1 cup melted unsalted butter
orange blossom water

Mix flour and melted butter until the butter is completely incorporated. Add orange blossom water, a little at a time, until a smooth dough is formed. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for at least 20 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the filling by combining almonds, sugar and cinnamon. Stir well. Add orange blossom water, again, until a moist paste is formed.

On a lightly floured surface roll out half of the dough to a 1/8” thickness. Cut dough into 3” circles using a cookie cutter.

With a spoon, place approximately 2 tsps of almond paste in the center of each piece of dough, in the same way ravioli is stuffed. Brush border of each with orange blossom water (use your finger if you don’t have a brush); fold bottom of dough over filling, wrapping and forming semicircles. Press edges to seal. Shape cookies like crescents and transfer them to a baking sheet, either nonstick or lined with parchment paper. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes, or just enough to lightly tan the cookies.

Let baked cookies rest. Dip each cookie in orange blossom water, then immediately in confectioner's sugar. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and dust with additional confectioner's sugar. Store in an airtight container for 3-4 days if tchereks aren’t being served that day.

[amalgamate]

I never really liked the Tcherek very much. Too floury/nutty for me.

[nesreen]

Good tchereks are supposed to have an extremely thin enveloppe that melts in the mouth rather than a thick dough that feels like cement . I love tchereks , especially my moms but i refuse to make them , as i tend to put on weight very quickly so i ll pass . but enjoy them when i visit Mom .

[nesreen]

The restaurant sounds very nice , I love mergez and i miss them . i love them with proper tunisian Harissa . Yum . my Moroccan butcher used to make spicy , mild and chicken mergez so i always bought some for the week end lunches .