Restaurant des Quatres Frères, Paris

[Al-khiyal]

August 19, 2007 -- Couscous is said to be the most popular dish in France. Even neighborhood French bistros often feature a couscous special - combining root vegetables, meats and grain - one day of the week.

Though they certainly offer it, the four genial brothers who run the Restaurant des Quatres Frères - an inviting Algerian spot near the terribly hip Oberkampf section of Paris - are eager to show there's much more to the food of their region than this ubiquitous dish.

Start with the M'hadjeb, a spicy crepe filled with griddled tomato, onion and red pepper, or a skewer or two of their fiery, house-made merguez (lamb sausage). Entrees max out at 6 euros.

The "dolmas" listed on the blackboard menu are not stuffed grape leaves, as in Greece, but a hearty main course of hollowed-out hunks of potato and zucchini filled with savory ground lamb.

Restaurant des Quatres Frères
127, Boulevard de Menilmontant,
11th Arrondissement,
Paris

Closed Sundays

Tel: 01-43-55-40-91

[Al-khiyal]

Couscous is king at Les 4 Frères

August 1, 2009 -- Wedged between a computer parts store and a sleepy Arab CD shop on a scruffy block in Belleville in north-east Paris, Les 4 Frères hardly comes across as a seat of couscous royalty. On seeing its dusty entrance on boulevard de la Villette, passers-by could be forgiven for thinking this is just another restaurant that has fallen on hard times. But at the main entrance on rue Sambre et Meuse, you’ll find a line of eager diners spilling on to the street. Inside, the smell of juicy meat on the charcoal grill permeates the air. And this is just the sideshow. At Les 4 Frères, couscous is the star of the kitchen. Made from steamed semolina and served with a stew of richly seasoned carrots, chickpeas, turnips, courgettes and sometimes squash and tomatoes, couscous – which originated with the nomadic Berber peoples of north Africa – is the unofficial national dish of the Maghreb. It is a dish that owners Said Azouz and his brothers, Ali, Akim and Karim, are on intimate terms with. During the boys’ childhood, the Azouz family – which hails from Setif, a city in the mountainous Kabylie region east of Algiers – would gather around fluffy mounds of couscous every Friday for dinner. “When you get married, you have couscous,” says Said, a portly and ebullient 40-year-old. “When a child is born, you have couscous. When someone passes away, you have couscous. It’s a dish that we eat in joy and pain.”

That westerners are familiar with couscous is beyond doubt. Preparing it, though, is another matter. For most people, making couscous usually amounts to opening a packet and mixing the pale yellow granules with boiling water, before covering and allowing to sit for about five minutes. At Les 4 Frères, this form of instant couscous is eschewed for the traditional “hand-rolled” method – an elaborate process that can take up to three hours. First, the semolina is soaked in cold water for 40 minutes. A drizzle of olive oil is added before the couscous is raked by hand in a circular motion so that is gathers into loose, but not lumpy, clusters. Once each tiny couscous granule has reached the desired size, it is steamed for 15 minutes in a couscoussier. Then the couscous is taken out and soaked in a bowl of cold water again for 30 minutes before it is worked by hand and steamed once more. The result is a couscous that is light and fluffy, a perfect foil for the rich vegetable stew that accompanies it. But, for the Azouz brothers, couscous is more than a meal. It’s a symbol of pride in their Kabylie-Algerian heritage. “Algerian restaurants are horribly under-represented in France,” says Said Azouz.

The greater Paris region is home to one of the biggest Algerian communities in France, but Morocco has received the lion’s share of culinary attention when it comes to north African cuisine. With Les 4 Frères – which he originally opened 12 years ago in nearby Ménilmontant before moving to Belleville – Azouz is doing his bit to address this imbalance. The restaurant also offers Azouz, who was born in France and grew up in the south Paris suburb of Grigny, a way to reconnect with his roots. “A lot of our customers are older first-generation Algerian immigrants,” he says. “They come and tell us about their life and experience. It’s very humbling.” In a city where couscous can easily cost €15 (£13), prices at Les 4 Frères are a bargain, with a vegetarian couscous costing just €5.50. “We don’t believe in bling bling,” explains Said Azouz. “For us, what’s important is mixité sociale [the French term for social balance]. We want the restaurant to be a place where people from all cultures, all ages and social classes can come in and enjoy good couscous.”

Les 4 Frères
37, Boulevard de la Villette, 75010
(Main entrance: 35 rue Sambre et Meuse)
Métro: Belleville or Colonel Fabien