Boxed couscous has no place at Kish-Kash, a newly opened West Village couscous bar by chef Einat Admony of Bar Bolonat and Taïm. Here, the couscous is painstakingly made from scratch—hand-rolled, hand-sieved, and twice-steamed over the course of hours. The restaurant name comes from the sieve traditionally used in the process.
The result is “a different world,” Admony said. “It’s fluffy, airy, beautiful, natural … I can have a bowl of it and eat it with nothing [else].”
The couscous lays the foundation for traditional Jewish-North African dishes like mafrum, potatoes stuffed with ground beef, and chraime, fish in a spicy tomato sauce. Salad, hummus with challah, and wines from Israel and North Africa round out the menu. All meat dishes are kosher.
Admony opened Kish-Kash to satisfy her longing for “real Moroccan couscous,” which she hadn’t found in New York since she left Israel 20 years ago. Her menu is a tribute to tradition.
“I wanted to bring back some old-school dishes that are going to disappear soon from the world. A lot of them you can’t find in Israel anymore,” she said. “It’s something different. There’s nothing like it in town.”
455 Hudson St. (between Barrow & Morton streets)
West Village
Open daily, 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.
KishKashNYC.com
Inside the casual eatery. (Yoav Davis)
