Shuls & Shpayz: A Different North Africa

Over the winter, we went to a handful of trivia nights around Manhattan, in the Upper East Side, the Lower East Side, and once in Greenwich Village around NYU. This particular night a group of us were to meet up at Amity Hall where we had even reserved a table. As a Wednesday night, when Julia/Meryl/Alisa were traditionally getting dinner, so I viewed this is as a great opportunity to continue my culinary conquests. Having taken people to places which were not so well-received by others, there is a certain hesitation when I suggest a place to eat now. So sometimes this limits my ability to suggest based on who is the company. Unfortunately, the East Village has a significant concentration of restaurants which would be deemed no-no by the boring palate police, namely Indian and Sri Lankan. There is a Lebanese place on 1st Ave we've been up to that was just sub-par, a couple quick places that are not suitable for a sit-down dinner, Japanese (but our group eats sushi too often), and the infamous alterna-Thai: Zabb Elee which was a low point for everyone because of the spicy surprises. There is also a Ukrainian place as well as a Serbian place all the way over on Avenue C but no one wanted to go there because of a combination of being far away and having a menu heavy on pork. Thankfully (I thought at the time) I was able to convince people to go to Nomad, the "North African" place on 2nd Avenue since I wanted something a bit exotic (telling people it was like Moroccan was good enough justification). Nomad is not related to the NoMad hotel nor the synonymous neighborhood "NOrth of MADison square park". What I was going here for was its Algerian identity or at least that of its owners. Nomad is one of those restaurants in this city that hides behind a shroud of being referred to a regional: "Mediterrarean" or "North African". While it is most recognizably related to Moroccan, it is the first result in Google when you type in "Algerian food NYC". I'll tell you here I really wanted to like this place and when we ate the food was very good, perhaps even a bit heavier than Moroccan food I've had elsewhere (the chef is apparently Moroccan-born). So we got there with our reservation that turned out to be unnecessary on a Wednesday evening and started off with an appetizer of Nomad Trio Dip: crispy pita served with a choice of 3 dips: "hummus, cucumber yogurt, dry fava bean, muhamara, zaalouk, and babaghanoush and artichoke" from which we chose the hummus, cucumber yogurt, and muhamara, which is a dip made out of red peppers, so yes spicy. The pita was warm and soft and the dips thick and fresh as would be expected. For my main course, I was drawn to the lamb tajine ("braised lamb with prunes, caramelized onions and almonds, served with side of couscous") but obviously that wasn't enough, I had to go with the Couscous Royal (a big conglomeration: "lamb, chicken, merguez, and vegetables in a meat broth"). The tang that was with this broth and then soaked up by the couscous was excellent. And with the chickpeas and the lamb merguez was interesting, obviously a lot different than the veal sausages they make uptown at Heidelberg. Like I said, I wanted to like this place, especially since the inside is beautifully decorated, I was seriously contemplating it as a possible date spot in the future, quiet, intimate, not too crowded. But my opinion of Nomad would regrettably later be tarnished when I woke up the next day feeling worse than I could possibly ever remember. I'll spare most of the details, but I was affected for the entire day, with chills, vertigo, among other things, I napped during the day, and even tried to go to sleep earlier than usual to escape the dreadful day. By the middle of the next morning I was mostly fine again. I'm still not sure exactly what was the cause. I had no problems while out the rest of the night at the bar for trivia and none of the girls experienced any issues after their meals. All I know is that I am steering far clear of Nomad for the duration of my life. Out of 225 reviews on Yelp, only 1 makes mention of feeling sick afterwards. Not recommended, but if you desire Algerian food, do so at your own risk! Also, there is apparently another Algerian place in Astoria called Harissa Cafe though it seems like it is either closed or in the process of moving.