Gaze down at loaded dinner plates at Chicago’s Sicilian, Spanish and Moroccan restaurants and there’s a common thread spun from the pages of history: Each region was ruled by the Moors at some point, and the influence is clear.
Saffron, rice, eggplant, spinach, vinegar-marinated fish, sugar cane, almonds and pistachios are just a pinch of the many ingredients the Moors introduced to these cuisines. The complex lesson in world history plays out in North African, Andalusian and Sicilian cooking, if you know where to look.
In the Early Middle Ages after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 A.D., the Roman Byzantine empire was losing its territories in northwest Africa to the Omayyad caliphate, which was ruled from Damascus, Syria. Throughout the seventh century, the Omayyads expanded rapidly.
Many of the indigenous people of northwest Africa, who the Romans called Berbers, became Islamized and Arabized to various degrees as the Arabs integrated, marrying Berbers and building societies together. Soon, a combined Omayyad force of Arabs and Berbers — now known as the Moors — conquered Spain and Portugal. About a century later, the emirate of Sicily was declared.
Hundreds and hundreds of years later, the impact is still woven into flavors across a wide span of cuisines, including in dishes found at these five Chicago-area restaurants.
Shokran
“Arabs introduced dried fruits and possibly also the idea of sweet and savory cooking,” says Khalid Kamal, owner of Moroccan restaurant Shokran in the Old Irving Park neighborhood. As Arabic people arrived in Morocco, Algeria and other nations in what they called the Maghreb (“the west”), they found a vast region of already developed agriculture. Berber societies had kings who enjoyed fine dining, and local Jews and Christians incorporated their own culinary creativity.
Shokran’s chicken bastilla ($11) is like a time capsule from this period and the later Moor era. Described in 13th century Andalusian cookbooks and served at modern-day Moroccan weddings, the bastilla is a pie with shredded chicken cooked into a stew with onions, ginger, cinnamon and turmeric. The stew gets mixed with eggs, parsley, roasted almonds and orange blossom water. Stuffed into a phyllo shell, the bastilla then gets baked and sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar.
“Moroccan cuisine is built on slow cooking so the spices don’t burn and can release their flavors properly,” said Kamal, who grew up on a farm near Fez, in northern inland Morocco. He often watched his mother and her friends meet to drink tea and make couscous, rolling each tiny grain by hand. “The greatest challenge to getting these dishes right is the process,” he said.
4027 W. Irving Park Road, 773-427-9130, shokranchicago.com
Boqueria
In Spain, the Moors introduced pickling with vinegar, and if you go to Boqueria, a Spanish restaurant in the heart of the Fulton Market district, you can try white anchovy boquerones ($12). Other Moor-inspired tapas include pintxos morunos lamb kebabs ($15), the vegetarian escalivada ($15) with fire-roasted eggplant and labne yogurt, and roasted broccoli ($14) with almond ajo blanco, sumac, raisins and mint.
807 W. Fulton Market, 312-257-3177, boqueriarestaurant.com
La Vieja Castilla
Feel like you’ve wandered into the kitchen of a welcoming Castilian family at this south suburban Spanish restaurant, where paella is served sizzling hot and the sangria is strong. In Spanish, many Moorish dishes and ingredients begin with the letter A: arroz (rice), aceituna (olives), and also albóndigas (meatballs), which you’ll find at both Boqueria ($17) and La Vieja Castilla in Blue Island ($8).
13023 S. Western Ave., Blue Island; 708-577-4578; facebook.com/LaViejaCastillaBlueIsland
Bocadillo Market
At Bocadillo Market in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, chef James Martin offers tuna crudo with a harissa citrus vinaigrette ($19), and almond pie with pickled cranberries ($12).
“The Arabic-Berber flavors bring me a lot of the passion, and the history helps me cook this food because of that African influence,” Martin said. “These flavors can go in so many different ways, whether it’s delicate airy tuna or hearty smoked lamb ribs.”
Sicily is such a melting pot — with descendants from mainland Italy and Greece; Arabs; Berbers who converted to Islam; and exiled Jews from Andalusia — that just like with Moroccan cuisine, it’s difficult to pull apart this interwoven fabric of ethnicities to tell who contributed which thread.
“Many groups influenced Spanish cooking, but Moors have the heaviest concentrated influence because of all the ingredients they brought and how they advanced things like olive oil production,” Martin said. “They learned how to preserve fish many centuries before refrigeration, and now we create that as a luxury. This culture ate well, and healthy.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find another region in Italy that uses mint as liberally in pastas and meats. Eggplant caponata or sardines with pine nuts, raisins and saffron are striking examples of “agrodolce” (sour and sweet). Jasmine water is used in granitas and watermelon puddings. Marsala and its wine are named after “the port of Allah” (Marsa Allah), and the wine is found in rich sauces and the dessert zabaglione.
2342 N. Clark St., 773-857-0331, bocadillomarket.com
Sfera Sicilian Street Food
Even arancini, the bread crumb-battered and fried rice balls that you’ll find at Sfera Sicilian Street Food ($9), date to the 10th century, when the Kalbid dynasty ruled Sicily.
Sfera, which is run by chefs Steven Jarczyk and Daniela Vitale, has kept operations lean during the pandemic, focusing on pop-ups. This spring, however, they opened a bricks-and-mortar takeout spot with a small counter in Edgewater.
“We’re excited to expand our ingredients in ways we haven’t had the space to do before, so you’ll see dishes with pomegranate, mint-infused juices, cassata cake and more,” Jarczyk said.
847-957-3045, sferachicago.com
Nikki O’Neill is a freelance writer.
