For an antidote to straightlaced, straight backed dining, find a dim, curtained booth here and sprawl across the soft, luxurious cushions. After washing your hands -- Which will serve as your utensils -- in orange-blossom-scented water poured from a silver kettle, the choice is presented: will it be the multi-course Royal Feast or à la carte? Either way, don't dare miss the extraordinary North African appetizer on the menu, b'stillah-Cornish hen rich with saffron and almonds, enveloped in phyllo pastry, then dusted with sugar and cinnamon. Lamb tajine, the classic ginger-and-saffron-flavoured Moroccan stew baked in an earthen pot, comes here in three stylels: with olive and lemon, prune and almond, or seasonal vegetables. Couscous Fassi adorns semolina with chicken, raisins and chick-peas. For even more exotica, there's Cornish hen with pears in sesame-quinee sauce, or tender hare simmered in honey and tomoto. By the time you reach the final round of mint tea and pistachio-based pastries, you'll understand why a sultan might prefer to eat in a reclining position. -enRoute Magazine

Moroccan Delight Seduces
by Kathy Richardier, the Calgary Herald

My food mag, City Palate, is working on a Moroccan issue that will hit the streets at the end of February, and it seemed appropriate to visit one of our fine Moroccan restaurants and brush up on this aromatic, seductive cuisine.

The Moroccan Castle hasn't seen me in far too many years, so we paid a visit on a recent, frigid Friday. It was a good place to be when the wind was blowing a -30 outside; we found all the cosy warmth we needed from several gas fireplaces. In fact, once we got into the harissa, Castle warmed up a bit more than we needed.

Harissa is the ubiquitous fiery chilé paste serve traditionally with couscous, Castle's harissa was, thankfully, not so fiery as it was delightfully vegetative ... but it did warm us up. Here, it was served with one of our appetizers: merguez, a spicy sausage wrapped in phyllo, which really didn't need additional heat. But we were game ($5.75), and so we were as warm as we'd ever want to be.

The Moroccans love their vegetable salalds: a combination platter refreshes with beets and carrots spiked with cumin and cinnamon, corn, tomatoes and cukes, all dressed in lemon and olive oiil ($6.50). Yum. The savoury eggplant salad, a bit like a French ratatouille, is seasoned with cumin and paprika, served with olives and Moroccan flatbread ($8).

We also sampled the Castle's b'stilla, that miraculous pie-like concoction of chicken, almonds, eggs, onions, translucent sheets of phyllo, baked and dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon ($10.95). Seductive and sweet all at once, like home-made sin.

We loved our salads and sausages and sin. Chicken tajine is a Moroccan style stew made with preserved lemons and cracked green olives ($15). I have made this at home many times. It perfectly presents one of the best ingredients in Moroccan cooking: preserved lemons that provide a subtle, citrusy sparkle to a rustic dish.

The couscous royal (for two) is a feast of tender couscous grains topped with a generosity of merguez, chicken, shrimp and lamb, plus vegetables ($34). Even though there were three of us dining, we had leftovers. Both the couscous and the tajine were happily enhanced with harissa.

If the Midnight at the Oasis seduction of lushly draped tents, intimate plush bonquertes, low brass dining tables, and spicy, heady aromas appeals to you, but you are unfamiliar with Moroccan food, The Royal Feast ($29.95 per person) is gentle introduction. All you have to do is relax, sink into the soft cushions, and you will be lavishly cared for.