San Francisco is great for food and more- An American Iron beaten tonight

I love San Francisco. I have been here for some conferences, traveling and a NASA conference. After the conference day events, I would walk down to the warf and either eat Thai or something on the way or at the warf. I have some reviews already from restaurants I have tried. But one that I would like to try it I ever come to SF is Aziza, rated #1 in Morocco in the area. It's head chef is

Iron Chef America battle against this chef who focuses on Morocco food, rated #1 in SF area by Urbanspoon
I love when I hear that chef Mourad Lahlou did not start out wanting to be a chef and then changed. This chef was an economist first. See more about his background (very interesting)
http://www.aziza-sf.com/about_us.html
He would go up against Iron Chef Cat Cora in a redfish (once popularly known in Cajun dishes)
Then I saw it is #1 in SF Morocco ethnic restaurants.
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/6/80587/restaurant/Richmond/Aziza-San-Francisco
http://www.aziza-sf.com/

regular menu
http://www.aziza-sf.com/dinner_&_sweets.html
review from SF review
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/25/DD6H15UVPR.DTL&feed=rss.entertainment

But then back to the battle. I always watch intently to see what they are making and of course what happens when the meals were presented. Both competitors had good plating. I thought that Lahlou had good balance of acidity in some dishes but lost points as to taste. They were both original. I thought Cora was ahead on originality and different types of food. She got shot down for a redfish beignet because being fried it was not original enough.
I picked Cora by +2. I am usually right on or one or two away from the winner side. However, I was wrong but was was glad to see that Lahlou won and killed her +7 . So I was off by 9 which way off for me. Still let's say I am glad he won.
The outcome was
Cora Lahlou
______________________
taste 23 26
______________________
plating 11 14
______________________
originality 11 12
______________________
45 52

I hope to go his place someday. If any of you try his place, send me a buzz and let me know.

Hot Stuff: Cookbook in praise of the piquant - book has great recipes

I bought this book in paperback after 1985 (copyright 1985). This tiny book has 307 pages and a nice index. It was a small book then but now is a hardcover. But I really like many of the recipes. This author, Jessica B. Brown knows here stuff.
Recently I tried

a Morrocan dish called Saalouk Salad. Easy to make I made the dish which has has eggplant (I used Japanese long eggplants which my wife found were less bitter then regular eggplants ; garlic salt, paprika, tomatoes, and red hot chilies (I used red pepper flakes). It normally used zucchini but I left those out. Nice dish, not to fussy to make at and has a nice flavor and little kick to it. Great side dish.
PS if you want the full recipe contact me and I will post it on the blog for everyone

http://www.amazon.ca/Hot-Stuff-Cookbook-Praise-Piquant/dp/0689114834