Morocc Steady

Argan Moroccan Cuisine

by Trey Popp

"C'est la vache," the bus conductor said, holding out his sandwich for me to try, but the filling did not look like beef to me. We were halfway between the Atlas Mountains and the Algerian border. The wind coming off the desert was almost hot enough to burn paper. The man searched for another word, balled his hand into a round fist, and hit upon the French one for twins. He smiled as my face registered the epiphany, and again when I chomped off a bite.

So it is that the words "Moroccan sandwich" have always thrown me back to two sensations: the scorch of that Saharan breeze on my skin, and the unexpectedly mellow flavor of sliced bull testicle.

Both of those memories could hardly have been further from my mind when I dropped into Argan at 17th and Sansom. For one thing, the wind was hurling snow at about 20miles per hour. And although owner Mounir Draissi has meatballs, they aren't the literal kind.

So it was a pleasant surprise to discover how well Morocco's lunch fare adapts to the Philadelphia winter. Draissi, an architect from Casablanca who shifted to the restaurant business when he moved to Philadelphia some years ago, has worked all over town: from Tangerine to Cuba Libre to Bonté, now a neighbor. At Argan, he bakes his own semolina flatbread, gets his merguez sausage custom-made by a halal butcher in the Northeast and squeezes his own orange juice.

The golden-hued bread is packed to the bursting point with the North African equivalent of a Southern meat-and-three plate. Hot fillings range from stew-tender lamb to perfectly spiced meatballs and come with a trio of veggies — green beans, zucchini, carrots, splendid stewed white beans and half a dozen other options.

There's not quite the heaping volume of cumin that typifies so much street food in Morocco, but Draissi gets the chili-pepper heat just right: a haunting rather than an overpowering flavor. His chilled salads also make for solid side dishes or vegetarian sandwich bases — the zaalouk with its sweet roasted eggplant; the shakshuka heavy with bell peppers.

Draissi has plans to add a dinner menu and bid for a slice of the BYO trade. I hope he does. His Moroccan sandwiches may not be quite as ballsy as the ones on the road to the Sahara, but they're a welcome addition to a somewhat tonier neighborhood.

(t_popp@citypaper.net)

Argan Moroccan Cuisine | 132 S. 17th St., 215-568-8354

Hours: Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; closed Sun.

Sandwiches, salads, sides: $4-$8