Guide helps people find their way through Somali cuisine

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Most Wisconsinites never will travel to Somalia, a wartorn and now — yet again — a drought-tormented land. Some of Somalia’s good people, fleeing
the havoc of their country, have found a haven in Barron. That’s lucky for all of us.

By calling their new restaurant “KalKaal” — “help” or “support” in Somali — owners Sharif Ahmed and Ahmed Igale proudly named their goals: to support Barron’s Somali community and help its members
maintain their cultural identity.

But kalkaal means “service” too.
The restaurant also aims to serve the entire Barron community by sharing good Somali food with everyone.

It’s working! About half the customers are Somali, half non-Somali.

During three visits, we tasted almost everything on the menu. Here’s a guide to getting the best from a trip to KalKaal.

In the Horn of Africa, meals are made of staple starches — breads, rice, pasta, cornmeal — topped with meat, beans, eggs, fish or vegetables.

At breakfast, 7 to 11 a.m., the starches are three excellent breads, all made in-house. “Jabati” is the Indian “chappati,”
a supple flatbread of unleavened wheat. The bread called
simply “bread” on the menu betrays the influence of
Somalia’s colonizers: It’s a classic Italian loaf with a cottony
crumb and soft crust. The Somali “Anjera” is a thin, elastic,
pancakelike bread, lacy with little bubbles and slightly sweet.

Although silverware is provided, try eating Somali-style —
with your fingers. Tear off a small triangle of bread; use it to
capture toppings and convey them to your mouth. Doing this
expertly takes practice, but it’s a sensual and satisfying way to
eat. (Somali custom is to wash hands before and after eating —
a sink at the back of the restaurant is for that purpose — and
never to lick one’s fingers at table, especially if sharing food.)

All breakfast toppings are very good to excellent. Eggs are
scrambled with bits of green pepper, onion, garlic, herbs and
tomatoes. “Fuul” — Audrey’s favorite vegetarian dish ever —
offers meltingly tender crushed beans in a silken sauce enriched
by garlic, cilantro and onions. Beef and chicken stews — “Sukhaar” in Somali — unite al dente vegetables, herbs and
diced roasted meat rubbed with cardamom and turmeric in a little
clear broth. Liver lovers must try the exceptionally gentle-tasting goat liver, cooked just until tender with onions and much cilantro.

All food at KalKaal is prepared mild. Heat-lovers need the "Basbaas” — say “bahsbess” — one of the world’s best hot sauces. A thin, lightly pulpy blend of jalapeños, cilantro, garlic
and lemon, it’s salty and herbal with an electric back-of-the-
throat burn that subsides quickly.

Meals at KalKaal include a beverage. Don’t miss the sweet tea; it’s rich with cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. And try the superb smoothie made of high-quality mango pulp and cool water.

KalKaal serves all lunch and dinner dishes from 11 a.m. to 10
p.m.

Four new starches become available at lunch: wonderful,
aromatic Basmati rice perfumed with cinnamon and cardamom
pods; thin and intensely flavorful spaghetti coated with traces
of curry powder, garlic, cilantro and Parmesan cheese; dense
Cream-of-Wheat-like cornmeal mush — “Soor” — that was too
dry and bland for us; and tangy Ethiopian Anjera flatbread, like
Somali Anjera but made of sourdough batter.

The Ethiopian Anjera comes topped with vegetables and stew. If you crave authenticity, have yours cooked with the Anjera hot sauce, made of broth, ground hot peppers and vegetables. “KK” — KalKaal’s best-selling dish — mixes stew with chopped jabati bread in place of noodles. It’s moist, tasty, comforting — we adore it.

Lunch and dinner starches may be ordered topped with meat; choices include plaincooked chicken legs, goat and “steak.” Roasted bone-in, the goat meat has more flavor and less intramuscular fat than chicken and will please any fan of beef or lamb; trim each cube before eating. The steak is thinsliced beef steeped in soy sauce, garlic, cumin and curry. It’s nearly jerkylike and needs vigorous chewing, but the flavor is worth the work.

On weekends, KalKaal also serves chunks of camel meat marinated in curry and cumin, then roasted. A favorite of many Somalis, camel has the slightly rough texture of a beef shoulder roast — with less cholesterol — and a pleasant taste not far from
lamb.

Call KalKaal a day in advance to specify what you’d like to eat. To sample many different dishes at once, try “Sport” (for two people, $17) or “Federation” (for two to four people, $20). Each offers two to three starches, three to five meat dishes and salad. We recently enjoyed a fine Federation with spaghetti, rice, steak, chicken Sukhaar and goat.

We invited co-manager Mohai Ahmed to send a message about KalKaal to non-Somalis.

“When I came to the U.S. five years ago,” he said, “I didn’t
know American foods, but now I like them. Somali food is different,
but please come try it. I think you’ll like it!”

We do too.