Monticello Real Estate recently had its holiday celebration at Tara Kitchen in downtown Troy. You can watch the video below to learn more about the restaurant and the type of food that is served.

Tara Kitchen started when owners Owners Aneesa Waheed and Muntasim Shoaib met in Marrakech, Morocco and after a whirlwind romance, were married.  They left their desert paradise for Aneesa’s hometown of Schenectady—and brought with them their love of Morocco’s rich cuisine and culture. In Tara Kitchen, the only Moroccan restaurant in the capital district, they share that love with a loyal and growing clientele. The couple opened the restaurant in 2012, after nearly three years of offering authentic ethnic food in the Schenectady and Troy farmers markets. Aneesa creates exotic yet accessible dishes—from fragrant tagines to delicious couscous—infused with the complex blend of spices and ingredients unique to Moroccan food. After receiving numerous requests for sauces to cook with at home, Aneesa created the Tara Kitchen line of distinctive jarred sauces that are free of gluten, nuts, soy, dairy, sesame and in some cases, salt and oil. They are available now on our website and at select Northeast Whole Foods stores, Price Chopper, Niskayuna Food CoOp and Honest Weight Food CoOP.

Aneesa explains the type of food they have as a stew. She explains, “Dinner we do it in a tajine, which is an urban pot with a lid. They are basically stews. So we put the fruits and the savory elements, the meat, the spices,, and we put them in this little pot and cook them on the stove and it goes out to the customer in this tajine.”

Tara Kitchen also offers cooking classes. Aneesa explains, “We do the cooking classes in the Schenectady location, and they are designed to teach people an introduction to Moroccan food, Moroccan ingredients, and how to cook in tajine. A lot of the stuff that we use to cook – you already have in your house and you choose what you want to do. Everyone can take the class and the ingredients are there and I help you create the meal that you would want to make.”

For more information, call 518-708-3485 or visit http://www.tarakitchen.com/