Like many fellow townies, I'm not much for change. Now I'm not talking about coins; I love coins, and saving change has basically turned into my income in college - I've used the Coinstar at the townie Foodmaster on Route 16 more than I've used a real bank.
No, I'm talking about trying new things - it's never been at the top of my to-do list.
That's especially true when it comes to food and restaurants. I like steak, pizza, pasta, chicken fingers, burgers and french fries. It was a big deal when I started ordering kabob salads, and half the reason I did it was to make jokes about my first name and pita bread (I am the best Pita in Medford).
That's why taking my girlfriend to a Moroccan hookah restaurant in Charlestown called Tangierino last week was such a big step outside my comfort zone.
Last week was "Restaurant Week" in Boston, where one can make reservations at any of Boston's trendiest and nicest restaurants for a fraction of the normal price. It's basically a townie discount week without the coupons, and I wanted to take full advantage.
My brother had suggested this place to me, and I decided I wanted to go at the off chance that "hookah" was actually just "hooker" in a Charlestown accent, because no townie would turn down a chance to go to a restaurant full of hookers.
Truthfully, I knew absolutely nothing about Moroccan food, and my only real contact with that culture was when I worked in the meat freezer of a deli in high school and the three chefs in the kitchen were all Moroccan immigrants. They gave me free chicken parm as long as I was their lookout when they went to smoke cigarettes behind the dumpster in the parking lot, so needless to say, we were all close buddies.
When we showed up at the restaurant, I thought it'd be a lot easier and classier to take advantage of the valet parking. It cost $15 to park a car ... that's a Natty Light 30 pack and I haven't even stepped in the restaurant. Not a great start.
The interior design of the restaurant quickly made me forget about the valet rip-off. I was a townie sultan entering an Arabian palace.
In lieu of chairs, there were plush couches, and I obviously spent most of the night lying back like I was in my own TV room watching "24," although I wouldn't have been too comfortable seeing Jack Bauer in a Moroccan restaurant, because that would mean that bad things were about to go down.
The entertainment in the restaurant was top-notch as well. There were no hookers like I had hoped, but Tangierino redeemed itself with an exotic belly dancer. I'm not going to lie though, it's a little awkward going out to eat with your girlfriend and having a hot, half-naked woman shake her butt inches away from your plate at the hopes of getting a tip ... but it is still awesome.
The menu itself was borderline frightening. I went with a lemon chicken dish and a spicy shrimp starter, easily the safest two dishes they had, and I was thrilled that they didn't lead to a night in the men's room. I ended with an unbelievably good chocolate souffl?©, but felt like something was amiss because they didn't have any milk on tap to wash down the tasty treat.
I think I was the only person in the place to order a normal beer (Amstel Light, which is basically champagne to a townie but was ironically the cheapest beer they had).
Once dinner was over, I thought it'd be a good idea to stay adventurous and head to the restaurant's famed Casbah Lounge where one can order more drinks and a hookah with an eclectic assortment of tobacco flavors to choose from (we got apple and it was delicious).
I really couldn't get enough of the hookah/hooker joke for the night, even venturing to make a joke to our waitress when we were ready to leave: "Yeah, we just killed our hooker."
She wasn't amused so I kept my next beer order of a "genie in a bottle" joke to myself.
Overall, I'd say I had a very good time out on this date, because it gave me a chance to expand my horizons past the borders of sweet Medford and Somerville. Granted the restaurant was in Charlestown, but the experience of eating at Tangierino felt like being transported to another culture at another time - a big step for this townie.
So the next time you're thinking of places to take your girlfriend or paid escort, think Tangierino. It has this townie's stamp of approval, and they didn't even have a kid's menu.
Pete McKeown is a senior majoring in English. He can be reached at
peter.mckeown@tufts.edu.
