Flavors and Culinary Traditions of North Africa and Mexico Combine Into Delicious and Vibrant Dishes
Medina – Moroccan Baja Kitchen is a beautiful fast-casual eatery recently opened in North Park by chef Alia Jaziri. Medina’s menu brings together traditional North African dishes that she grew up cooking alongside her father with flavors and ingredients from Baja California. Medina began as a food truck concept in San Francisco and later evolved and expanded to farmers markets and pop-ups in San Diego. Now, Medina boasts its first permanent location in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood.
Medina will soon become a local favorite because of their housemade merguez (spicy lamb) sausage – served in flatbread tacos or herbed couscous grain bowls. Medina’s family recipe for the sausage uses 80% lamb and 20% beef. The recipe came from Alia’s grandmother, passed down to her father and then to her, which each generation adding their own element to it. This smokey, earthy and spicy sausage is seasoned with cumin, fennel coriander as well as harissa (chili paste). For anyone new to the delicious sauce, harissa combines roasted red peppers, Baklouti pepper, serrano peppers, and other hot chili peppers, spices and herbs such as garlic paste, coriander seed, saffron, rose, or caraway.
Also notable is their shakshuka, a skillet dish of eggs poached North African-style in a smoky, spicy, vegetable-laden tomato sauce. There will also be vegetarian and vegan offerings such as the roasted sweet potato, grilled onion and black bean taco topped with fresh avocado salsa, as well as chicken options.
“In creating Medina, I envisioned bringing people together in a warm and welcoming space where they could feel comfortable yet also thrilled to experience something novel,” said Alia Jaziri, founder of Medina. “Medina is a reflection of me and my unique cultural upbringing. There’s nothing that excites me more than sharing a part of who I am with others, in hopes of spreading the passion that I have for these bold flavors and cultural traditions.”
Medina’s design is inspired by the energy of the medinas and souks found in Morocco and Tunisia with an ode to the taquerias of Southern California and Baja.
