Kaz An Nou is cozy restaurant in Prospect Heights serving French Caribbean food. It looks like a mom & pop restaurant, a warm ambience served by a charming afro'd owner with a killer smile and Caribbean accent. Considering that the meats are antibiotic free, the prices are very good, and it's BYOB with no corking fee.We saw several people run out to the wine store down the block.
There is a token vegetarian ratatouille dish, but the meaty dishes are the stars here. For appetizers, we shared the Tatin D' Abricot et Foie Gras ($8) and Escargots($7). It was my first time having escargots and foie gras. (I've been eating more unusual animal proteins lately!) I love apricots, so I knew I would like the honeyed apricot slices, but I was hesitant about the foie gras garnish. Yes, I'm aware of the ethical quandaries of the liver specialty produced by force-feeding the geese. But I scooped it up and savored the resulting buttery, rich, fatty foie gras that complemented the fruit. The tender escargot was doused in a spicy, pesto-like green garlic curry sauce and tasted to me like terrestrial clams, nestling in the hollows of a dish that looked like a mini devil's egg earthenware plate. I forgot to take photos of these dishes! There was also a bread basket with a light olive oil that was noteworthy on its own.
For entrees, C got the Agouolu ($12), a West Indian style burger topped with mushrooms and swiss cheese. It was juicy, accompanied with crisp fries. I got the Dombres Crevettes($14), traditional Guadeloupe shrimp and dumplings. The dish looked more like a soup, with large fresh shrimp and "dumplings" of little gnocchi-like potato balls swimming in a bowl of an unexpectedly spicy, savory broth that was like gumbo. F got the best dish, the Magret et Maracudja ($16), a smoked duck breast with passion fruit glaze and mashed yams. The sweet glaze on the duck was delicious over the tender dark duck meat with a crisped skin that slid easily from the bone and I kept reaching over to pick at her plate.
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| Dombres Crevettes: Guadeloupe Shrimp and Dumplings |
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| Magret et Maracudja: Smoked Duck with Passion Fruit glazed and Yams |
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| Angalou ($12): West Indian style Burger with mushrooms |
Of course, we saved room for dessert from a rotating menu: a signature molten chocolate cake($6) served warm, moist with a spiced compote, a warm apple pie($6) with large chunks of apple and a delectable coconut flan($6). The flan was infused with flecks of coconut that lingered on our tongue after we eagerly scooped the silken flan. I wanted an entire coconut flan pie. After scraping the dessert dishes clean and gulping the last of our 3 bottles of wine, we left as happy clams.
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| Coconut Flan! |
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| Warm, spicy molten chocolate cake |
