When I heard about Palmier Café from a store owner in the North End, my interest was stirred. So was my appetite, since I’d been trying to find a place for zesty Moroccan fare since I first moved to Boston and made the shocking discovery that the dinner menu at the legendary Casablanca doesn’t even offer couscous! So, in pursuit of sweetly seasoned soup, I hopped the Orange Line to Malden. I braced for disappointment as the café came into view: a caricature of a pasta-twirling Italian chef was painted on the window beside an image of a grinning guy leaning over a barbecue grill. "Mexican Grill" and "Mediterranean Food" were scribbled in big script around him. That’s a lot of territory to cover.

But I found the soup I was after, which eased those initial doubts of authenticity. Chili-like in its consistency, harira soup ($2.50) is a jumble of lentils and slim pasta pieces mingling with morsels of vegetables amid the sweetness of cinnamon and ginger and the tang of parsley and cilantro. The fusion of sweet and salty is also the trademark of msamen ($1.25), a square bread that puffs up on the griddle and is best described as a porous pancake.

Middle Eastern urges are also satisfied by any of the couscous platters ($5.99–$7.50), but as indicated by the illustrations on the window, somebody at the café has decided it might as well dabble in flavors far and wide, and offer equal-opportunity appetite fulfillment. There are burritos packed tight with everything from grilled veggies ($4.50) to barbecued chicken ($4.25), a standard assortment of deli-meat wraps ($4.50–$6), and pasta plates embellished with shrimp and roasted peppers ($7.50) or lemon chicken and mushrooms ($6.50).

There isn’t much bustle to be found outside the café, or even inside (unless you count the posters on the wall: illustrations of crowded, frenzied street scenes from Le Maroc), so it was tough to explain the tables cluttered with soiled plates. Maybe that’s why people trickled in to pick up dinner and bring home flavors of far away.

Palmier Café, located at 139 Pleasant Street, in Malden, is open Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Call (781) 338-9500.