Over the summer, my friends and I decided to brave the heat and trotted along for a Moroccan holiday. We knew there would be lots of stories to tell upon our return, judging from the lack of competency at the visa office in London. Yes, don’t worry, for those of you whose passports are currently in the hands of a Moroccan man who wrote you a ‘confirmation slip’ – IN HAND on a piece of torn up A4 size paper, you will see your passports again.
Being the victims of a 6am flight, we immediately checked into our hotels, applied bottles of sunscreen and proceeded to find some food.
Djemaa el-Fna – The infamous market square filled with endless amounts of orange juices, leather goods, silverware…and SNAKES – yuck. I am TERRIFIED of snakes and till this day I still think that the cause of my gastric attack at our first meal wasn’t caused by the early morning flight but by the sight of those slithering black creatures. First up we took up the advice of the concierge at the hotel and went to this place that was set on the brink of the market. We were taken upstairs and sat by the windows and enjoyed the humidity.
As it was lunch, the menus were limited, so some of us ordered lamb tagines with tomatoes and caramelised onions, some of us had shish kebab with lamb. After the first half, my gastric had kicked in so I had to be put into a cab, sent home to the hotel along with some people who were glad to go back to an air-conditioned room.
I was feeling a lot better by dinner time and because of the fact that lots of restaurants are closed in the summer, we had booked us a table at Dar Marjana. This is one of those places that gives you a proper taste of the Moroccan culture. We were first ushered to a table in the courtyard, and were promptly asked for drink orders. This is one of those times where curiosity got the best of me and so I ordered the ‘homemade rum’. Uh huh, homemade alright. I couldn’t quite figure what it tasted like but decided to not be rude and gulped down half a glass of the potion. At this point in time we were starving and were brought into a dimly lit room with about 4 tables in it. The tables had flower petals all over it and right in the middle, they had used red sequins to shape the initials of R – who booked the table for us. I could go on with the rose water washing of hands, belly dancing, and mint tea. But here are some snapshots of the food. They basically served us about 12 starters, chicken tagine, pigeon pastilla (some sort of pigeon pie), couscous with vegetables, sweet pastilla etc.
The pastilla was my favourite. It was served as pictured above, then some form of milk(not too sure I wanna know where the milk was from) was poured over it, broken down into smaller pieces, and served. Yummy! I promise to put down rough estimates of prices next time as a guideline – but I hope to be let of the hook as this was some time ago
Day2 – If memory serves me right, the morning was spent in the
Marjorelle Gardens and then exploring the new part of town and then – lunch at
Grande Cafe de la Poste. Food was ok-ish which explains the lack of photos except for this pineapple, mango and chocolate mousse! Just the right thing for the hot hot heat.
After lunch, we went on to the Bahia Palace and baked in the open area of the El Badi Palace. At this point in time, we were pretty much ready to dive into the first pool we saw and thank goodness our hotel wasn’t too far away. Soon, it was dinner time! Due to very awesome planning, we got ourselves a table at
Le Foundouk. However, the journery there wouldn’t be describe as ‘awesome’. We were a group of 7, hence always had to travel in 2 or 3 cabs and let me tell you, Moroccan cabbies are like vultures! They are conmen! Do not every get into a cab without first agreeing on the price. So we were driving through a meat market in the evening where all of a sudden, the cab stops right by the meat stall and says ’you are here! This man will take you’. Of course at this point, a man in a suspicious white hooded robe is standing right outside the cab and we had no choice but to get out. This man had a lantern in his hand and he led us through the back lanes of the market. REALLY DODGY. Finally, we got to this big wooden door, and was led to the roof top of this massive riad. Up here, it was a completely different scene from the chaotic market below. If you’re coming to Marrakech for a night or 2, I would highly recommend this place, just to compare the vast differences of this city. Food in restaurants are generally french influenced and they usually serve both traditional Moroccan food and french food as well. Below are some pictures of what I remember to be a mixed grill kebab, a strawberry millfeuille and a pistachio Crème brulée.
Day3 – Till this day, we are absolutely stunned by what we have achieved on that day. Some may say climbing Mount Everest was the biggest challenge of their lives, some might say that climbing the Atlas Mountains was – it is all relative ok. Plus, us girls were totally unprepared for such an adventure, and turned up in skirts and flip flops. That day, FH tripped and grabbed the tiniest person in the group – Dutch Ladee(a.k.a PastaMasta), and owed her his life ever since. Below is a picture of the locals, running down a 85 degrees slope rather effortlessly. We were quite the opposite, trying to get up that wall.
As this was our last night, we decided to go all local and went to the market square to have some hawker delicacies. It was really crowded and the stalls were serving pretty much the same food comprising of, fried calamari, roasted aubergines, harrissa soup…etc. You basically either ordered it from the menu on your table or went to the stall and pointed at whatever looked decent, and they’d heat it up in a frying pan and served it to you. On each table were thick round bread buns which I used as a serving plate, as we weren’t given any.
All in all, Marrakech was a pretty adventurous trip. Would I go again? Yes, maybe..to Fez perhaps next time.
Photos are courtesy of the Canadian Cream Puff, R and myself.
