A visit to Morocco - picture show Community Forums - p1

A visit to Morocco - picture show

Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:50 pm

Food.com Groupie

It seems fitting to share my recent trip to Morocco as part of ZWT3. My idea for this trip germed from the first ZWT.

I am fortunate to work at a small college where the food service has been owed and operated by two talented men both natives of Morocco. Our regular menu is peppered with dishes such as lemon chicken with olives and harrira. For a decade we have often talked food and I have frequently shared with them some of my favorite Recipezaar recipes.

The first Tour gave me a chance to actually prepare dishes not just from Morocco but from all over the region. I was hooked and often shared my lunches with them to get ideas about their authenticity and how they could be made even better. It was Sackville's Moroccan Chicken and Date Tagine that one pronounced superb and worthy of any Moroccan kitchen. Given my interest, they began teaching me to make other dishes. Eventually, they equiped me with my own tagine, spices purchased in Fes and Casablanca, and running commentary about the dishes. One friend joked that if I was serious, I needed to go to Morocco and learn from his mother. The offer was genuine and a year later I did.

Part of my trip was spent visiting the Imperial cities, Rabat, Meknes, Casablanca, Fes and Marrakech, each of which was the nation's capital in one era or another. The cities are geographically, socially, economically distinct and reflect the history of the country. The other part was spent in Fes with the family of my friend. Much of my time was spent in the kitchen with the women of his family, traveling to the market, walking around the principal boulevard downtown and taking in the city from the vantage those who live there.

Enough with the words, time for pictures:

Rabat and Sal�

Outside the old medina in Rabat.
Each of the original cities was contained and secured by a fortress wall to ward off invaders. Today, they contain vibrant communities with active commerce. Old and new medina is a common way to delineate the part of town to which one refers.

Beaches are popular in coastal cities and towns like Sal�.

Passing through Sal�
The contrast between old and new, modern and traditional was a recurring theme in my travels.

Hassan Tower

Stairs outside the Mausoleum of Hassan II
One of the striking aspects of the visit was the sheer beauty of traditional Moroccan crafts -- mosiac, metal, textiles, etc. --displayed in the smallest of details.

Meknes

The road inland from Rabat to Meknes takes one through he lush agricultural region of the country. Olives, oranges, corn, onions, zucchini and all kinds of produce are abundant. Wafting smells from the press of olives for oil make the journey (for this foodie) rather pleasant. The climate is much like that of California's Napa Valley and their is a growing number of vineyards in the area.

Moroccan flatbread
A flatbread which is freshly prepared in many caf�s, the name sounds like melowi or halowi. Thin layers of dough are stretched paper thin and folded on each other to create layers that are then pan fried or cooked in liberal amounts of oil and butter. Cooked plain it is served with liberal amounts of honey. Other versions are made with fried onions or bits of dried beef cooked between the layers.

Fes

Urban and metropolitan Fes is a beautiful city of just over a million people. The old medina is vast and divided up into sections which all of which have large commercial areas. The streets deep inside the the medina are too old, narrow and steep for cars so donkeys, mules, horses and carts are still used to transport goods.

A trip to the old medina

The sound is rhythmic

Tannery

Berber rugs for sale

Brilliant colored textiles

Wood shavings from craftsman are used to heat hammans.

Sampling dried fruits

Located in the mountains an hour from Fes is a lovely resort town called Ifrain. Architecturally, it has been designed to resemble a Swiss village and features sking in the winter. In the summers the town serves as a cool weekend retreat for folks from the city.