After our first couple weeks in Marrakech and indulging in a few of the highly-rated restaurants in town, we felt pretty good about our Moroccan culinary experience. Little did we know that we had just begun to scratch the surface. I am so happy that I came across Marrakech Food Tours during one of my days searching travel blog websites for tips on Morocco. Amanda and Youssef, also known as MarocMama and MarocBaba to the travel blog world, took us on a fun and informative tour around the Marrakech medina exploring Moroccan cuisine and learning about Moroccan life and food culture.
First, we went on their gourmet food tour that highlights foods that are typical for celebrations and special events and not normally found on restaurant menus. This food tour is a progressive dinner with each course being at a different riad, so we got to see the inside of some of the most beautiful old buildings renovated into boutique hotels in the medina. Most of these raids are reserved for guest-only dining, so we were very fortunate that they prepared these specialty foods exclusively for our tour group. And all of this awesomeness while being driven around the medina in a cute little tuk-tuk.
Our first stop was for a fun little amuse-bouche and an appetizer at MK Maison. Does Jimmy have good taste or what? He definitely got props for finding a riad that even locals consider one of the best! (Hint: This is where we went for our 12th anniversary dinner as discussed in Part 1 of our Moroccan Cuisine blog) The amuse-bouche consisted of dates, orange-blossom almond milk, harira, and chbekiya.
Dates are the quintessential Moroccan fruit and hundreds of stands can be found selling them throughout the medina. Sadly, we hadn’t actually had one since we arrived in Marrakech. And man, we realized that we had been missing out! A perfect combination of sweet and chewy. Dates and orange-blossom almond milk are a symbol of new life and love and are traditionally served together at Moroccan weddings to the bride and groom as well as the guests. In addition, dates are often the first food eaten to break the fast during Ramadan. Harira, a hearty tomato-based spicy soup, and chbekiya, a fried rose-shaped cookie coated with honey and sprinkled with sesames, are also included in this evening meal. Talk about a sugar rush after fasting all day!! (Notice the difference in texture and color between the traditional harira served during the tour and the one that I mentioned during our modern tasting at the same riad in Part 1 of the blog). We also had our appetizer here, a seafood pastilla, which is not as common as the pigeon pastilla and much more difficult to get right. Amanda told us that she scoured the city, and MK Maison makes one of the best.
Our next stop was at Riad Quara to sample traditional Moroccan salads. We knew we were in for a treat the moment we walked in the door. Stunning décor.
We ate on the rooftop and dined on TWELVE different salads! Amanda said that the host normally makes eight, but I guess she was in the cooking mood today. The lighting was a bit tough as we were dining by moonlight, but here is an example of a selection of what we were served.
Our favorites were a stewed eggplant and tomato salad, baked cauliflower with cumin, sweet caramelized carrots, and breaded zucchini.
Our main dish was served at Riad ZamZam where I really fell in love with the Moroccan lamps and realized that I totally would have bought one of these if we were actually heading back to a home in the near future. But, we are enjoying our world travel a bit too much, so I will have to return to Marrakech for a lamp someday when we settle down and need to start buying decorations again. I couldn’t believe the gorgeous designs these created on the walls and ceilings and thought these were quite possibly the finest examples that I had seen while in Morocco. All the hallways and even the guest bedrooms and bathrooms were decorated with these lamps creating a magical ambiance and heavenly glow throughout the riad.
The courtyard had a giant 100+-year-old palm tree reaching up above the rooftop lined with pretty twinkling lights. We were told that it is illegal to cut down palm trees, so they had to build the riad around it. We all agreed that this added to the ambiance and was a good thing that the tree was not removed.
Our main entree was a special tajine, an orange-almond chicken tajine, that Amanda told us is a secret recipe and difficult to reproduce. The caramelized orange-almond reduction was divine. I could have just eaten that alone with a spoon.
At this point, I was getting pretty full and wished I could have eaten more. Now, I dream of the day I may get this delicious tajine again. Hopefully I can find someone with the skill to pull this one off. Or perhaps stay at this riad when I come back to buy my Moroccan lamp.
Finally, we were off to Riad Mur Akush for our dessert. Their courtyard also had tall palm trees sweeping up to the rooftop with another gorgeous Moroccan lantern casting a soft light on the water trickling from the fountain in the wall.
We were escorted to the roof and served quite possibly the biggest surprise of the night. A giant plate of Seffa!!
Seffa consists of vermicelli noodles with raisins, currants, and almonds hidden inside and topped with cinnamon, powdered sugar, crushed almonds, and stuffed dates. Wow! This was so unique…a pasta dessert. And so delicious! Somehow, our second “dessert” stomach opened up, and we stuffed ourselves silly and still barely put a dent in this giant plate. Seffa is normally served in this giant family-style presentation for big celebrations. Amanda told us that her kids always request this for their birthdays! How fun!
After an amazing culinary tour of gourmet, special-event food in gorgeous riads, Jimmy and I were waddling back to our AirBnB when I got a brilliant idea. “Do you want to do this again next week?” We loved this experience so much that we decided to go on their street food tour the following week! We knew that wandering the medina and trying to find the best (and safest) street food would probably not turn out well for us. We were planning to try out the famous street stalls at the main square Jemaa el Fna, but Amanda told us that technically those are more of a show for tourists and not where the locals go for good food. So, a few days later, we met Youssef at the main square in the medina, bypassed the “famous” street stalls, and were off for a whole new adventure into the real street food world. Instead of fancy celebration food, we were going to learn about the favorite foods that the locals eat every day while getting a little history about the area too.
Our first stop was a little hole in the wall in a back corner of the medina that we would have never found on our own. No signs. No menu. But, the woman that runs this little restaurant is a legend in the medina and called Mom of the Souks because she feeds all the men and women that are working long hours in the medina. During lunchtime, the place is bustling with activity as people come to pick up their orders. At dinnertime, we had a quiet table to ourselves. She treated us to a time-consuming special dish, corn couscous with steamed veggies. Unlike the more common semolina couscous, corn couscous is generally saved for special occasions. Again, this was a special treat for us because this isn’t commonly found on the menus in Morocco. Originally, the corn couscous was the only thing planned for this stop. However, the woman heard us discussing her harira soup because it is one of the staples ordered by the locals, so she generously brought each of us a giant bowl. And she couldn’t stop there. Then, she brought us dessert…a deliciously sweet pomegranate overflowing with juicy, plump seeds. I had never seen pomegranate like this back in the US that you can just take a giant bite out of. Oh, man. Our stomachs were in trouble if this was only the first stop!
Luckily, Youssef gave us time to digest by taking us on a leisurely walk through the medina with some stops to visit local food artisans to learn more about the daily life of the people. First, we stopped in to visit the neighborhood breadmaker.
This guy tends to the huge underground oven behind him making hundreds of loaves of bread every day to feed the neighborhood. Those giant wooden planks are used to maneuver the bread in/out of the massive brick oven. This Moroccan-style wood-fired pita bread is called khoobz and is a staple food in the Marrakech diet. Youssef told us that the breadmaker gets to know everybody in the neighborhood really well and often helps play matchmaker when the single Moroccans are looking to settle down. Think of him as the local “match.com” prior to on-line dating.
Next, we stopped in to visit the guy that keeps the fire going underneath the local hammam. Even more importantly given that we were on a food tour, he also helps with cooking of the traditional Tangia, a dish that is buried under the hot coals in an earthen pot and slow-cooked to perfection. More on this dish later. Here he is showing off his pots of Tangia.
We then made a quick “unofficial” stop at a small pop-up stand in one of the small squares of the medina. Youssef wanted to give us a chance to try some “freaky foods” if we wanted. Snails! We’ve had snails before in France, smothered in butter and garlic, in a nice restaurant, but we were hesitant about “street-food” snails. We just had to get over the idea in our heads. We are so glad that we did because they were surprisingly delicious. These snails were cooked in a well-seasoned broth, so just like the concept behind the butter/garlic in France, the snails soak up the delicious spices and taste just like what you cook them in.
After a nice cultural lesson and slow walk through the medina, we were ready for our “second” food stop. Youssef told us that this was his favorite hangout when he was younger. He would pre-party with his friends here before going out for the evening. The little sandwich shop is extremely popular with the locals, so others are trying to copy the idea. But, we got to try the original…THE sardine burger. Um? What!?!? We were a bit nervous about this one and thought that we might have to force it down to be polite.
We all took a hesitant bite and then looked at each other inquisitively. He did say sardine burger, right? This burger was absolutely delicious. Chargrilled to perfection with onions, olives, and harissa stuffed inside the traditional wood-fired Moroccan bread. We were actually bummed that we took this tour on our last weekend staying in Marrakech because we would have totally come back here again. What a great place for a quick bite when you are wandering/shopping the medina! Or getting ready to go out for the night if you are a local.
On our walk to the next stop, Youssef paused for a second to grab a surprise from one of the street vendors, Moroccan donuts (Sfenj). There was a family with a young girl along on the tour, and he wanted her to try the traditional Moroccan donuts because they are his kids’ favorite treat. Of course, he was thoughtful and couldn’t let the adults not get to try some. So, Jimmy and I got a little paper cone full of these sugar-covered mini delights.
Our next stop was for the traditional meat dishes at a place that Youssef called meat alley. Three families have owned these special underground ovens for four generations, and the ovens have been around for over 150 years.
Numerous entire lambs on giant wooden sticks can be placed down inside this oven and slow roasted for hours. The slow roasted shredded lamb is called Mechoui.
Remember the earthen pots buried in the hot coals that I mentioned earlier? Tangia is a Marrakech specialty and is actually a “bachelor’s dish”. Traditionally, men who work in the souks would have Friday off work. On Thursday, one of the men would collect money for the Tangia. On Friday, the men would then go to a park outside of the city to have a “bachelor” picnic and relax. The special Tangia pot is filled with lamb, preserved lemon, garlic, cumin, and saffron and then buried overnight and slow cooked. Tender and juicy and bursting with flavor. The Tangia lamb was probably our favorite of all the Moroccan meat dishes. Based on Youssef’s recommendation, we sopped up every last bit of the savory, fatty well-reduced sauce at the bottom of the clay pot with pieces of bread. The bachelors of Marrakech eat well!!
Lastly, we had the option to try one more “freaky dish” at this stop. Sheep head.
Jimmy and I weren’t quite sure how to tackle this one, so we just stuck with a couple bits out of the cheek, which is usually good and tender in other animals. As we left this meat heaven, we realized again that this is a place that we never would have found on our own or even realized that it was a restaurant. No sign. No menu.
The locals have known to come here for over a hundred years. Notice all the special Tangia pots in various sizes lined up for them to select their “order”.
We thought we were heading for dessert next, but Youssef had one more trick up his sleeve. We next stopped at a local olive stand to sample all the different varieties.
We actually really enjoyed this because we are honestly a bit intimidated and slightly annoyed by the loud street vendors because they tend to be a bit pushy. Having a local show us around and help us to sample with no pressure to buy was really nice. We got to try the different natural varieties of olives as well as various flavored olives like harissa and garlic/thyme/olive oil.
When we finally made it to the dessert stop, we still managed to find room for not one, but two, different desserts. We were treated to the traditional smoothies that Moroccans often eat before the Ramadan fast: avocado/almond/milk and date/almond/milk smoothies.
We also got three giant plates full of cookies.
The cookie on top is the Chbekiya that I discussed earlier in Part 1. Our new favorite was the Ka’ab Gazelle (hoof of the gazelle), which is the crescent-shaped cookie at the bottom of the picture. These cookies are very difficult to master. The pastry is very thin and stuffed with almond paste with a hint of orange blossom water, like a floral marzipan. They are hugely popular at weddings and expected to be top-notch. If the Ka’ab Gazelle at a wedding are not plentiful and up to satisfaction, guests will begin to grumble. Luckily, Youssef let us box up most of the cookies to take home because there was no way we could finish them all!
Wow!! Our time spent with Amanda and Youssef was unbelievable and a unique culinary and cultural experience that we will never forget. Our visit to Marrakech would not have been complete without them.
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