Chez Sam

Occasion: Group dinner in Essaouira
Location: Chez Sam - I really have no idea where it was, other than it was outside the medina walls. But Essaouira's small, so you should be able to find it.
Edibles: I had the shrimp and avocado salad, seafood soup, and then the sole

Musings: This place totally did not feel like it was in Morocco. The interior décor is what you'd expect to find in any old, family-owned restaurant in the midwest - dark wood panelling, tchotchkes and faded photos everywhere. They also played this bizarre retro American music mix; I remember hearing mostly motown and disco.

So, fine dining it ain't.

But the seafood was fresh and not terribly expensive. Though we mostly ordered on our own, the dishes were large enough to share. My sole dish, for example, came with three whole fish (of which the below photo shows one).

The dishes were hit and miss across the table. The sole, and most of the other fish dishes, came with some pretty sad and limp boiled vegetables as sides. My soup was bit watery and thin, but I did like the avocado and shrimp. Alice's shrimp omelet was the best of the dishes I nibbled from. If memory serves, Tony ordered a calamari tagine that he liked quite a lot as well.

Our dinner was fine but I'd have to guess that there are better restaurants in Essaouira.

Cafe Arabe

Occasion: Group dinner
Location: Cafe Arabe in the center of the medina, just northwest of the souks
Edibles: about half ordered the harira soup (including me); we shared various salads and tagines; a few people also ordered dessert

Musings: We all had drinks on the rooftop terrace as a post-wedding event. The terrace is lovely, affording a nice view of the surrounding area and lots of gorgeous light as the sun set. After drinks, the majority of us (minus the bride, groom and their families) headed downstairs for dinner.

Since we were such a large group, they seated us in what I can only describe as the Cave of Red Death. Although the rest of the restaurant was lit conventionally with candlelight and wall sconces, our only source of light was a chandelier with red light bulbs. The photo shows exactly how red it was:


"And that red light is burning my brain!"

It was mostly ignorable to start. Then the food arrived, and you literally could not distinguish the zucchini from the carrots. And towards the end of the dinner, that light started to feel sort of psychotic. But I guess it's only a problem if they happen to seat you in there.

The food was mostly average and forgettable. In addition to Moroccan food, the menu also contains an Italian selection but we stayed out of it. A few people started with the harira soup, a traditional chickpea/lentil soup. I personally found it pretty bland and pulpy. The one new tagine we ordered was the sausage (merguez). I thought the sausage was sort of dry and hard (like I've been finding the meatballs), but it was popular enough with the guys that we ordered a second one. People seemed pretty happy with their desserts.

If you're looking for evening activities in the medina, I'd have a drink on the roof at Cafe Arabe. But I'd give the dinner a pass.

Brunch at Dar Ilham

Occasion: Post-wedding brunch at Dar Ilham
Location: Dar Ilham, on Route de Fès in the Palmeraie area (riaddarilham.com)
Edibles: tabbouleh; mini burger patties / flattened meatballs; fresh bread

Musings: A simple meal, but delicious. Dar Ilham knows how to feed a guest. The tabbouleh was flecked with tomato, cucumber, onion and fresh parsley. The bread was chewy and substantial. And the mini burgers provided just enough protein to satisfy my meat-tooth.

In terms of lodging, Dar Ilham definitely has pros and cons. The pros are the great common areas (the lounge, the pool), the quiet, and the incredibly helpful staff. The biggest con is its location - Dar Ilham is in an area that's still largely undeveloped, which is why its address is simply "Kilometer 13" on Route de Fès. It's about half an hour away from the medina, and a cab ride will run you about 250-300 dirham (~$40) - and that's assuming your cabbie can even find the place. Dar Ilham will send a van to pick you up for about half that but you need to give them 30 min notice, which does impede the flexibility of your plans.

I don't know that I'd recommend Dar Ilham for first-time visitors to Marrakech, but it's a nice option if you're looking for a quieter visit with lots of lolling-around time by the pool. For sure, you'll eat well.

Wedding feast at Dar Ilham

Occasion: Melissa and Tony's wedding banquet!
Location: Dar Ilham, on Route de Fès in the Palmeraie area (riaddarilham.com) [Note: Forget Riad Kniza - Dar Ilham is in the middle of nowhere, and *impossible* for cabbies to find. Your best bet transportation-wise is to arrange for Dar Ilham's van service to pick you up from some landmark or designated meeting place.]

After a slightly unorthodox but charming and original wedding ceremony, we were ushered to the pool area where a tent had been set up for drinks and hors d'oeuvres. There was one that was a bit like a mini pizza with tuna and olive on it that was wonderful. It certainly came in handy soaking up all the free-flowing champagne!

After an hour or so of chatting and socializing, dinner was served. Dinner was also pool-side, and buffet style. There were lots of salads and tagines, and excellent pastilla. The chicken tagine was amazing. [Postscript: Best chicken tagine I had all trip.]

They also set up a more-than-respectable dessert buffet. I took a slice of the strawberry tart and a fruit salad.

The pastry shell on the strawberry tart was cardboard-y and hard, just like at Mama Ti Lee. A bit of a disappointment. The fruit salad, on the other hand, was spectacular. In Marrakech, they serve fruit salad in a bowl, soaked in the excellent local orange juice. All the women on the trip really fell in love with it. (I don't think the orange juice stateside has enough character to really replicate this dish. I think you would have to add a bit of passionfruit, or maybe tangerine.)

It was a lovely evening - festive and fancy, but also relaxed and unpretentious. After the feasting, some brave souls did a little dancing, there were some photo tent shenanigans, and then everyone retreated indoors (it was getting COLD!) to chat into the wee hours of the morning in the cozy lounge area. At some point, we got the hookah going and Melissa's fun-loving and very persuasive father tried to get everyone drunk. Great fun!

Melissa and Tony, you guys got through some serious logistical difficulties in your wedding plans with your senses of humor intact - I think it bodes very well for your future together! Congratulations and much love to you both!


The happy couple!

Grand Café de la Poste

Occasion: Big group dinner - the first wedding event
Location: Grand Café de la Poste, on the Place du 16 Novembre in the new part of town, Guéliz
Edibles: all sorts of stuff - more details below

Musings: They have quite the quirky menu at Café de la Poste. In my immediate vicinity at the table, there ended up being four different world cuisines represented, and the menu had at least two more.

In general, this kind of menu makes me nervous. It's tough on the kitchen in two ways: the staff have to learn to cook a ton of dishes, and they need to keep a lot of ingredients on hand (which in turn means that either their food costs are astronomical, or most of the stuff's frozen). For the customer, ordering is a crapshoot. There's always at least one cuisine the restaurant doesn't do very well - question is, which one?

Anthony and Michelle pronounced themselves "tagined-out" after their adventures in Fez and the Sahara before meeting up with the wedding party. Anthony ordered spaghetti Bolognese and Michelle ordered a steak. Anthony's pasta looked pretty mediocre. Michelle's steak was gigantic, but I didn't find it particularly appealing.

Winnie and Alice both ordered fish. I had a nibble of them, and both were fine. Not stunning or anything, but decent. I was really craving something fresh and crisp, so I ordered the salad with chicken and avocado. It was also fine, if a bit overloaded with chicken and light on the lettuce.

Imon was particularly adventurous and ordered a French dinner of escargots and seared steak tartare. Surprisingly enough, the escargots were done perfectly! Really buttery and tender. Hands down my favorite dish of the night. The steak tartare was well-seasoned, but I didn't like how the searing made the meat lukewarm. I like my tartare nice and chilled.

Café de la Poste has a nice space, but the menu could use some editing. If French is what they do best, they should stick with that and not faff around trying to be all things to all tourists.

Cooking class at Riad Kniza

So, today, I took another cooking class. Yes, another one.

Location: Riad Kniza, in a derb off Rue de Bab Doukkala, in the northwest part of the medina (riadkniza.com). OK, so far, this has been the toughest place to find. The cab driver had no idea where to find the riad, even though I had an address. He drove around for about 15 min trying to find a local who could give him some directions. Eventually, he gave up and just dropped me off in the Bab Doukkala parking lot. At which point, a guy in a reflective vest who appeared to be directing traffic found me a guide to walk me there.

[Sidenote: I didn't originally intend to take two cooking classes, but it happened like this: I contacted Souk Cuisine and was told they were doing a Culinary Week all-inclusive package that week, and so were not offering individual classes. Gemma offered to notify me if any spaces did open up. I didn't think it too likely, so I booked a class with Riad Kniza, where Melissa and Tony had taken a class. Then, all the protests and unrest in North Africa caused a lot cancellations, and a spot opened up in Souk Cuisine. On a related note, my travel buddy backed out of our trip altogether, and I notified Riad Kniza that it would now be just me, and offered to let them cancel the class. But they didn't - they emailed and said they'd be happy to hold the class just for me. So I felt bad about pulling out. So I just did both classes. I did learn different things in the two, and it was nice to have the comparison.]

[Sidenote 2, on cooking classes: By the way, if you're ever offered a demonstration-only cooking class, you should think twice about taking it. Watching an expert cook something and cooking it yourself are two entirely different kettles of fish. What's great about a participation class is that, not only do you get the instructor's help with your mistakes, you get to see all the other common mistakes and fixes as well. I think participation cooking classes are the only way to go, really.]

Riad Kniza, like all the other buiildings I've seen in old Marrakech, is absolutely gorgeous. It has that same central courtyard layout, and the elaborate decorative finishes everywhere.

After a little rest with mint tea and cookies, I meet Amira, my chef instructor. She takes me out to the souks for a little shopping. Our first stop is the butcher, one of those outdoor stall ones.

The butcher pulls down one of the hanging legs of lamb, gives it a bit of a trim. He cuts through the meat, then pulls out a jigsaw to saw through the bone. While I'm tickled by this whole operation, I have a few niggles about the health implications of buying meat in these conditions. Perhaps a bit recklessly, I decide that Amira must know what she's doing and just go along with it.

After the butcher, we visit a spice shop. Amira purchases a few spices for the class, and I pick up some paprika for my pantry back home. Then it's back to Kniza's surprisingly modern kitchen to get started.

Lamb Tagine

Due to our time constraints, Amira assembles the lamb tagine in a pressure-cooker. The pressure-cooker cuts down the cooking time from 3+ hours to just 40 min.

The lamb (after it's given a good wash) is placed in the pot with about 3 tbsp of oil and two sliced red onions.

The spices are: 2 tsp each of salt, ginger, ras al hanout and turmeric, a pinch of black pepper and a stick of cinnamon. Finally, a packet of that orange food coloring.

About a cup of water is added. (In a regular pot, you'd use much more liquid - enough to completely cover the lamb.) The pressure top goes on and it cooks over medium-low heat.

About 40 min later, it looks like this:

Add some prunes and dried apricots to soften in the sauce. Can garnish with cashews as well.

(Amira tells me that you can make lamb tagine with vegetables cooked in it. In which case she'd not use ras al hanout, that spice being too overpowering for vegetables.)

Semolina Bread

Next, we start bread dough. It's half semolina, half flour. Amira crumbles in a good bit of fresh yeast, and contrary to the French technique, adds a good spoonful of salt. (French baking always combines yeast with sugar. I'd always been told that salt severely inhibits the growth of the yeast.)

Warm water is drizzled in to make a wet paste, which is stirred and sort of sloppily kneaded for a good 20 min. Then the dough is formed by adding more flour, until it pulls together into a clean ball. That dough is kneaded and punched for another 20 min, until it becomes very elastic, almost rubbery with gluten.

Little dough balls are pinched off. The ragged edges are tucked underneath, and the bottom of the ball is smoothed in a circular motion against the palm of your hand.

Each ball is then flattened by hand (using the fingers) into quarter-inch-thick discs that are about 6 inches in diameter. The discs are laid on a slightly damp towel, and covered by another, to rest. (I don't observe that they rise much.)

After resting, the bread is cooked over direct heat, on a dry skillet or griddle.

They're turned several times so as not to burn, and they puff up and brown. Takes about 10 min total.

I'm really not crazy about this bread, and I doubt I'll ever try to make it myself. Perhaps Amira didn't griddle it quite long enough but it had a slightly sticky feel in the center, and a bit of a raw dough taste.

Tomato Jam

Four large tomatoes, sliced, go in a pot with a stick of cinnamon and a staggering 1 cup of sugar.

It's simmered over low heat for about 20 min until the tomatoes are very limp and well-glazed.

(If you feel up to the trouble, I think the jam would be much better if you peeled, cored and seeded the tomatoes first.)

Zucchini Salad

Baby zucchini are quartered lengthwise, cored, and sliced diagonally into diamond shapes. The zucchini is boiled until cooked through, but not mushy.

Dressing: 1 tbsp paprika, 1 tbsp cumin, 2 tsp salt, 4 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp cider vinegar and 2 cloves of minced garlic. Dress the zucchini while they're still hot, so they really absorb the spices.

Green Pepper Salad

Green peppers are grilled and blistered over direct flame.

The blackened peppers go into a bowl and are covered with plastic wrap to steam a bit, to loosen the skin. After about 15 min, the skin should just slip off. The peppers are peeled, cored and seeded under running water.

The peppers are sliced thinly. Dressing: 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp salt, 3 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp cider vinegar and a clove of minced garlic.

So there you have it. Amira was a wonderful instructor, very patient and cheerful. She told me that she attended culinary school in Ouarzazate, and that she works in a restaurant at night. It's nice to hear that women aren't just cooks - they're also chefs in Morocco.

Riad Kniza set up a beautiful table for me up on the roof deck, where I enjoyed the fruits of our labors. (I think they may have swapped out the lamb for something they'd pre-cooked, but I couldn't be certain.) Total for the class was 55€ (~$82).

I had a great time at Riad Kniza. I was particularly stunned that they were willing to do a class with just a single student (Gemma has a minimum of 2). The individualized attention was great - I got to cook everything myself, and had the time to ask lots of questions and chat with Amira.

That said, if I only had time to do one class, I'd personally choose Souk Cuisine. I think the shopping trip was really interesting and informative - it's a side of the souks you wouldn't normally explore as a tourist. I didn't get to cook as much, but the group atmosphere was really fun and I met some nice people. The Souk Cuisine class is also slightly cheaper than Kniza's.

I guess it all depends on what you're looking for. Both classes have their strengths, and I think you'd enjoy either experience. There's no wrong choice, really.

Dinner at Riad Le Clos des Arts

Occasion: Dinner with Melissa and Tony, Winnie, and wedding photographers Stephen and Don
Location: Riad Le Clos des Arts, in a derb off rue Riad Zitoun El Jdid (leclosdesarts.com)
Edibles: salads to start; keftes and couscous; strawberry napoleon dessert

Musings: The bride and groom finally arrived! They have one night in the medina before moving to a riad called Dar Ilham in the Palmeraie area for the wedding festivities. The photographers also arrived that day, in from Singapore. They were obviously travel-weary, but gamely chatted with us all during dinner and made a preliminary plan of action with Melissa and Tony for photos.

Le Clos serves dinner in the central courtyard for 20€ per person. The first course is, naturally, Moroccan salads. I remember five, and they were plated for us individually, rather than brought to the table in little dishes to be eaten family style.

For the main course, Melissa requested keftes, which are lamb meatballs stewed in a tomato-paprika sauce, with eggs cracked on top.

While I think the concept and ingredient combination are awesome, I'd make a few tweaks to this dish. First, I thought the meatballs were sort of dry - which I completely don't understand since it cooks immersed in sauce. Second, I think the eggs were overdone. I would have liked them softer,or even runny, in the center myself. But, as I said, I love the idea of this dish and will definitely try to make a version of it back home.

For dessert, Giorgina arranged for a special treat - a Moroccan-influenced mille-feuille. It's layers of ourka (the same dough we used in cooking class to make the briouates), pastry cream, and fresh strawberries. A lovely end to the dinner.

If you're staying at the riad, dinner there is certainly a great low-key option - for the night you arrive or the night before you leave, for example. It's quiet and peaceful, and saves you from having to negotiate the twisting streets of the medina in the dark. But I wouldn't do it more than once. It'd be a great pity to miss Marrakech's other fantastic eateries out of timidity.

Souk Cuisine - the cooking

The plot thickens...

We walk to a riad, and see our cooking stations set up for us in the sunny central courtyard area. What a great place to cook: tons of natural daylight, really airy and just gorgeous! The riad is owned by a Belgian guy - there are a lot of Europeans in the tourism industry in Marrakech! (Giorgina and Massimo of Le Clos are Swiss and Italian, respectively.)

This little guy is one of four turtles that live at the riad and wander around at will. Turtles are a symbol of good luck to Moroccans, and are common pets. Apparently they hold some sort of art class as this riad too, and the turtles get a new paint job every few months. The three local women who helped Gemma supervise the cooking were all pretty used to nudging them out of the way when they got underfoot.

One criticism I have for the class is that you only get to cook one part of the meal. I was on the fish tagine station, and I really had no idea what was going on with the salads, sardine app, shrimp turnover app, or the dessert. (Okay, that's not precisely true. I'm nosy, so I spent a lot of time tracking the other stations too. But I do have the most detailed info on my dish, so I'll start with that.)

Fish Tagine

We start by prepping potatoes (peeling and slicing), carrots (ditto), green peppers and tomatoes (just slicing).

Next, we make chermoula, an herb rub. It's lots of de-stemmed, chopped parsley and cilantro, chopped garlic and the flesh of 1½ preserved lemons (de-seeded).

You purée everything together with a little water with a stick blender (or in a food processor). Next, you add the spices: 2 tsp paprika, ⅓ tsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin and, strangely enough, ½ tsp powder orange food dye (the poor man's replacement for saffron?). Chermoula is done.

You line a terra cotta tagine dish (or I'm hoping you can do it in a nice heavy-bottom pot like my trusty yellow Le Creuset) with sliced carrots, and you dot on some chermoula. Next, you coat the fish in chermoula and lay them over the carrots, in a single layer. We did two tagines, one with cod and one with monkfish.

Next, potatoes are dredged in the chermoula and laid over the fish.

Finally, chermoula'ed tomatoes and peppers are layered on top. A good glug of olive oil is drizzled over everything.

The conical chimney piece goes on the tagine, and it goes on the stovetop to cook.

It simmers over low heat for about 1 hour, until the fish and vegetables are cooked through.

Carrot Salad

Boiled carrots, reconstituted golden raisins, and blanched whole almonds make up this salad. The dressing is 1½ tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger, 1¼ tsp salt, 6 tsp sugar, 1 tsp orange flower water (substitute 1 tsp orange juice and a grating of orange zest) and 2 tbsp of argan oil (substitute extra virgin olive oil, or 1½ tbsp of olive oil and 1 tsp of sesame oil). Dress while the carrots are still hot, but serve the salad at room temp or chilled.

Zucchini Salad

The zucchini we bought were small, maybe 6 inches long, and a pale avocado green in color. The zucchini are trimmed, halved, and boiled quickly in salted water with a few cloves of unpeeled garlic. Drain.

Peel and mince / mash up the garlic. Combine with the following for the dressing: ½ tbsp each of chopped fresh parsley and cilantro, ½ tsp paprika, ½ tsp cumin, 2 tbsp cider vinegar, 2 tbsp olive oil, ½ tsp salt.

Dress the salad after the zucchini are cooled (to keep the fresh herbs from cooking and turning brown).

Zaahlouk (stewed eggplant)

This dish reminds me strongly of Italian caponata, which is probably why it was my favorite of the salads. (I'm a fiend for caponata!)

First, the eggplant are sliced, and fried in olive oil in a skillet.

Meanwhile, a tomato sauce is started on the stovetop. 4 tomatoes are peeled and chopped. They're cooked with 1 tbsp each of chopped fresh parsley and cilantro, 4 cloves of chopped garlic, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp paprika, a pinch of chili powder, ½ tsp salt and a glug of oil. It should reduce into a thick sauce.

After they are quite darkly browned, the eggplant are removed and roughly mashed by hand. A TON of oil will seep out; pour off the excess.

The eggplant is combined with the tomato sauce. Add 1 tbsp cider vinegar, and cook everything together for 5 min. Serve at room temp or cold.

Tomato Salad with Preserved Lemon

Simple enough. This one's just cored and seeded tomatoes, 2 tbsp of chopped parsley, 1 clove of minced garlic and the chopped-up rind of half a preserved lemon. Season with salt to taste and drizzle with olive oil.

Briouates with Shrimp and Rice Vermicelli

If the tomato was the simplest, this dish was by far the most complicated. It's sort of a Moroccan (and Asian-inspired?) seafood spanakopita.

To start, place a bundle of dried rice vermicelli in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak until soft.

The filling: Chop seafood finely (it was supposed to be shrimp and squid, but there were no squid that day so we used shrimp and monkfish instead). Give it a sauté with 2 tsp each of chopped fresh parsley and cilantro, 2 bay leaves, ½ tsp paprika, salt and pepper. Set filling aside.

In the same skillet (don't bother to wash it), sautée the drained rice vermicelli in 1 tbsp butter, adding a pinch of chili powder, 1 tsp paprika, minced garlic, 2 more tsp each of chopped fresh parsley and cilantro, salt and pepper.

Use kitchen shears to snip the rice vermicelli into small bits, 1 inch or smaller. Add the cooked seafood and cook everything together for a few minutes.

The pastry: Locally, a thin semolina pastry called ourka is used. It's the same stuff as the outsides of pastilla pies. You can also substitute spring roll wrappers, or two or three sheets of phyllo (because it's so much thinner). Brush the phyllo sheets with melted butter to stick them together.

The pastry is cut into 2-inch wide strips. Works best when they're about 10 inches long.

A small amount of filling, about 1 tsp, is placed at the end of a strip, and it's folded to the top left, then the top right, then left again etc., to form a triangular bundle. Pinch the corners as you go, to ensure a good tight seal. A little eggwash glues down the ends. Repeat until you've used up all the filling (removing the bay leaves, of course).

This is a labor-intensive step to say the least! By this time, most of the other stations have their dishes done or baking, so everyone gets in on the action!

The briouates can be deep-fried in hot oil, or placed on a sheet and baked in an oven. Serve warm.

Alternative: These things are amazingly delicious! But fussy to make. If you're looking for a shortcut, I bet the filling would be yummy wrapped in warm tortillas. Or, you could up the vermicelli-to-fish ratio and just serve it as a noodle dish.

Sardines with Chermoula

We made one more app - a baked sardine app. I'm going to blitz through this one, since it's pretty similar to the fish tagine. I actually think they're a bit redundant when served in the same meal; I'd personally use them in different menus.

You make chermoula, same as with the tagine. You take fresh, cleaned sardine fillets, and make sandwiches by smearing chermoula on the flesh side of one piece and placing another piece on top, also flesh side to the chermoula.

Coat sliced peppers and tomatoes in chermoula and layer on top. Add a few pieces of preserved lemon rind for flavor. Sprinke with olive oil.

Bake at 350°F (or 180°C) for 20 min until the juices have evaporated.

Ghribas

Dessert were these little cookies called ghribas. Since I'm probably never going to make these, I'll just copy the recipe out and leave the conversion math to you!

500g flour
100g icing sugar
2 tbsp sesame seeds
¼ tsp salt
50g unsalted butter, room temp
375ml vegetable oil
3.5g baking powder
2 tbsp orange flower water (substitute orange juice and zest, or a splash or vanilla or almond extract)

Sift together the flour and sugar. Add sesame seeds, salt, butter, baking powder and orange flower water. Mix all the ingredients together and add oil little by little, kneading until you have a smooth ball of dough.

Little balls, about 2 inches each, are pinched from the main ball and rolled until smooth between the palms. They're placed on a dimpled baking sheet, on top of the dimples.

Bake at 350°F (or 180°C) until golden brown and cracked on top.

Note on baking: You'll notice that the sardines, the briouates and the cookies all bake at the same temp. I would bake the sardines with the briouates, or the briouates with the cookies, but not the sardines with the cookies.

As I mentioned earlier, I had a blast at the cooking class. The total cost was 45€ (~$67), which I thought was completely reasonable considering the length of the class.

I know I'm going to be doing some of these recipes at home, and I hope you try them too!

Our lunch!