Le Marrakchi

Occasion: First dinner in Marrakech!
Location: Le Marrakchi, in the northeast corner of Place Jemaa-el-Fna, the big square in the southern part of the medina (lemarrakchi.com)
Edibles: assorted salads; lamb tagine with figs; couscous with raisins and onions [Note: Le Marrakchi does openly serve alcohol, presumably with a license.]

Musings: The first thing I noticed - the incredible view of the square at night.

We started with the salad assortment. Moroccan salads, interestingly enough, usually involve cooked vegetables, though served at room temperature. The assortment at Le Marrakchi included a tomato salsa-like thing; marinated zucchini; cucumber salad; spiced potatoes; lentils; stewed eggplant; some sort of sweet gourd; stewed peppers; and spiced, cooked carrots.

For our main, we had lamb and couscous. The scent of the lamb that wafted out when they opened the tagine was incredible. The picture below looks the way it does because we immediately dove in without a thought to taking a picture! The taste absolutely delivered on the promise from the aroma. The lamb was falling-off-the-bone tender and I really liked the earthy sweetness from the figs.

And let me take a moment to wax rhapsodic about the couscous. It was just SO light and fluffly - leagues better than anything I've ever had stateside. (The parboiled stuff in a box - which I have cooked, served at dinner parties, and previously enjoyed myself - is forever ruined because now I know how it's supposed to taste.) It's the same kind of revelatory feeling I had when I tasted really good steamed rice for the first time.

[Postscript: I later learned from Giorgina that the proper way to prepare couscous is to steam it for 1½ to 2 hours, over a sort of simple vegetable court bouillon. It's occasionally taken off the heat to loosen any lumps by hand, and to massage some olive oil into the grains. No wonder it tastes so much better! Time and effort are hard to fake.]

The food was just plain wonderful. Le Marrakchi violates all my rules for travel eating - the "Tourist Central" location; the stereotypical local food (though they have the good sense to do it simply, without pretentious flourishes); not patronized by any locals at all. But I loved it. Whodathunkit?

Part II, 3/29: We came back here for our last dinner in Marrakech. We ordered the same salads and couscous, but got the chicken tagine with lemon and olives, and the keftes (meatballs in tomato sauce with egg). The chicken was not as good as the lamb, or as good as the chicken tagine from Dar Ilham. I found meatballs were smidge dry and tough, as they were the other two times we had this dish. Maybe that's just how it's made?