In The Land of Derbs and Babs

January 08, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in Morocco

On Thursday, we visited El Badii Palace, which was commissioned and built in the late 16th century. We went in the morning, and it was vast and fairly empty (visiting top attractions before 11:00 am is always a good idea). Visitors are still allowed to climb on a lot of the stone ruins, which was unexpected and fun for us. I also made a pregnant cat friend.

Emilie in front of one of the palace pools (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole with her cat friend (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A cat eyes one of the nesting pigeons (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Walking across one of the empty pools (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view from the terrace (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The palace walls are lined with massive stork nests, and we spent some time watching the big, gangly birds walk along the walls. They are very odd looking birds, and it’s especially cool to watch them take off and soar around the walls.

A large and precarious-looking stork nest (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We made a joke that this stork was delivering a baby (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Next, we had some mint tea and then went to Cyber Park, which is a large and very well-kept park near the medina walls. It had a ton of olive trees, locals studying, and cats. It was a very enjoyable experience overall.

Ally, our resident expert mint tea pourer (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Waiting to cross the street (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Thursday evening, we joined a food tour to learn more about the local food culture. We started out at one of the shops in the Jemaa el-Fnaa market. The market itself is somewhat of an assault to the senses — there are bright colors everywhere, many strong smells, stalls selling everything from goat heads to 90s TV remotes, and lots of people yelling (at each other, at tourists to buy things, at the crowd to get out of the way). The heckling at tourists has varying levels of creativity — many men just yelled at us to come look at their wares, but one yelled “I want to be on your basketball team!” at me as we walked past.

Most of the buildings around the city are three or four stories, and when people enter them, they usually try to go up as much as possible to get a vantage point off of the street.

This first shop had a simple menu: lamb, beans, and bread. We were warned not to fill up on the bread, which was something we struggled with for the next three hours. The lamb was cooked in a large underground oven, where the whole lambs were hung for several hours to roast. Once the roasting was complete, the lamb was served plain with sides of cumin and salt (it can’t be seasoned before cooking because the oven is too hot). They also served the lamb as tanjia, which is a stew cooked in an urn-shaped clay pot.

One of the men in our group, who felt the need to assert himself as an adventurous eater, asked if he could eat the eyeball. Our guide obligingly brought him half a lamb’s head and taught him how to extract the eyeball, and to his credit, he did not have a strong reaction — he said it mostly tasted very intensely of lamb. I was also impressed that none of the other 8 people on the food tour freaked out.

The market from the shop rooftop (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We had a few snack stops over the next hour, including delicious filled flatbread, soup, olives, snails, and very large and delicious doughnuts that were dipped in honey. We also sat down to try some meatballs made with sardines, which are a local favorite.

Our guide explains different colors of olives in front of an olive shop (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Making delicious filled crepes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Doughnuts in progress (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last savory stop, when we were all feeling quite full already, was at a woman’s cooperative that made couscous. The kitchen was tucked away behind a traditional women’s market, which had closed for the day, and it was a welcome respite from the busy medina streets. Our guide talked us through the proper way to prepare couscous (it’s far more intensive than the brief steaming that we’re used to in the United States), and we enjoyed some fresh couscous with vegetables that the cooperative made. It was served with buttermilk, which was an interesting touch. If you get a chance, ask Emilie what she thought of the couscous-buttermilk experience.

We finished out the food tour at a shop that served pastries and smoothies. Smoothies aren’t traditional in Morocco, but they’ve become popular over the past couple of decades. The general method of ordering is to pick a base, either orange juice or milk, and then add a couple of fruits and nuts, if desired. We got an assortment of pastries, which was great because it allowed us to try things we probably wouldn’t have. Morocco is big into a few flavors, including rose, orange blossom, and almond. Marzipan is a very common flavor in cookies, which I’m not a big fan of, but sometimes the other elements balanced it out well for me. Some of the cookies were deep fried, which is always delicious, and honey never hurts either.

On Friday, we had to get up far too early to catch the first flight to Fes. I asked our riad to arrange a car for us at 4:00 am, and they went back and forth with us a few times to confirm that the time wasn’t getting lost in translation. I think I finally managed to convince them that I knew which time I was conveying by apologizing that they’d have to be up so early. This made them laugh.

Fes has the oldest medinas in the country, and they are surrounded by a wall and often ornate gates, or Babs. The narrow medina streets and derbs (roughly, alleys in neighborhoods) are often not on any maps, which makes it difficult to know when you’re going to hit a dead end.

Fes also quite hilly, unlike Marrakech. The difficulties of the hills ensure that there are fewer mopeds and motorcycles on the narrow interior streets, which makes the air quality much more enjoyable. We had all been struggling with breathing in the exhaust from the two-stroke engines in Marrakech.

After dropping off our bags at the riad, we went to visit the Royal Palace. Tourists cannot actually go into the palace, but the main attraction is the incredibly ornate and massive set of gates. The gates are huge — the smallest set was probably close to 10 feet tall. It’s a quick stop, but definitely impressive.

Sunlight through one of the old walls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Some unique architecture (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The other side of the famous Blue Gate, which we think might be even prettier (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Lounging cats (if you thought the communal cats were unique to Marrakech, you were wrong) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the beautiful gardens we found (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The absurdly large palace gates (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another beautiful bab (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We next walked through a large park before visiting the huge Cimetière Israélite. With the stark white tombs and deep blue painted accents, it reminded me of all the pictures I’ve seen of Santorini.

In the afternoon, we took a baking class at Cafe Clock, which has a few locations across Morocco. Our teacher, who knew French and Arabic but not much English, took us up five sets of twisting tiled stairs to the baking room, where she started teaching us how to make dough.

Morocco has a lot of traditional breads, but the one most often served with meals is made with wheat and semolina flour and allowed one short rise, so when it’s baked it rises an inch or two. It’s then cut into quarters for serving, so it can be torn up to pick up food or used as a pocket to make a sandwich. We made this one first, then moved on to a stretchier dough that we used to make stuffed flatbread, which we filled with sauteed vegetables and baked.

We also made several sweet cookies — fekkas, which are very similar to biscotti; ghriba, which are a kind of macaroon that tastes like a scone rolled in powdered sugar; and Moroccan snowball cookies, which are dipped in a fruit glaze and rolled in shredded coconut. Our teacher showed us how to form each one, invited us to take over, and then often fixed what we had done to make it closer to the actual thing. She was very sweet about it, though we all dissolved into giggles several times when someone thought they had been doing well and their bread had to be fixed a lot.

Looking down the stairwell from our kitchen (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The fekkas and snowball cookies were baked in the small wall oven in our kitchen, but the other items were taken to the communal bread oven to bake. And thus began our completely unexpected adventure across the medina.

Because it was Friday, the holy day, the closest bread oven was closed, so we took the breads to the next oven over. I have no idea how far it was, but we carried the breads through the medina for several minutes, much to the amusement of the locals, who called out to our teacher and laughed at us in our aprons. We later decided that we were glad it was Friday, because the medina was so much less busy — on a normal day, the crowd of people trying to get through the narrower areas of the alleys can be pretty intense, and we were all trying very hard not to drop any cookies or breads on the ground.

When we arrived at the oven, our teacher explained that many people brought their breads and cookies here to bake. The oven is huge, and the men who work there are constantly putting breads in, rotating them into the cooler areas of the oven, and taking them out. They gave our teacher a time to return, and we headed back to finish up some other cookies.

Crossing the medina (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Half an hour later, we ventured back across the medina to get our bread and cookies, which were impressively perfectly baked. When we got back, we did some final preparations before sitting down to our feast. Everything was really delicious, even some of the cookies that we weren’t sure we’d like. We did well, and/or we had a good teacher who fixed everything for us.

Our delicious filled breads (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Real Tajine

January 06, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in Morocco

Tuesday was our day trip into the Atlas Mountains. One other couple was supposed to go with us, but one of them got sick, so it ended up just being the four of us in a small van with our 22-year-old guide, Abdullah.

Abdullah first drove us to the Ourika Valley, where we stopped at an argan oil cooperative so that we could learn about the process of making the oil. There’s a seed that’s removed from the fruit of the argan tree, cracked open, ground to make a paste, and then squeezed to create oil. They walked us through all of the uses of argan oil, from putting it on food and in sauces to hair and skin treatments. It tastes a little like olive oil, but with a nutty undertone.

Ally learning to make argan oil (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The different stages of argan oil production (Photo/Jason Rafal)

From the argan oil cooperative we headed to Setti Fadma, which is a riverside town that caters to tourists looking to escape the heat and bustle of Marrakech. Setti Fadma is named after the ubiquitous female hand symbol that defends against the evil eye, also known as a hamsa. On the way, we stopped to take pictures on one of the many bridges that crosses the Ourika river. They were all rather rickety, and Emilie was not feeling it, but it was a pretty good view.

Emilie walking out to the bridge (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our group on the bridge (Photo/Abdullah)

Abdullah explained that there are some issues with flash flooding in Ourika valley — Japan gifted the valley an alarm system, which has severely cut down on the number of deaths. As we went up the river, it became clear why it was an issue — there were a lot of restaurants and shops built in the riverbed, instead of higher up on the hill.

When we got to Setti Fadma, Abdullah handed us off to a local, who took us on a short hike up to one of the area’s waterfalls. We walked through some of the town first, where we saw shops, cats, and a couple of families of monkeys. We were the first group up there, which made it quiet and quite peaceful. We also saw some goats perched on the rocks nearby, which made me happy.

Walking through the riverside restaurants to get to the hike (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Monkeys on the way to the waterfall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The waterfall at the top (Photo/Jason Rafal)

How many goats can you spot? (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We took some pictures at the waterfall, then headed back down the rocks to enjoy some mint tea at the river. The Ourika river has a ton of restaurants along and even in the river — chairs and mats are set up along the water and on rocky outcroppings in the river, and everything is bright and contrasting colors. Sitting there and watching the locals prepare for the afternoon tours, I realized that even with all my time in mountain towns, this was a wholly unique experience for me. It was a wonderful place to enjoy a glass of hot mint tea.

After enjoying our tea, we drove through the other three valleys while Abdullah taught us about the area. The valleys are primarily agricultural, and we saw a lot of orchards and terraced wheat and vegetable farming. Originally, the towns were built on hillsides to make them more defensible against warring clans, and now the combination of villages and farmed terraces makes for an incredibly photogenic area. The terraces are also still farmed manually, with donkeys and wooden plows. When we stopped to take pictures on one hillside, a farmer joked with Abdullah that we could come help out. It’s always uncomfortable being part of such an enormous and obvious wealth disparity, but everyone we interacted with was very kind to us.

One of the hillside Berber villages (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A beautiful view of the Atlas mountains (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Layers of houses and farmed terraces (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another hillside village (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In the last valley, we stopped in one of the Berber villages for lunch. We later found out from Abdullah that the three-person company that he worked for had gone door to door, asking if families in the village would be willing to cook for small groups of tourists. It’s a lot of work, but I imagine the financial benefit for the family must be huge. For us, it created a really special lunch experience that we were incredibly grateful for.

When we arrived at the house, we were greeted by the family, which included the farmer, his wife, their children, and his brother’s wife and her child. It’s pretty normal in Morocco for an entire extended family to live together. The children, who were between one and three years old, were adorable and came up to us for high fives. After the family showed us the tajine cooking and the bread oven next to their shed, the kids helped us wash our hands, then led us down into the orchard to have a seat. We were then served one of the most delicious meals we had in Morocco while we enjoyed the sun and fresh air. There was soup with argan oil, a salad similar to pico de gallo (but differently spiced), fresh bread, couscous, tajine, and fruit. The family was incredibly gracious and kind, and Abdullah stopped by occasionally to tell us about the food, but otherwise left us to soak everything in. While he was sitting with us at the end of the meal, we spent an amusing several minutes trying to explain to him what a manatee looked like, which is surprisingly challenging without a frame of reference.

The tajines finishing the cooking process (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Ally’s new friend helps her down the hill in the orchard (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our very attentive dog friend (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On the way out of the mountains, we stopped at a part of the winding road where a motorcycle chase from Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation was filmed. Abdullah explained that the road was in great shape because they had re-paved for the movie. I have to agree with whoever scoped out that location, it’s a good place for a chase scene.

More farming and mountains (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last stop before heading back into Marrakech was a traditional market outside of town, which is open twice a week. There were as many donkeys and mules in the parking area as there were cars, which was pretty typical for our experiences in Morocco.

In the market in Marrakech, the shopkeepers were so used to western tourists that we were constantly yelled at to buy things. In this market outside of town, there were very few tourists, and we were seen as more novel than as a potential form of income. Many people just stared, and some practiced random strings of English words on us. We also walked through the butcher section of the market, which I regretted as soon as I realized how many whole goat heads were on display. It was generally a bit uncomfortable, but walking through open air markets is always a great way to contextualize things.

The view approaching the market (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Christmas, we ended up having a very European-feeling day. We went outside the medina to the newer part of town (newer here meaning very old, but not as old as the medina). We started the day at the Bacha museum, which was a beautiful museum that housed some important fashion and a photography collection. In Marrakech, I’ve found that I’m consistently more captivated by the museum buildings than the art inside of them — everything is so ornate, and the colors are fantastic.

Pomegranates in the courtyard (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole in one of the courtyards (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We sought out the museum in the first place because we wanted to stop at Bacha Coffee, which is one of the famous coffee spots in the city. We missed it the first time because we didn’t expect it to be actually in the museum, so we spent a few minutes wandering around alleys that weren’t on the map of the medina before completing a full circle and entering the museum. Bacha is incredibly ornate and European feeling — it reminded us strongly of the famous old coffee houses in Italy and France, as well as Cafe Tortoni in Buenos Aires. They had a huge coffee selection, and we enjoyed a couple of desserts as well.

Side note: we almost didn’t get seated at Bacha Coffee because we didn’t have reservations. This happened to us several times in Morocco, which we were really not expecting at random restaurants during the low season. So generally, if you want to eat at specific places, it’s a good idea to make reservations.

After coffee, we headed toward the Jardin Majorelle, which was nearer to the newer part of the city. We made the mistake of arriving in the early afternoon, which is the busiest part of the day. The garden is stunning, but I’d recommend visiting as early as possible, just so you won’t have to wade through tourists. It has a huge variety of plants, from a large selection of cacti to a bamboo forest. There’s also a Berber museum on one side, which is a brilliant blue building. The juxtaposition and the colors are all pretty remarkable.

The welcoming cat (you knew there would be one) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Cactus spines in the light (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the garden we headed to the Gueliz area, where we found a Thai restaurant for lunch. We really didn’t know what to expect, but it was pretty good, and we still needed a break from tajine.

After lunch we spent some time at a wine bar, which was an interesting experience. Moroccans are not allowed to drink alcohol publicly in Morocco, so this bar had sheets hanging between the terrace and the sidewalk to obscure the drinkers from the street. The bar had a nice selection of Moroccan, French, and Italian wines. Interestingly, tourists are allowed to drink in public, but for the most part we were drinking on upper terraces while at other restaurants.

For dinner we headed to a hip Australian-style restaurant that is a joint effort by three restaurateurs. It was a very classy, delicious, and surprisingly affordable Christmas dinner.

The Intricacies of the Old World

January 04, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in Morocco

Predictably, everyone was exhausted when we arrived in Morocco.

Jason and I met up with Emilie and Ally in the Lisbon airport for our flight to Marrakech. When we got to Marrakech, we had several challenges and misunderstandings, which were made more difficult by our exhaustion. First, we were staying in the medina, where cars couldn’t actually drive. So, our driver hired a porter to take our luggage and bring it into the medina, while he led us through on foot. When explained, this makes perfect sense, but none of it was conveyed in English, and we spent an alarmed couple of seconds trying to figure out if we would ever see our stuff again. Then, there was a booking error with our riad, and as they spoke very little English, we had a lot of translation difficulties in resolving everything. Finally, we tried about five ATMs before we found one that worked. It was all a bit stressful.

Silhouette of a Moroccan sunset (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I go into this detail because I think it’s important to acknowledge that sometimes travel is challenging or downright unpleasant. It’s usually temporary, and doesn’t usually detract from the overall amazing experience of getting out of your comfort zone, but it can suck. Once everything was all resolved, we treated ourselves to a nice restaurant and a bottle of wine, which helped everyone feel better.

Walking through the narrow streets (Photo/Jason Rafal)

This was our first introduction to tajine, which is a traditional dish in which meat and vegetables are cooked for about three hours in a covered clay pot over a fire. It’s very good, and when it’s done well, incredibly delicious. We ordered a Moroccan wine as well — we’ve heard alcohol is pushed on tourists, but we didn’t need any encouragement. The wine was very drinkable, but not overly complex, which was our experience throughout the trip.

Moroccan riads are primarily old houses with beautiful interior courtyards that have been transformed into bed and breakfasts. They vary in size, and since Moroccans often don’t eat out for dinner, they tend to be where meals are available to tourists in the older parts of town. The restaurants are often in the courtyards or the roof terraces of the riads, so that diners can experience some respite from the hustle and engine smell of the medina.

The riads all serve breakfast, which is a feast of breads, dips, and fruits, in the beautiful inner courtyards. Depending on the riad, there was also bird chatter and/or music. At our second riad, the man serving breakfast told us that he loves listening to Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, and Louis Armstrong. Much to our amusement, this riad also had a track of American pop songs played on pan flutes, including Evanescence and Avril Lavigne.

The stairway of our first riad (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Circular staircases were very common (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A typical breakfast spread (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Monday was our first full day in Marrakech, and we set out to do some exploring.

The 19th-century Bahia Palace was our first introduction to the insane amount of detailed extravagance featured in Moroccan palaces and tombs. The name “Bahia” means “brilliance,” and it’s not an exaggeration. The palace features beautiful gardens and courtyards with colorful tile work, detailed carvings, and gleaming stained glass. Maybe it’s just because we went there first, but Bahia Palace was my favorite.

Along the medina wall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Group self portrait in a very old mirror (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Shadows against the carvings in the Bahia Palace (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Emilie in one of the extraordinary rooms (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Stained glass on a light fixture (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole, Emilie, and Ally through some of the carved doorways (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Carvings under a doorway arch (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the courtyards (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The ceiling in one of the rooms (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Irrigation in one of the courtyard gardens (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Views through the courtyard rooms (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Next, we went to Saadien’s Tombs, which are considerably older (16th century). The tombs were apparently abandoned for centuries and then rediscovered in the early 1900s. The compound, which houses around 60 members of the royal family, consists of a courtyard and three large rooms. The most famous room, which is usually simply referred to as “the room with the twelve columns,” is a beautiful combination of tile, stucco, and cedar work. You can’t actually go into this room, and the viewing area only holds about 4 people, so there’s usually a line to look in. We stood in line for 20 minutes without actually knowing what we were waiting for, but the view was worth it. That being said, as with all of the sites we visited in Morocco, morning is usually better if you don’t want to wait in line for a long time.

One of the city’s mosques (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the tomb cats (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Inside the room with twelve columns (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the tomb walls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After lunch, we headed over to Le Jardin Secret, which is actually two gardens in the heart of the medina. The gardens are wonderfully lush and beautiful, and there’s a cafe that overlooks them. We stopped there for mint tea before heading back to our riad.

The roads were full of vans, cars, motorcycles, mopeds, horse-drawn carriages, and hand carts. I’ve never been somewhere that had such an equal distribution of several centuries of transportation. Unfortunately, because the city walls are so high and the inner roads are so narrow, the two-stroke engine exhaust gets trapped, making fresh air hard to come by. This makes the inner courtyards of the gardens, palaces, and riads even more welcoming.

Horses and carriages on the street (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Flowers in the garden (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view over Le Jardin Secret (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A subtle self portrait in a pot of mint tea (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the beautiful walkways in Le Jardin Secret (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The calls to prayer were something that I both expected and didn’t fully understand before we heard them. There are five each day, and you’ll hear each one at multiple times — there’s an initial call to come and pray, and then another when the prayer actually starts a few minutes later. The initial call blasts through mosque speakers, sounding almost like an upset sheep or a single human yell. Then, the other speakers crackle and catch up, producing a somewhat tinny melding of voices for the next few minutes. It’s loud, and different, and mesmerizing. For the first few days, I woke up for the pre-dawn call to prayer, which soothed my frustration at jet lag.

Another thing I didn’t fully expect about Morocco were the communal cats everywhere. I started seeing cats on the street immediately, but was surprised that most of them weren’t actually feral. We saw a lot of eye infections, but most of the cats were a healthy weight and had fur that was in great shape. As we continued our trip, we started seeing a lot of shopkeepers feeding and interacting with the cats, and one of our guides later said that they were the bosses of the medina. Some of them were kind of obnoxiously friendly, especially when you had food.

An adorable kitten lounging (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A fluffy kitten next to one of the walls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Rugs hanging out to dry (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset at the Koutoubia Mosque (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset at a park near the Koutoubia Mosque (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Appetizers at dinner (Photo/Jason Rafal)