The cuisine of Morocco

The cuisine of Morocco is rated among the best in the world, and rightly so. There are few places where food is more carefully and artistically prepared, more delightfully served, and more enjoyed than in this country.
Cooking in Morocco falls into two specific categories. The first, intended for important guests, is the work of skilled chefs. It requires such intensive supervision that the host does not participate. He merely oversees the banquet with his sons and servants. No women are present. The men squat on mattresses or pillows around low, beautifully inlaid tables. A silver ewer of perfumed water is taken around and poured over three fingers of the right hand of each guest.
The host claps his hands and the meal begins. One course after another- each delicacy is served until Chban- complete satiation- is achieved. Again the silver ewer filled with warm water is presented to clean the mouth, lips, and hands. The meal is a feast for the gods and indeed it begins and ends with Bsmillah--God's blessing.
In the second category of cookery are the wonderful dishes prepared with loving care by the mistresses- Dadas- of the homes. Here, where time does not seem to count, she spends hours with her glazed earthenware and copper cooking dishes and her kanoun, the movable clay brazier. Her kitchen is austere, and the charcoal which perfumes the kebabs and allows the sauces to simmer is the only source of heat. There are no chairs. A folded carpet serves as a seat. The Dada is dressed in a long colorful robe tucked up in front and her wide sleeves are held in place with a twisted cord.
The scents of coriander, cumin, saffron, marjoram, and onion mingle with the pungency of olive oil and the sweetness of sandalwood, mint, and roses, delighting the senses।

How a Dinner is Served in Morocco

A hostess in Morocco might take a week to prepare a suitable dinner for her honored guests. The meal often consists of as many as fifty courses. It would take a full day just to make Bstilla- a crisp pastry, rolled as thin as tissue paper, filled with chicken in a mixture "sweet and peppery, soft and violent."
The dinner starts with Bstilla, followed by the typical brochette or kebab flavored with bits of beef or lamb fat. Next comes the Tajine, chicken or meat in a spicy stew which has been simmered for many hours, and it is served with a flat bread called Khubz.
In Morocco, as in most Arab lands, every household makes its own bread। It is made from semolina flour without shortening or milk. An invocation to God is made before commencing the sacred act of kneading. When the bread has been properly shaped, each family puts its own mark or stamp on it before sending it via the children to a common bakery oven. After the Tajine, a Batinjaan- eggplant salad or chopped tomato salad- is served as a separate course. Then comes Couscous, that marvelous Moroccan national dish made of semolina, cooked to perfection, each grain separate from the other. The dinner is completed with slices or wedges of peeled melon, pastries made with honey and almond like the Middle Eastern Baklava, and finally a small glass of mint tea. The dinner following is a very much simplified version, but it is delicious and will give you the "feel" of Morocco. Once you have made the Couscous, it may very well become one of your favorite dishes. This is a delightful dinner to prepare and serve.

How You Can Present a Moroccan Dinner
If feasible, use a low table with cushions on the floor. (Be sure to advise your guests to dress comfortably.) Cover the low table with a bright brocaded cloth and provide your guests with thick towels to cover their knees. You might want to place floral bouquets around the room, but do not have a centerpiece on the table.
Before serving the dinner, walk around the table with an attractive pitcher (silver if possible) filled with warm water which has been scented with cologne or a few drops of perfume. Carry a Turkish towel over your left arm and a small basin in your left hand. Pour a little water over the fingers of each guest, catching the water in the small basin.
Serve tiny kebabs first (with or without a fork) on small plates. As soon as the kebabs have been eaten, remove the plates. The salad may be served as a separate course or may accompany the Couscous. If you serve it separately place the salad (with a fork) in front of each guest. In Morocco, the Couscous is served in a large platter and each guest eats directly from it with a large spoon or he may roll the Couscous up in little balls and pop them into his mouth, but don't expect your guests to do this. You may prefer to place extra plates in front of your guests and ask them to serve themselves.
Slices of melon, watermelon, or cantaloupe speared with toothpicks (no plates) are served in a platter right after the Couscous. You might also serve the mint tea at this time, or wait until later to serve it with the honey pastries.
Again the hostess pours water over the fingers of her guests. This is a mark of graciousness and hospitality. At the end of the meal, after tea has been served, bring in a tiny incense burner and light it on the table.

Hammam in Morocco

Visit a Moroccan Hammam
Public baths are a part of daily Moroccan life. I provides the rundown on getting a thorough and enriching scrubdown. (Hint: Be sure to pick up a kiis in the souk on the way there.)
The situation: Your flip-flopped feet are thick with grime, your hair is full of dust and you’re looking for a respite from the vendor onslaught ("Come inside, just for looking!") on the streets . Escape the crowds and wash off the street funk Moroccan-style in the neighborhood hammam, or public baths. Along with the communal bakery, fountain, madrasa (school) and mosque, the hammam is one of five traditional elements found in every Moroccan neighborhood. For about two bucks you’ll get access to unlimited buckets of steaming water, a scrubdown that will leave your skin as soft as a newborn’s and a cultural experience you won’t soon forget.
How to spot the hammam: In the old medina, hammam signs are likely to be written in Arabic. If you can’t read that swirling script, look for these telltale hints: • People of your gender walking by with buckets full of shower supplies, rolled floor mats and towels – men and women are separated in the hammam, with different opening hours for each throughout the day (typically, daytime hours are reserved for women and evenings for men). • A smoky smell. It’s caused by the wood fires used to heat the water. • A communal bakery. The hammam often shares heating facilities with one, so if you see a bakery there’s a chance a hammam is near.
To bare or not to bare: Unlike in Japan’s communal bathhouses, the tradition in Morocco doesn’t usually involve getting nude, with the exception of small children. Both men and women tend to wear only their underwear. Leave the g-strings at home, girls; Morrocan women usually opt for more coverage in public. Foreign women who insist on wearing their bras while bathing, however, will look ridiculously self-conscious. Bring something to cover your wet hair when you leave. Moroccans are convinced that the quickest way to catch a cold is a bare, wet head (even in the heat of summer), and if you don’t cover yourself on the way out, someone will do it for you and with who knows what.
What to bring: Tote whatever you normally use in the shower – shampoo, conditioner, razor, soap – and visit the souk ahead of time to buy a small plastic bowl for dousing yourself with water inside the hammam. For a more authentic experience, hit the souk for traditional soap or ghasoul, too. Look for plastic baggies of sticky black goo made from olive oil byproducts, and ask for “black soap” – dried chips of herb-infused Moroccan clay that functions as shampoo and body soap when you add a splash of water to it.
If you plan to get scrubbed down by the hammam attendant (the highlight of any visit), be sure to bring a black scratchy glove called a kiis (say “keys"), which you can purchase anywhere in the souk for about a buck. If you’re a clean freak, bring a small plastic stool or mat to sit on to avoid placing your derriere directly on the hammam’s stone floor.
What to expect: When you go the authentic route and visit a real hammam in the medina as opposed to a fancy hotel’s upscale version, don’t expect anything luxurious – rose petals on the floor and silk-swathed lounges are not part of the real deal। There’s a small changing area near the entry where you can hang your towel and clothes। And the baths consist of several rooms centered on large cisterns with gushing water. The farther you venture into the hammam (and the closer you get to the wood fire), the hotter the water in the fountains gets. Everyone sits on the floor, against the walls, to bathe. Buckets are provided, but usually it’s up to you to trod back and forth to the hot and cold fountains, filling the buckets with water and mixing them for the perfect temperature back in your area. The hammam ceiling is usually domed and pierced with small holes to allow natural light to stream in—a beautiful and figure-flattering effect. It’s not always as tranquil as it sounds, however, as mothers attempt to lather up their screaming children while gossiping at high decibels (the hammam is considered a prime spot for scoping potential daughters-in-law). The head-to-toe scrub-down experience is another thing to be prepared for – this is one seriously abrasive massage. You lay down on the stone floor and the attendant’s goal is to rub your skin until several layers peel off like strands of dirty spaghetti. You’ll be amazed, if slightly grossed out, by the filth that falls off your body, and you’ll literally leave in new skin.
What to avoid: The hammam floors are slightly sloped for drainage, so spend a few seconds when you first arrive watching the water flow to make sure you don’t seat yourself downstream in a current of dead skin offal. Don’t take more than two buckets for water as other bathers consider this greedy. And if you decide to douse yourself with cold water at the end of your visit, be sensitive of the people around you – a fierce verbal lashing is pretty much guaranteed if you give a fellow bather an unexpected icy splash.

How to sound like a local, even if you don’t look like one: When leaving the hammam, you’ll likely hear people on the street call to you “BisaHA,” which, roughly translated, means “to your health.” It will please them immensely if you return the wish with the traditional Arabic response, “Allah ya’tik saHA!” – may God also bless yours.

Sefrou. City walls

Neither the most impressive in height or length, Sefrou still has some of the nicest city walls in all of Morocco.

Sefrou. The Mellah

Even until the 1950's as much as 1/3 of the population of Sefrou were Jews. Many of these were of the origin of families that came here from Tafilalt and Algeria in the 13th century.But since the 1950's most Jews emigrated to Israel. Today only a handful Jews remain, living as a minority in their own town quarter, the Mellah.The architecture of the Mellah is modest, and the points of arrival tell stories of often conflicting relationship between the Jews and the Muslim society: the passageways are small, long and dark, and easy to block off if the Jewish inhabitants felt that they were in danger.

Sefrou

Sefrou. A pleasant city walk,

It doesn't take more than an hour or so to see most of what Sefrou has to offer.The architecture is simple but effective, and the walls of the houses are whitewashed, which gives Sefrou a fresher and cleaner feeling than Fez

Sefrou

Sefrou. The unspoiled city
While Sefrou is just a small city, it is clearly among the best destinations for one-day trips from Fez. It lies more than 900 metres above sea level, and every spring the rivers become so fierce that buildings and agriculture is threatened.The city is cut in two halves by the seasonal river Oued Aggaï, which could have been beautiful were it not that it doubles as trash can for the locals.Over the river small bridges allows people, but no normal car traffic to pass. The city is dominated by white houses, simple in their designs, but often with terraces that are generally uncommon in Morocco.Sefrou's history is dominated by religion. It was a Jewish town before Islam was introduced in the 8th century. There are many festivals in town, celebrating the cherry harvest, the prophet Daniel, the 17th century saint Sidi Lahcen Ben Ahmed or Lalla Rekia and her miraculous spring that cures madness.