Tagine Alert

We were awakened at 5:00am by the call to prayer. It was the loudest call to prayer we have heard (the mosque must have been right outside our window). There is a dispute about if it was the best sung call to prayer. I was in the minority thinking it was off key. But what do I know?

We drove back from the seaside city of Essaouira towards Marrakech. On the way we had a delicious Moroccan lunch. The tagine we were served was cooked in the traditional way in clay pots, but this was the first time I had ever seen them cooked over coals. Each clay tagine pot had a base filled with burning wood that slow cooked the contents (chicken and vegetables).

I haven’t mentioned that this being a Muslim country you don’t see very many dogs. But you see cats everywhere. At any rate I couldn’t resist the picture of a cat that was near us at lunch. Interestingly there were some roosters strutting around (probably wondering who was being cooked in the tagine pot) and the cat and the roosters got along fine. I had expected Moroccan food to be spicy but it isn't. I thought (incorrectly) that harissa spice mixture was a common Moroccan condiment, it isn't it is used in Tunisian and Algerian cooking.

Moroccans use donkeys to cart things around (either on the donkey’s back, or pulling carts). You see them everywhere. Donkey’s are definitely cute animals as they just seem to stand around if they aren’t pulling anything watching the world go by.

We arrived back in Marrakech where we are spending the night and headed out for a walk thru the souk (the market).

We then went for a drink at La Mamounia Hotel. The hotel is as luxurious as you can possibly imagine. The history of La Mamounia is as fascinating as the hotel. Situated on the edge of the walls of the old city of Marrakech, La Mamounia is named for its 200-year-old gardens, which were given as an 18th century wedding gift to Prince Moulay Mamoun by his father. Today the gardens cover nearly 20 acres and display an incredible variety of flowers and trees. The place is stunning (and I am sure the room rates are also!). When they brought us drinks they did something I have never seen before. The waiter brought over a bottle of Gin and mixed the drinks at the table. No measuring of a shot, just a very generous pour. 

We returned to our hotel cleaned up for drinks and dinner. We then went out for another tagine and coucous dinner. Before we left Los Angeles we asked a waiter friend of ours what we should eat in Morocco. He said order tagine every dinner. I think we are following his advice.

Tomorrow we have a long drive stopping at an old Roman City then on to the fabled city of Fez.