Tim and Jayne's Adventure Germany II: MOROCCO

I know, I know, what the heck has taken me so long to write a Christmas blog!!!! Well, for one thing between the two of us we have sooooo many photographs that it seemed so overwhelming as to where to start. Tim got a new camera just before Christmas and he played with it alot over our holidays. Anyway, please excuse me for being so so tardy.

........for Christmas we decided to go to Morocco!

Morocco's predominant religion is Islam, while the official languages are Berber and Arabic. Moroccan Arabic and French are also widely spoken.

We rented a riad (house) in the old Medina in the town of Essaouira.

Essaouira - old walled town.

The name of the riad was Dar Qwai. It was amazing and only 200m from the main street of the Medina. It also came with Zara. Everyday she made us breakfast and cleaned the house. She would also make dinner, upon request and we did so on numerous occasions. She was wonderful. Zara has been looking after this riad for about 8 years and her son, Redoin, has been there by her side since the beginning. He is there to help out the guests, show them around, arrange tours etc. As a result he has learned alot of English. He is a wonderful asset. But he is now 21 years old and at law school so obviously isn't around as much.

Zara!


This was our daily breakfast! On occasion, we would get an amazing omlettes. Yes, that is freshly squeezed clementine juice.

Zara and Redoin

We flew into Agadir (which is about 195 km and 2 hr 45 minutes south of Essaouira). Redoin had arranged to be met and driven up to Essaouira - Said (pronounced Sy eed) was our driver (his company is Eagle Tours and he was wonderful. About halfway to Essaouira we stopped for lunch. It was just after the call to prayer (they are called to prayer five times a day, starting at 0600 hrs) had finished and it was very busy on the streets.

Village/town of Tanamar (I think)
You would think that Tim paid this young man on the left to wear his adidas hoody!!

We had an authentic tagine.

The tagines are cooked on these clay pedestals with coals underneath them.


Potato and beef tagine. OMG - was it good! Tim later said that it was the best one he had the whole trip.

In Morocco you don't use utensils. You eat everything with your hands. You get a basket of bread (large buns) and you use the bread to help get the food into your mouth. Afterwards, you wash your hands - a sink and powdered soap is provided at every food stand.

And we had a bit of time to people watch.....

We also stopped at a Argon Oil Women's Cooperative. These cooperatives boost the Moroccan women's opportunities, enable autonomous income generation and helps create educational programming. Women who are members of a cooperative now earn about €6 a day (approx. CA $9.00) – more than 10 times their income a few years ago. Some of the tedious production tasks, such as grinding the nuts and pressing the oil, have been mechanized, to speed up the operation, but also to improve the quality of the oil, doubled its shelf life, and reduced waste. A key task still being done manually is cracking the nuts between two stones. Because the number of kernels in the nut varies, this operation does not lend itself well to mechanization. But the ladies we saw were doing everything by hand - it is likely due to the fact this was a bit of a tourist stop, but it was very interesting.

Cracking the nuts with two stones.

Argan oil is the most valuable product of the argan tree, a hardy, long-lived, drought-tolerant species that grows only in Morocco. Prized for its light, nutty flavour, the honey-coloured oil is used as salad dressing and cooking oil, and is coveted for its medicinal and cosmetic properties. I bought some argon oil lip protector and it is wonderful.

ESSAOUIRA

The Medina of Essaouira is a UNESCO World Heritage listed city. The Medina (typically walled, contains many narrow and maze-like streets and are generally free from car traffic,) is home to many small arts and crafts businesses, notably cabinet making, 'thuya' wood carving and marquetry (using roots of the Tetraclinis tree), both of which have been practised in Essaouira for centuries.

Narrow, car less streets full of shops.

A view of part of the town from a roof top terrace bar.

View from our roof top terrace.

Christmas Day

Christmas Dinner


Our Christmas Tagine made by Zara Beef, Apricot and Peanuts! We also had Zara make us: Chicken Vegetable Tagine with Lemon and Olives, Lamb, Prunes and Almond Tagine, Home made pizza, and one night she made us an amazing dessert called la bouche de la nuit.

Had Draa Souk

Once a week this little village of Had Draa becomes one of the oldest and most famous markets along the Atlantic Coast.

We asked Redoin, to come with us to the market and we hired Said to take us there.

Jayne and Redoin
In Essaouira, Redoin wears normal everyday North America/European clothes,
but he wore his djellaba (the long Moroccan hooded robe) to the souk probably so that the vendors
knew that he was a 'local'

You enter the world of a souk like no other. There are many sections of the market, each with its own activity.

Everything, absolutely everything is sold at this market - cakes, cookies, fruits (clementines were 2 cents/kg), vegetables, shoes, spices, herbs, straw, straw hats, clothing, rubber tires, old pieces and parts of pallets, animal hides (that have very recently been taken off the animal, it even looks like garbage is sold.

Cookies - we bought a bag full for pennies.

Freshly picked veggies.

Tim found some 'real' adidas clothing - - NOT!

Honestly - all of this is for sale.

and this.....

and this.
If the garbage in the background isn't for sale, then this part of the souk
must be held in the garbage dump!
Truly a sight to see.

A tagine anyone?

How about a sheepskin?

We didn't know that PUMA and adidas made shoes from rubber!
I don't think they do either.

Amazing!

....stalls were overflowing with recently butchered meat. Redoin asked if we wanted to try some camel meat or some goat meat. The adventurous people that we are, accepted.

What you see hanging is the hump of the camel which is essentially a giant mound of fat.
A healthy camels hump can weigh up to 80 lbs (35 kg).
The hump is the most prized part of the animal as it is tender and fattier than the rest of the beast.

This is the goat that we bought.

Redoin took us over to one of the Berber tents where we were going to eat our meat and drink tea.

Redoin handed over our freshly butchered camel and goat meat to the 'chef' who
cooked our meat to perfection. While this was going on
Redoin made us some wonderful Moroccan tea.

Moroccans are famous for their hospitality, and it is Moroccan etiquette to offer tea to any visitors that might stop by. Although the tea is usually prepared with a generous amount of spearmint leaves, other herbs such as absinthe or wild mint might be used. Here is a wonderful recipe for Moroccan Tea...

This recipe serves 6 people:

- 1 large handful fresh mint leaves (spearmint or peppermint). Try to find an Arab grocery store. Moroccan mint has a different taste than most other mints.

- 6 teaspoons loose gunpowder green tea

- liter of hot water between 70°c (158°F) to 80°c (176°F)

- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar

Steps

1. Boil the water

2. Pour a quarter of a cup of boiled water into a clean teapot. Rinse and discard.

3. Add 1 teaspoon of the loose tea into the teapot for every cup of tea you are going to make (use your judgement.

4. Add 6 oz (177ml) of hot water for every cup of tea.

5. Let the tea steep for 1-2 minutes.

6. Swirl the pot to wash and rinse the tea leaves and pour out the water leaving the tea leaves in the pot.

7. Add the mint leaves to the teapot and add the sugar to the teapot.

8. Fill the pot with 1/2 a liter (about 2-3 cups) of boiling water. Leave the tea to steep for five minutes or longer.

9. Pour one glass of tea. Pour it back into the teapot. Do this three or more times. This helps dissolve the sugar.

10. Carefully pour the tea from a high distance - at least 12 inches. Doing this will help to create a thin layer of bubbles on the top - the bubbles are an important part of Moroccan tea. When pouring, make sure the tea leaves stay the tea inside the pot. Only fill 2/3 full; this enables the aroma to develop fully. Garnish the tea with extra mint.

11. Enjoy!

As you can see from the above recipe, making Moroccan tea is is quite a lengthy process - it is an art!
Absinthe is one of the 'herbs' that you can add, which is what Redoin made for us.
Redoin told us that his family, of 3, goes through 2 kg of loose tea a month!

This is our camel and goat meat! It was good!
(check out the bubbles in the tea glasses)

And, in parallel, runs the cattle market with calves, cows, donkeys, camels, sheep, goats. This part of the market starts very early in the morning. So if you are looking to buy an animal go very early to get the best deal of the day.

Want a goat?

Tim and his new best friend!

You might be wondering how they got these cows up on the roof without a ramp.....

.....this is how. Rope and manpower. Two guys go under the cow and push up while the guys, on top, are pulling.
Amazing to watch.

What a truly ABSOLUTELY amazing experience.

Redoin and Said fooling around.

On the way home, we stopped for a photo op.......

The Fishing Port

The fishing harbour is quite small compared to Agadir to the south and Safi to the north, but its catches - sardines, and conger eels - are surprisingly abundant due to the powerful trade winds and the current. Essaouira remains one of the major fishing harbours of Morocco.

Redoin's father is a fisherman, so with his great knowledge, Redoin took us for a tour around the port on Christmas Day.

I love this picture.

After our tour we stopped at one of the many fish stalls for lunch.

Redoin and I choosing our catch.

Our lunch selection.

It was all very good.
Notice - no cutlery!

It went in as a whole fish and out with just bones ?!#$% Not really.

The Beach

The beach in Essaouira is about 5 km long. The area is known for surfing and kite surfing so it is usually windy. Every day we would try and walk the beach (my foot still hadn't healed so I had to miss out on a number of days).

Ahhhh, just chillaxing!

Early in the morning.....a lovely sight.
There was always someone trying to sell you a camel ride, horseback tour and
even quad tours (yuck).

Food

What a wonderful picture.

How many different ways can you can an olive?

Clementines, clementines and more clementines. Right off the trees.

The meat just hangs there and people come and go, walk around the meat or hit it.

'Our' butcher. We bought one of the best t-bones that we have ever had from this guy.

A typical fruit and veggie stall on the main street.

Gorgeous fresh fresh donuts - not too fattening.
They were held together with a piece of reed.

Tim was hungry one day so we just stopped in
at the next little 'hole in the wall'.
A tagine in a bun - OMG was it ever good.

As they say - eat where the locals eat.

I think we have at least 10 pictures of these. You just can't help yourself.

Their bread (10 cents for a large bun) and their olives are amazing.

A wonderful chicken tagine that Tim had for lunch one day.

One of Zara's tagines.

New Years Eve is a big event in Morocco and one of the things to do is to buy a big wonderful cake.
All the families are all dressed up. It was lovely to see.

When in Morocco, you have to have a hammam. A Hammam is a steam room, similar to a Turkish bath. The Hammam is an incredibly important part of Moroccan culture and life. Men, women and children will visit their local Hammam at least once a week, and spend two or three hours there (sometimes even longer!!), catching up on gossip with their friends, and following the long rituals for cleansing their bodies until their skin glows.

There are public hammans and hotel or spa hammams. Tim and I went to a spa for our hammam. We stripped down to our underwear and we sat in a lovely concrete room with warm concrete benches. It started with fairly hot, incredibly soft water being poured over us and then we were left to sit for 5 – 10 minutes before covering you with mud or clay. Once the clay comes off the black soap goes on and is left to penetrate your skin. That then gets washed off, and the fun really begins with the super vigorous exfoliation. A cold shower followed to re-close the pores absolute bliss!

Various Sights Around Essaouira

Spice and Herb / Herbal shop

Taxi anyone?
No really, these are really used as public transport.

Zara and Redoin gave each of us a pair of slippers for Christmas, which was soooo nice of them.

At our sunset bar
(cafe bar - don't forget we are in a Muslim country - not drinking
Well.... you can drink in certain restaurants but we
used the excuse that since we are in a Muslim
country that we won't drink).

Marquetry using Thuya wood

The art of marquetry was born in the XIXe century in Morocco, and the sultans liked to decorate their palaces with furniture, tables and jars that were made by skilled craftsmen in marquetry.

Marquetry is the art of applying pieces of veneer or fragments of shells as mother of pearl, or fragments of silvery threads to a piece of wood to form decorative patterns and designs.