Kickin' back on our riad's roofdeck, in the idyllic coastal town of Essaouira
After our the last couple of weeks on the move, we were looking forward to the few days that we had scheduled in to visit Essaouira, a town on the Atlantic coast, for a little bit of R&R as well as spending a few more days in Marrakesh, the highlight being a cooking course that we had booked in the week before.
Marrakesh
We were a lot more confident of ourselves, having previously been to Marrakesh. We arrived fairly late on Sunday night, having spent the day in Casablanca. Straight out of the train station, we acted like locals, dismissing cabbies unless they used the meter (a difference of about 30 dirham), we directed the driver to where we wanted to go, dodged through the insane traffic around Djemaa el-Fna (the main square) and checked into the hotel that we had looked up in the guide book.
Dropping off our backpacks in the room before heading into the square for dinner, it dawned on me that it had been a decently long time since we had arrived in a town for a SECOND time. We had both just got used to the slightly disoriented feeling that one feels, half reading out of the Lonely Planet and trying to guess which way down the unpronounceably-named street we're standing on is the hotel that we were looking for. It was nice to be in "familiar" surroundings!
Djemaa el-Fna at night
Dinner in Djemaa El-Fna is definitely one of the highlights of our travels so far. Once we got past the touts and settled on which food stand we were going to eat at, the food was invariably fresh, well cooked, served almost as soon as we ordered it and fantastic value; we usually got out of there for between US$7 to $14 for the both of us, depending on what we ordered and how much food we had.
I had decided that tonight would be the night that I'd give the snail soup a go. The snail soup stands are fascinating as you see the vendor constantly turning over a huge pile of snails, in beautiful big bowls, simmering in a clear broth - it almost looks appetising! And in any case, as Steph reminded me, we needed another photo for food of the week!
The "soupe d'Escargot" stand
Salty squidgy things...yum!
To cut to the chase and answer your inevitable question, I didn't like it, I didn't hate it - it was sort of salty and chewy, a little bit like a huge booger (although this is probably unduly unflattering). I will say that I definitely prefer the French style of escargot, with lots of garlic, lots of butter and a lot less of an inkling of what you're actually eating. Bloody good value at 60 cents a bowl, though!
Our cooking course wasn't until Wednesday, so we spent Monday and Tuesday seeing some sights and basically did what the local men do - sit back at teahouses and take in the view.
Our first stop was the Saadian tombs, the privileged place of burial for the sherif, direct descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. The tombs are adorned and decorated with fantastic Moroccan zellij and carvings.
Our next stop were the ruins of the Palais el Badi, built between 1278 and 1602, it was once one of the most magnificent palaces in the world. Unfortunately, it is now in ruins, with a lot of the complex now built into the current palce, off limits to the public. However the ruins give an amazing insight into the scale of the place.
We also saw the Palais de la Bahia, the house of a grand vizier and his family, it has retained (and been restored) to some of its former splendour. Absolutely beautiful craftwork and details, which gives a small insight into what some of the neighbouring Palais el Badi could have looked like during its peak.
On Wednesday, we met up with Gemma and Josephine, the lady who runs the cooking courses and her student from Souk Cuisine as well as three other people who were going to be doing the cooking class with us.
The great thing about the course was that it wasn't just all about the cooking. A large part of the day involved working our way through the markets and actually buying the ingredients that we were going to be using in the afternoon.
With Gemma, the richness of the souks really opened up to us, and we got our first real glimpse of the markets, behind the hassling from the touts.
A mint stall, essential for the famed Moroccan mint tea. Different mint from different regions have a different flavour - Fassi, Marrakeshi, etc.
First thing - the obigatory olives...
...and "bastourma" - dried meat, preserved in it's own fat (Steph was impressed). We didn't end up cooking with this.
We also bought some "Huile d'Argan" or Argan oil. Made from the nuts of a plant, it's eaten with bread and very scrummy. Unique to the region, especially towards Essaouira, where the highway is lined with shops flogging the stuff.
We stopped in at the spice store as well. It is actually interesting to note that there are not a lot of spices used in Moroccan cooking - mainly cumin, paprika, star anise, saffron and tumeric for colour. Each store will also have a "pre-mix" of the spices that can be used instead of adding each spice individually. This is sort of like their "signature" blend, unique to each shop.
The remaining jars (ie 90% of them) are used for either medicinal or cosmetic purposes. The store owner asked me to try the natural equivalent of a Vicks inhaler. It succeeded in making my eyes water and made my snot blacker than tar - somehow I think I'll be sticking with the vaporub.
Have a snort of this!
Other "medicinals"
We also stopped in to get fruit and veg, as well as fresh fish from the fishmonger.
Our last stop was the public bakery where they were churning out bread pretty much continuously, being picked up by shopkeepers, restauranteurs and the general public. It was amazing to see!
Once we had completed our shopping, we went back to Gemma's place, where we met Aisha, the lady who had taught Gemma everything she knew about Moroccan cooking. We then got on with the task of cooking the food. We were very keen to do this as the sooner we got our cooking done, the sooner we would be sitting down to eat!
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Start with a cup of tea, to ease ourselves into it...
...we were then assigned our tasks...
...Steph was making ghribas (like little shortbread cookies), seen here kneading the dough. I was assigned to making the eggplant dip!
The fish tagine, just about to go on the stove for an hour or so!
We all had a go at putting the cookies on the tray. I have to say that I was exceptionally crap at doing this - Aisha (on the right) was very particular about size and shape.
Finally sitting down to eat!
Our cooking course was a lot of fun, not just to cook and eat such amazing food, but also in exploring the souq and getting to see a peek of life behind the tourist scene. It waas great!
Essaouira
Early Thursday morning we set off for Essaouira. We initially missed our morning bus (a case of not standing in the right place) and, as such, ended up catching a local bus for the three hour journey to Essaouira
Aside from being very difficult to spell, Essaouira is well established on the tourist trail as a great place to come and chill out after all of the hassle and bustle of the souqs and markets in the other touristed Moroccan cities.
Essaouira was originally named Mogador by the Portugese during the 15th century, renamed Essaouira in the 18th century by one of the Sultans, reverted to Mogador in 1912 during French rule and then renamed Essaouira when Morocco gained independence in 1956.
It's a beautiful town on the coast, although a bit windy. However, due to this, it has become one of the best kite-surfing and wind-surfing areas in the world.
We had booked in at Riad Nakhla, highly recommended in Lonely Planet and, true to form, it was sensational. We spent our first evening just hanging out on the roof deck, taking in the view over town on to the ocean.
The central court at our riad...
...and the view from our roof deck. Beautiful!
The next day we went on a walk through town and down the beach. The water was pretty cold, so we just dipped our toes in!
We also walked down far enough to explore the ruins of an old fort, called Borj el-Berod, near the mouth of a river that meets the ocean. During low tide it's shallow enough to walk across and get to the fort! Although there wasn't much there, the best thing about it was we had the whole place to ourselves!
We did manage to get semi-lost in the dunes coming back, however it was great to be by ourselves for the first time in a while!
One of the camel treks, offered down the beach. We opted out as we got our fill of riding camels in Erg Chebbi!
We spent most of the days we had here just walking around town, looking in at the shops and exploring the eateries.
On the ramparts, the cannon still in place.
One day we did have lunch at one of the fish stalls, setup on the main dock. They have a very wide selection of seafood (as you can see by the photo below!) and they have standardised prices. We didn't know about this, however, luckily, before we paid our bill, we noticed some of the locals looking at a surruptitiously proferred price sheet, which we then pounced on and used with our waiter to calculate our bill. It resulted in a saving of about 60 Dirham (almost US$10) to what we were quoted at the start!
Other than that, we did spend some time playing Yahtzee on the roofdeck, drinking some beers and red wine (from the very hard to find alcohol shop) and generally relaxing!
Getting whipped at Yahtzee by Steph.
One of the local specialities - sort of a sweet chicken couscous - delicious!
After a relaxing few days in Essaouira, we felt refreshed and recharged, ready to take on our last challenge in Morocco, to climb up North Africa's highest peak - Jebel Toubkal, near the village of Imlil in Morocco's High Atlas mountains!
