After spending almost a week in Morocco, I got a pretty good taste of this unbelievable cuisine. From tagine to exotic spices to French delights, Moroccan food is diverse. There are a few things to be weary of, in order to avoid getting sick. But by going to the right places and being a little adventurous, your Moroccan meals will excite.
I began the first day in Marrakech, if you would like to read my itinerary check out, 1 Week In Morocco. I landed in the early afternoon and got to my hotel in time for dinner.
Day 1: Marrakech
Dinner: Riad Spa Sindibad
The riad we stayed at provided a dinner, for a cost. It cost 170 MAD for a starter and main course, which is what we opted for, that is $17.28 each. For an appetizer, I got the assortment of briouates (cheese, vegetables, meats). They are shown on the green plate. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but they are a savory puff pastry almost like an egg roll. They tasted good, had a lot of unknown spices in them, but overall they were delicious. My mom had the harira (Moroccan soup). The soup had tomato, lentil and lamb, it was a little spicy.
We then moved onto our main course. We both had tagine. I had read in travel blogs, it was a traditional Moroccan meal and something we were both excited to try. I had chicken tagine with couscous. The meal came out in a special clay cone shaped bowl; it was piping hot and our waiter poured out the sauce with all the spices. We finished the meal off with some traditional Morrocan mint tea. Our waiter told us that the higher the tea is poured and the more bubbles that form in the glass, the more respect it shows for that person.
Day 2: Marrakech
Breakfast: Riad Spa Sindibad
This morning we had breakfast at our riad again, it was included in our nightly rate. They brought out many different types of breads, including one that looked like a pancake almost, we had different preserves to go along with it. They also gave us orange juice and coffee as well as some fresh fruit.
Lunch: Cafe Arabe
We left the riad and went walking around downtown Marrakech and visited the souks. For lunch, I tried a new spice that I had never heard of before, saffron. I went all out and had two dishes with saffron. I started with saffron soup, the flavors were very interesting, and weren't too spicy, which I was worried about. Next, I had saffron pasta with zucchini and black pepper. The delicious creamy sauce perfectly complemented the zucchini and pasta. The linguine allo zafferano was 100 MAD, which is $10.17.
Dinner: Grand Café de la Poste
For dinner, we decided to go to a french restaurant, Grand Cafe de la Poste. We started with a traditional onions soup with cheese which was 80 MAD or $8.13. Next we had a filet mignon which was 260 MAD or $26.43. A pretty good deal for filet!! The flavors were delicious and the service was amazing, I washed it down with a strawberry daiquiri.
Day 3: Marrakech to Fes
Dinner: Dar Roumana
Today we took a train from Marrakech to Fes. I did not take any pictures of the food because it wasn’t the best. We had a croissant in the train station and then a cheese sandwich on the train. It was not good. We finished with a great dinner at Dar Roumana, also called the house of pomegranate. The restaurant sent us a porter to walk us to the restaurant, which was a very nice touch, given that Fes does not have cars and it is a little confusing to get around. I started off with a lamb and hummus appetizer. We had more lamb for our main course, as well as veggies and potato gratin. For desert we both had a trio including, a brownie, creme brulee and lemon sorbet. It cost 350 MAD for the three course meal, each, which is $35.58. Afterwards the porter walked us home.
Day 4: Fes
Lunch: Cafe Clock
We had lunch on a rooftop terrace overlooking a mosque. I opted to have falafel, hummus, tabbouleh and a side of garlic bread, with an orangina. This was one of the best meals we had in Fes and I highly recommend it to anyone who is visiting. The falafel had just enough spice and flavor and the lemon top was the perfect complement. The falafel , hummus and tabbouleh was 55 MAD and the garlic bread was 20 MAD, which is $7.62.
Dinner: Hotel Sahari Restaurant
Today, we decided to visit the Hotel Sahari and have dinner there. The restaurant had a great view of Old Fes. We began with drinks and snacks on the roof. We had crostini with thyme, goat cheese, honey and a little mustard. For our main course, we both had a filet mignon with a hollandaise sauce and a glass of red wine. For desert, we had the BEST creme brulee of our life. Overall, this meal was a little pricey, around $100 for the two of us.
Day 5:
Breakfast: Algila Fes Riad
We ate breakfast at our riad. It was very good and similar to what our other riad provided. We had different breads with spreads and jams, scrambled eggs and fresh juices and fruits. It was in a beautiful courtyard and included in our stay.
Lunch: Hotel Sahari
The Hotel Sahari had an amazing pool with a view of the city, so asked our waiter if we could use the pool if we came to have lunch there. We went back and had a chicken salad sandwich at the pool. It was good, but not excellent.
Dinner: Algila Fes Riad
We arrived at our riad pretty tired and late and asked them if they could make us anything for dinner. They made us a morrocan soup (harira) and we had a few pieces of bread to go with it.
Day 6:
Today, we ate breakfast at our riad in Fes and then saw the merenid tombs before heading to the airport. We had a small cheese sandwich at a bakery at the airport and then flew to Marrakech. Then we flew back to Madrid and I headed home to Rome.
A lot of the food we ate in Morocco was unique and incorporated new spices and flavors, I had not tried before. There are a lot of concerns about getting sick and here are a few things we did to avoid that.
-We did not drink tap water, even to brush our teeth.
-We avoided most raw vegetables, because they can be washed in tap water.
-We did not eat street food.
We did eat fresh orange juice and it did not personally make us sick. Our travel doctor gave us a prescription for a food illness medicine, but we did not need it. We both had typhoid shots before visiting. Everywhere we ate in Morocco was delicious and I would highly recommend visiting.