Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Brochettes
Kebabs rubbed with salt and spices, grilled on a skewer and served with
khoobz
and
harissa
(capsicum-pepper sauce), cumin and salt. Among the most popular varieties are lamb, chicken,
kefta
(spiced
meatballs of ground lamb and/or beef) and the aggressively flavourful 'mixed meat' (usually lamb or beef
plus heart, kidney and liver).
Merguez
Hot, spicy, delicious homemade lamb sausage, not to be confused with
teyhan
(stuffed spleen; like
liver, only less bitter and more tender) -
merguez
is usually reddish in colour, while
teyhan
is pale.
Pizza
Now found at upscale
snaks
catering to the worldly Moroccan middle class. Look for
snaks
boasting
wood-fired ovens, and try tasty local versions with olives, onions, tomatoes, Atlantic anchovies and wild
thyme.
Shwarma
Spiced lamb or chicken roasted on a spit and served with
tahina
(sesame sauce) or yoghurt, with
optional onions, salad,
harissa
and a dash of
sumac
(a tart, pickle-flavoured purple spice; highly recommen-
ded).
Tajines
The famous Moroccan stews cooked in conical earthenware pots that keep the meat unusually moist
and tender. The basic tajines served at a roadside
snak
are usually made with just a few ingredients, pulled
right off a camping stove or
kanun
(earthenware brazier), and plonked down on a ramshackle folding table.
Often you can pick your tajine; point to one that's been bubbling for an hour or two, with nicely caramelised
onions and well-reduced sauce. Don't let appearances fool you: this could be one of the best tajines you'll
eat in Morocco. Pull up a stool and dig in, using your
khoobz
as your utensil instead of rinsed-and-reused
flatware.
The Moroccan Power Lunch
Some upscale Moroccan restaurants that serve an evening
diffa
(feast) to tourist hordes
serve a scaled-down menu at lunch, when waitstaff are more relaxed and the meal is
sometimes a fraction of the price you'd pay for dinner. You might miss the live music and
inevitable belly dancing that would accompany a fancy supper - but then again, you might
not. Three courses may seem a bit much for lunch, but don't be daunted: what this usually
means is a delightful array of diminutive vegetable dishes, followed by a fluffy couscous
and/or a small meat or chicken tajine, capped with the obligatory mint tea and biscuits or
fruit.
Mezze
(Salad course) This could be a meal in itself. Fresh bread and three to five small, usually cooked ve-
getable dishes that might include lemony beet salad with chives, herbed potatoes, cumin-spiked chickpeas, a
relish of roasted tomatoes and caramelised onions, pumpkin purée with cinnamon and honey, and a roasted,
spiced eggplant dip so rich it's often called 'aubergine caviar'.
Main
The main course is usually a tajine and/or couscous - a quasi-religious experience in Morocco not to
be missed, especially on Fridays. The most common tajine choices are
dujaj mqalli bil hamd markd wa zee-
toun
(chicken with preserved lemon and olives, zesty in flavour and velvety in texture);
kefta bil matisha wa
bayd
(meatballs in a rich tomato sauce with a hint of heat from spices and topped with a sizzling egg); and
lehem bil berquq wa luz
(lamb with prunes and almonds served sliding off the bone into a saffron-onion
sauce). If you're in Morocco for a while, you may tire of these classic tajine options - until you come across