Category Archives: Food

Derring-Do

Food, Morocco
Today I was eating my breakfast and new Rabat Auntie said she was going to the shops, so I asked if I could go (because I like getting out of the house and being a little active) and she said yes. I was about to go and change my shoes from flip-flops, and put something over my shoulders when she was all “get moving“.So I went out in a spaghetti strap top!

Nothing covering me up or anything. I felt so daring and exciting. It was probably quite sad. So as we were wandering round the shop I started realising supermarket things I’ll miss about Morocco when I leave.

1) Moufid Jiby chocolate milk. It costs 3Dhs, and I had it every day in Fes.
2) Pickled lemon. It’s just the best thing ever. I know I can get it in England, but it just won’t be as good.
3) Huge arrays of biscuits. I don’t ever buy them, but I don’t understand why shops in England don’t stock more biscuits. Morocco loves its biscuits.
4) Turkey substitutes for pork. I do miss pork, but the idea that I won’t be able to get ‘Ham-that’s-not-ham-that’s-actually-turkey-but-dyed-bright-pink’ any more is a little sad. My sandwiches will have much less character.

It all got me thinking as well, I need to work on my souvenirs. So far I have a Kaftan, a Jelaba, two plates made in Fes, some tea-glasses, a leather bag, two Moroccan purses, a scarf, and a pair of bright yellow slippers. I still need a tea-pot, and spices at the very least. Tomorrow I’ll ask Rabat Mum about it.

Watermelon

Food, Fun, Morocco

The closer I get to exams, the more food-oriented my blog titles become. I won’t lie, it has to do with the fact that I’m a big eater anyway, and so much more so when it comes to exams. Thankfully I still have Jillian Michaels to keep me thin.

The Boyfriend has observed that my food cravings are incredibly specific. Yesterday they included ham and cheese toasties, and oatmeal and raisin CHEWY (I can’t impress how important the texture is) cookies. Today I have worked my way through McDonalds Big Mac – which I 100% do not advertise to anyone, because I thoroughly dislike them as a corporation, but I cannot help myself from craving their hamburgers – chocolate and cherry milkshake and cheese and bacon filled potato skins, up to now.

Which is stupid, because Moroccan food is so amazing. Tagine is one of my favourite dishes, and is typically beef or chicken with a vegetable, slow cooked until very tender and then just served in it’s own sauce with bread. Aside from various tagines, Moroccans are famed for Harira soup (which I am daily informed isn’t soup, even though that is the only possible description) couscous with assorted vegetables and amazing sweetened onions or pumpkin (which Madame Halima insists on calling ‘l’alloween’) and khlia, which is salted, potted meat, which is a decent Muslim equivalent of bacon, served fried up with eggs.

Also, it’s the season for amazing fruit. By which I mean the entire year is full of amazing fruit. Which brings me to the picture at the top. Because, you see, when Mr Aziz inquired as to how you say ‘Watermelon’ in English I told him. To which he literally replied ‘Ceci n’est pas un melon d’eau’. And if you’re both a linguist and a geek, you will totally understand.

Nougat

Food, Life, Morocco
Today I helped to plastic-wrap and bowtie 120 individual pieces of nougat. Now my back feels like someone has beaten it vigorously with a baseball bat.Then I did a load of vocabulary revison.I really have so little to talk about recently. My life is a big rolling messy mixture of revision, wedding planning, and organising my work experience month, not to mention organising my summer. Between all of that there is no time for anything else. Unfortunately, none of that is exciting either, and definitely not post-worthy.

In fact, the most interesting thing which has happened to me all week is probably wrapping up 120 pieces of nougat which completely destroyed my back.

 

Masterchef: Final 3

Food, Life, Morocco
Warning! This post contains Masterchef series 7 episode 13 spoilers!


Ok, it doesn’t contain many. But some. I’m sure you’re all well aware by now that one of the many old person programs which I am totally addicted to is Masterchef. Since I’ve been here there has been a new series (as there is every year) and though it’s not been as good as last year in my opinion, I still can’t keep my eyes off it.

Courtesy of The Guardian

Yesterday was the first episode of the final. These guys got sent to Australia to try out some foraging and then some barbeque cooking with exciting Australian ingredients like kangaroo, barramundi and crocodile. Then they were judged by Australians, and there is no more pleasing race of people in the world for their down-to-earth judgements.

And that is all I will reveal at present. Safe to say that I will be closely watching to see who wins finally. I am on team Tim at the minute, but that can always change. We’ll have to see.

Hot Cross Buns and Sympathy

Food, Life, Morocco
Yesterday I baked Hot Cross Buns, and gave out sympathy. Baking and sympathy are some things I think I do very well.I woke up around 10ish, and spent the middle of the day trying to get in contact with my lovely Mum to say Happy Birthday. Unfortunately I couldn’t get through, and I’d already organised to head down to a party at the boy’s house in the afternoon. It was lovely. We played games and ate good food, and while it was slow getting started, it was still lovely. I slept over and then headed home this morning.

I walked a new way and there were no people, and that was scary. But I made it home fine, so that was ok.

I’ve spent the day still trying to get in contact with my family (without success so far) watching Dr Who – even though the Boyfriend really hates it, and doing work. Everyone else is out celebrating a birthday, but Madame Halima and Mr Aziz are worried about protests, and so I haven’t been out. It’s not the most exciting existence ever.

But oh well. Life goes on.

Happy Birthday Mum!!

Pancake Day

Food, Fun, Life, Morocco
For those of you not from England, today is Pancake Day.
For those of you from England, today is also Mardi Gras and Shrove Tuesday, and a whole batch of other stuff. But all we are about is the pancakes right?

How could you not be deeply into those, anyway? The Christian meaning of Shrove Tuesday is the day when people eat, drink, and get merry before the start of Lent. Lent is the month before Easter and depending on your denomination it has a variety of customs including fasting or giving something up.

This year, since I am in a Muslim country, I am collecting the customs of a few different denominations, and trying them out. So tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, I will fast from dawn to dusk, which is a Catholic practice.

Then I won’t eat meat, fat, eggs or birds on Fridays for the rest of Lent, which is practised in a lot of churches. And finally, I plan to fast dawn to dusk for the whole of Holy Week, which is the week preceding the Triduum, which are the three days of Easter proper. I think it will be an interesting insight into the different Christian practises around this, which is our most important festivals.

But until then, bring on the pancakes!!!

Food and lies

Food, Morocco

Today my taxi driver offered me his breakfast. Not in a creepy way either. He just motioned towards his patisserie bag with a croissant in and mimed eating. I could have hugged him…This of course is one in a long line of lovely things which happen when you live in a culture which is food-centric.

To really understand a culture that is centred on food, you have to experience it. We in the west think we are centred on food, but we’re not. We think this because we create amazing dishes of immense expense and effort. What we don’t do is what really makes a culture food-centric. We don’t drown our guests in all the food it is possible to produce at one time.

Take my parents for example. My Mum is vegetarian, and so it’s easy to tell when she is welcome. She was welcome here, because on the first night, Madame Halima made 6 seperate dishes, just for my Mum. Thought to be impossible in a country where a meal without meat is completely inconceivable. Had my Mum not been vegetarian, they were thinking of buying a sheep. An entire one. I kid you not.

As for the lies, there is no reason for me to go into detail (I may at a later date) but I have to ask. Do you feel you could ever again respect someone, if they lied so thoroughly that they actually got some perfectly kind people evicted unnecessarily? This has happened to some friends, and though I understand the person in question’s problems with my friends, the fact that he couldn’t settle it in an adult manner is both immature and pathetic in my books. What do you think?

Girls Day Out

Food, Fun, Morocco

Know what’s awesome?

Having good friends to spend your time with. Last night I went out on a double ‘date’ with three of my girl mates over here. We shared salad and pizza, and then went to the very posh Maison Blanche for some cocktails. I had a £7 Tom Collins, but it was good.

Today we had breakfast together, and then went down to the old Medina. After a walk around there which was very relaxing we went and discovered the palace gardens, which are stunning. Then we headed back to the Ville Nouvelle for a potato sandwich (don’t doubt me, it’s good) and some ice-cream. I can’t think of a better snack than a ball of mixed flavours of ice-cream. Especially for 20p. Amazing.

Tonight we’re gonna have a film night. It will be totally awesome. I love having friends.

A day of spending and galivanting

Food, Life, Morocco

Today has been a long day. It began with me rolling out of bed and wandering into town to meet the lovely Madame Halima who was going to take me clothes shopping for a Caftan. I got to the bank where we were meeting a little early, so I went inside (it was raining) and waited.

45 minutes later, Madame Halima showed. Which was fine except that the guy at the door thought I was some kind of well-dressed homeless person, I’d been sitting there so long.

So we did bank stuff and went on our way for Caftan shopping. You remember caftans, right? I wore one to the weddings that I’ve been to, and they look a little bit like curtains (at times). This one here, I discovered today, cost about £500. I have been wearing a £500 piece of clothing, and not even realising.

Mine is now being made, which will take around a month. This Thursday I’ll go in for a basic fitting before all the embroidery gets added. Mine will be a little bit more modern. It is aubergine over the top with silver polka-dots below. If you want more of an idea, watch this at 1:50 to see the basic design. My sleeves will be capped a little more, but otherwise that’s prettymuch it.

Following this, we then met with Mr Aziz. This is where the galivanting began. Let’s bear in mind at this point that it is 2.30 and I haven’t eaten since 9. We went to get some forms signed. It took Madame Halima 20 minutes. We then went to the ‘Administration’ presumably to get something administrated. This was never explained to me. That took 40 minutes. I sat in the car. Apparently the people went to lunch and so they waited the whole 30 minute break. Finally at about 3 we went and had the most delicious sandwiches ever. Then another hour was spent getting watch batteries, onions and car parts. And now I am home, and totally ready to crash out. And it’s only 5pm.

Cooking up a storm.

Food, Morocco

Those of you who know me personally will know that when I die and (hopefully) go to heaven, it will look something like this:

Ok, so this lovely picture by ruth1066 is actually the kitchens of Kentwell Hall which is a historic house in the UK. It’s fantastic there. My heaven would probably include more up-to-date kitchen equipment, but the message I’m sending out is that I love cooking.

Which is why this morning has been fabulous. I’ve learnt three Moroccan dishes over the course of the last three hours including red potato tagine, Harira, and fried fish. I look forward to getting the recipes home and trying them out on my own. Although after this morning of knackering work I’m already on Amazon adding to my wishlist of kitchen items to make life easier.