Tasting Tour

Our week in Morocco was very busy, so I got behind in blogging about it. Also, our internet connections weren't good. But now I've gotten some time to go back and edit

Lunch was too much of a good thing.

It was really too bad that our lunch was so large and so late, because we had a "tasting tour" of the medina lined up to begin at 4 p.m. We pushed it back an hour, but our stomachs were still very full when our two female guides (because men don't cook???) divided us up into two groups of seven and set out in separate directions to let us taste what make Morocca food special.

Generally, eating "street food" from local vendors in a place like the medina would be strictly off limits. There is no health department making inspections in such places, and the risk of getting a case of traveler's stomach is too great. But we trusted that our guide knew the safe places.

Stoking the fires at the hammam

First stop was a hole-in-the-wall spot that had nothing going for it at all other than a large vat of boiling hot chickpea soup, freshly prepared. This is a Moroccan staple, and was served with bread. It was explained that Moroccans eat bread with everything.

Where the tagines go.

Next, we visited the basement underneath a Turkish bath, or Hammam. Here, two guys stoked a very hot fire with wood chips, underneath two large water tanks for the baths upstairs. This may seem out of place for food tour, but the side of the furnace was opened to show us how local women prepare tagine, lamb, beef or chicken with vegetables, and often with couscous in a clay jar. They bring the tagine to the furnace in the evening, where it is put into the hot ashes to slow cook all night for the next day's meal.

Nothing like a hot glass of tea.

From here we tasted lots of stuff, and I got much too involved to remember to take photos. We tasted many types of cheeses made from goat's milk and lamb's milk (goat is better, IMHO). We tasted dates. Who knew there were so many varieties? We tasted various breads, a number of sweets, and had a milkshake made with fresh milk (that is, unpasteurized and straight from the cow) with avocado.

More unique was the snail soup stand. We were getting rather full, so only a small bowl, and of course everyone had to have a snail or two. This required some courage on the part of students who had not previously had the pleasure.

The tea man loved his work!

Another unique stop was a shop that served only meat from sheep and goat heads. We sampled tongue and cheek meat. But the best entertainment came when another tourist, seeing all of us crowding the shop, thought it must be a good place to eat -- until she heard what was on the menu!

No, we did NOT try the camel head -- but there it was.

We moved on to a spice souk, where the merchant gave us a lesson on how various spices are used, not only for cooking, but also to treat various diseases and conditions. Getting a nose full of the spice that is supposed to clear nasal congestion was a shocker!

Some spices clear the sinuses -- explosively.

Finally, we ended the evening at a shop that specializes in varieties of honey. Bees are raised in areas where there are only one kind of plant to create, for example, rosemary honey, lavender honey, orange blossom honey, etc. There were at least a dozen different kinds, and the flavors were distinguishable when tasted side-by-side. But in the end, it was all honey.

We went to bed really stuffed, and full of memories of food in the medina.

Location:Fes, Morocco