I had been looking forward to our cooking class since I had decided to join Nicole on this trip. After meeting up with Gemma (the woman who runs Souk Cuisine) and the other four students taking the class that day, we headed into the markets to shop for the necessary ingredients for the pre-chosen menu. Then we went to the house where the kitchen is set up and chopped veggies and herbs, stirred up mixtures of spices, rolled meatballs, folded little triangle-shaped pastries, and mixed and mixed and mixed until we had a delicious Moroccan meal. After our very filling lunch, we met up with Yasmine for more sightseeing, and topped off our day with a little taste of the glamorous life. It was a wonderful way to end our time in Marrakech, and Morocco in general.

View of the Koutoubia minaret as we waited for our class to meet.

On our way to the spice market, we encountered this snail vendor. These creatures are sold for the spicy snail soup sold in the Djemaa el Fna square in the evenings.

Coincidentally, the same spice market we’d shopped at with the twins was also Gemma’s favorite.

Next stop was the vegetable market. We had walked by this quite a few times over the previous two days, as it was on the path between our riad and the square.

Waiting patiently to purchase our produce.

Diced onions and spices going into the tagine to make the sauce.

Cooking the veggies (diced carrots, zucchini, green bellpepper, onion), finely chopped herbs (parsley, coriander) and spices for the briouates.

Katy fried eggplant slices for zaahlouk.

Nicole was on meatball duty.

Meatballs (beef, onion, parsley, coriander and spices) for the kefta tagine.

Tagine sauce ready for the tomatoes.

Claire sifted flour and confectioners sugar for the ghribas, a light crumbly cookie.

Orange flower water, butter, baking powder and toasted sesame seeds for the ghribas.

Katy’s pureed eggplant, ready for spices, herbs and tomatoes.

Kate cooled our veggies and we got ready to cut ourka pastry dough into strips for rolling.

Nicole and Claire made ghribas.

Ruth made Moroccan salad (tomatoes, onions, parsley, coriander and spices), as well as the Sweet Carrot salad (carrots, garlic, parsley, coriander, sugar, vinegar and spices).

Rolling briouates was a challenge. You cut the dough, which is similar to filo, into about 1.5″ strips, place a round teaspoon of the veggie mix on one end, and roll and fold it along the dough into a triangle. But not quite like you would fold samosas. Or flags.

We all tried to roll briouates, so we got a variety of shapes and sizes. In the end, it didn’t matter, since they were fried and delicious!

Meatballs in the tagine, followed by eggs. Soon after, it was time to eat!

Sweet Carrot Salad

Moroccan Salad and Zaahlouk

Briouates with vegetables (with spicy harissa for dipping)

Tagine with kefta and eggs

Ghribas

Our Souk Cuisine classmates and fellow chefs

After stuffing ourselves silly, we ran to meet Yasmine and head to the Medersa Ben Youssef before it closed.

The beautiful medersa was founded in the 14th century. This Koranic school once housed and taught 900 students.

A few of the dorm rooms upstairs show how students used to live. The rooms were very small, about the size of my Manhattan kitchen!

After the medersa, we ran across town to the Badi Palace, which was built in the 16th century. It was looted of its gold, jewels and other treasures 75 years later, and now all you can see is the ruins of the once extravagant palace. The only item of grandeur left is the Koutoubia minbar (prayer pulpit), with very intricately carved cedarwood details. Unfortunately we couldn’t take photos of that.

In the summer, the city holds concerts and events in the courtyard.

Along the ramparts, storks have built nests, where they enjoy spectacular views of Marrakech.

Storks have very large nests.

Nicole and I wanted to experience a little luxury, even though we weren’t really dressed for it. The newly remodeled La Mamounia hotel is as fancy as it gets, with well dressed staff throughout, beautiful interiors, high end shops in the main building, and a gorgeous garden in the back. Yasmine even ran into a friend from school who now works for the hotel.

Just days before we arrived, A-list celebs were at La Mamounia to help celebrate its reopening.

Fancy fruit juice for Yasmine, cocktails for Nicole and me. Now THIS is the way to end a vacation!

There are five lovely bars in La Mamounia, so we chose the Churchill Bar for its jazzy lounge feel. There was even a shiny red baby grand piano with bar stools set around it! What a fun way to celebrate our days in Marrakech and spend a last evening with Yasmine. Soon, it was time to say goodbye to our lovely friend.

Our last dinner at Riad Karmela started with an assortment of veggie salads (I loved everything except for the one on the upper right - some sort of sweet stewed tomatoes with sesame seeds) .

Tagine of chicken, potatoes, olives and preserved lemons

Dessert was a chocolate torte with whipped cream, baked apple and fresh orange slices.

And that’s the end of our adventure through Morocco! Though we didn’t know each other very well, and had never traveled together before, I’d say Nicole and I were pretty good travel partners. We were together 24/7 for the most part, and spent a lot of time sharing life stories. We both agreed that best part of our trip was experiencing the Eid al Kabir with the Cherkaoui family, and sharing the culture first-hand. I can’t say I would change, add or omit much of anything we saw or did on this trip. The long hours in the car were necessary to get to the places we wanted to see,  and the tour company, Journey Beyond Travel, was extremely accommodating and helpful in all of our planning. I’d definitely recommend them if you’re planning your own trip to Morocco.

All in all, this was one of the most memorable travel experiences I’ve ever had, largely thanks to our driver and new friend, Hicham, and his amazingly generous and gracious family. I cannot thank them enough for their hospitality and willingness to share so much with complete strangers. I also loved the craziness of the cities, the calm of the desert and the coast, shopping in the souks, and making new friends in the cooking class. And now that I have a tagine of my own, I can’t wait to make Moroccan food for my friends and family at home!

We had one major goal for our second day in Marrakech: Christmas shopping. Armed with my handy and inspiring book about shopping in Marrakech, and later assisted by the twins, we were on a search for tea glasses, babouches and argan oil for our friends and family. I was also determined to buy a fez hat for my nephew, and a traditional tagine and some spices for myself.

Djemaa el Fna square is a wide open space during the day. These butane tanks power the evening food stands.

Wandering the alleys and markets in the early morning was a far better experience than the previous evening. In the daylight, we were able to navigate the maps in my shopping book.

Thanks to Yasmine and Nesrine, we finished our shopping in a couple of hours. The twins’ mother invited us to their home for lunch, so we dropped our stuff off at Riad Karmela and met the resident turtle.

Once again, we were amazed by the hospitality of our Marakchi family. We shared this amazing platter of salads, which included cauliflower, tomatoes and onions, green beans, carrots, potato salad, boiled eggs, and rice with tuna and corn. Fantastic!

We thought the salad platter was the lunch, but then they brought out this beautiful onion and lamb tagine! We ate the traditional way, picking up meltingly tender bits of meat and veggies with bread. Another delicious meal from our wonderfully generous hosts. And of course, the meal ended with mint tea.

After lunch, we thanked our hosts and hopped on a bus to the Jardins Majorelle (Majorelle Gardens), donated to the city by fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. He and his partner purchased the villa and the surrounding gardens to preserve the vision of its original owner, Jacques Majorelle.

There are over 300 plant species from deserts around the world in the garden.

Memorial for Yves Saint Laurent

The villa is now the Museum of Islamic Arts. The bright blue color is known as “Majorelle blue.”

The Koutoubia at sunset. Built in the 12th century, the base of this mosque was surrounded by 100 booksellers. The name Koutoubia comes from the word kutubiyyin (meaning booksellers).

Five times a day, you can hear the call to prayer coming from the Koutoubia minaret.

We enjoyed coffee and tea with Yasmine and Nesrine at a rooftop cafe and watched the Djemaa el Fna come to life. We learned more about Moroccan family life and culture from the girls, and they asked us lots of questions about American life. They and their family were certainly the best and most memorable parts of our experience in Marrakech.

Back at Riad Karmela, we enjoyed a delicious dinner, which started with a seafood pastilla, similar to the one I’d eaten in Essaouira.

The main course was a beef tagine with dried apricots and dates.

Dessert was a simple cup of fresh fruit in juice.

After two very relaxing days in Essaouira, we hopped on a Supratours bus headed back to Marrakech. I was excited to finally see the city I’d read about and seen on TV, and heard about from friends who had toured Morocco - the evening food vendors and entertainment of the Djemaa el Fna square, shopping in the many souks, our upcoming cooking class, and best of all, the chance to reunite with our Marakchi sisters, Yasmine and Nesrine.

Much like Fez, Marrakech’s medina is a maze of narrow alleys, only here, pedestrians share the road with scooters and motorcycles, cars, horse-drawn carriages, donkey-drawn carts, and bicycles. We found a lot of alleys (”derbs”) without signage, and therefore all maps are quite vague. The alleys with countless souks selling the same goods made it difficult to identify landmarks that could possibly help us find our way through the labyrinth.

Spice market

Spices and bath products

We managed to navigate our way to the Djemaa el Fna square just as the food vendors were setting up. Just as with the souks, there are multiple vendors selling the same product out in the square. This is one of about six guys selling snails in a spicy broth (I didn’t try it, I saw a lot of this on TV!).

Stewed sheeps heads

Walking up and down the stalls was fascinating, but watching the scene and the throngs of people from a rooftop cafe was equally entertaining.

After multiple failed attempts to find restaurants listed in my guidebook (some were closed, and some we just couldn’t find), we made our way back to our riad, hoping we’d be able to have dinner there. Unfortunately you must make early reservations so the chef can buy and prepare enough food. Fortunately the lovely folks at the desk and in the kitchen felt sorry for us and threw together these basic but delicious kefta (meatball) sandwiches for us.

After a rough day of travel (me and buses don’t always mix), a sketchy search for restaurants (confusing and dark alleys with questionable characters offering assistance) and a challenging walk from the square back to the riad (and being harassed and cursed at by a very persistent boy offering to help us find our way), we finally felt some reprieve, and that we might actually enjoy our time in this crazy city.

Our second day in Essaouira was just as mellow and lazy as our first. Just more wandering and eating. Ahhh, vacation.

This is the pretty little sign outside our hotel, Dar Liouba.

The lobby serves as the living room and dining room.

Looking up to the sunroof

Gorgeous rooftop, I’m sure it’s amazing in the summer months.

View from the rooftop

Our second breakfast at Dar Liouba started with something that reminded me of Indian rice pudding with rosewater. This version had some sliced almonds and pieces of orange in it.

We also had warmed thin crepes, which we ate with honey.

There wasn’t much to do in Essa, so we returned to the port to explore more. This sign has a lot going on. The illustration in the center reminded me of this sign I saw in Split, Croatia. But I have no idea what it’s saying.

Jewelry souks

Beautiful powders for paint

Time for lunch! Chez Sam is at the end of the pier.

We had pan-fried John Dory, which was moist and tender.

Grilled fresh sardines were delicious, but lots of work.

While some of the bones were soft enough to eat, some definitely were not, so we had to perform major deboning surgery on every sardine.

We continued our lazy day with coffee and desserts at Patisserie Maalem Driss.

This cat was either looking for her babies or needed some attention. She walked through the patisserie into the courtyard and gave out quite a sad meow every 20 minutes. When we were leaving, she hopped into my chair.

Back at Dar Liouba, we went up to the roof to watch the sunset. We saw seagulls pecking at these sheep skins (from the Eid) drying on a nearby rooftop.

Our previous night’s dinner was not good, in fact, I might call it gross. So our last night in Essa, we went to a restaurant listed in my Loney Planet book, Restaurant El-Minzah. I had the seafood pastilla, which is a filo-type of pastry, stuffed with seafood and glass noodles and fried. Not the healthiest thing, but certainly tasty.

Nicole had the chicken pastilla, which is stuffed with chicken, cinnamon and nuts, and topped with confectioners sugar. Kind of an odd flavor combination, but it works!

After a nice couple of relaxing days in Essaouira, we hopped on a bus back to Marrakech for the last leg of our Moroccan adventure. We were sad to leave this quiet little seaside town, but excited to do some shopping and see our Marakchi family again!

After celebrating the Eid al Kabir with our Marakchi family, we were overwhelmed and suffering from cultural overload. I’d also been sick all week, so our trip to the little coastal town of Essaouira was a welcome break. We arrived early evening, and found that a lot of things were closed for the holiday. We had two days to do very little, and that’s just the way we planned it. Essaouira is a little fishing town, so we wandered around the port, ate grilled fish from one of the many fish hawkers, and toured the little alleys and shops. It was a great way to wind down and gear up before heading back to the city of Marrakech.

Our first breakfast at Dar Liouba started with a yummy flan-like custard. This was followed with toasted breads, tea, coffee and tangerine juice.

Place Orson Wells

Fishing off the rocks

Seagulls and cats were the main residents of the town.

The cat on the right is huge. I called him Mr. Bigs.

Lots of people were strolling and sitting along the water.  The first day was so slow and peaceful, coming off the holiday.

Shops selling goods made from wood from endangered thuya trees were plentiful.

The ramparts

One of the main gates into the medina

Fish prices are regulated, so all the vendors near the port sell at the same prices. Choosing which one to eat at is kind of a coin toss.

Grill stands selling fresh fish

I got this hairy crab, which was tough to eat once it was grilled. The hair became needle sharp from the heat!

Kite surfing is a popular activity in the coastal towns of Morocco.

These babouche souqs were everywhere in the cities.

“Natural viagra turbo for more love pleasure and satisfaction.”

Chicken cart

Dried dates and figs

Nuts and dried fruits

Snoozing on the job

Spice market

Snake potion

Tiniest of kitties, sitting on a sardine box.