We had originally planned to arrive in Marrakesh on Saturday morning so we didn't have a place reserved when we arrived early on Friday evening. (Have you noticed that most of our plans changed as we went along?) We called into the Riad Nomades where we were booked for 4 nights starting on Saturday. Luckily, they had an empty room and were able to accomodate us. More on the Riad Nomades a little later.
So, Marrakesh. I've been to many crowded hectic places in the world. This one just might top them all. The Riad Nomades is within the Medina walls and thus, shared a lot of similarities with Fes with its labyrinth of alleys and small stone streets. Oh, and there was even more people than in Fes - crazy. Cars are not allowed in, but bicycles, mopeds, and donkeys are and you share a small street that is often barely 10 feet wide.
On Saturday morning, we decided to knock out all the touristy visits and get them out of the way so that we could spend some time exploring on our own. Plus, we thought it might help in getting oriented (it didn't). First things first, we hired an *official* tour guide to take us around Marrakesh. We weren't about to take any more chances with a random person. So Ali came around to pick us up in the morning, and took us to see the Ben Youseff Madrasa, the Saadian Tombs, and the Bahia Palace.
The Riad Nomades is a small guesthouse run by a French couple - Pierre and Pascal. Both were just amazing hosts who have setup a beautiful aged Moroccan style riad with an elegant 'je ne sais quoi' French flair. This place is a true oasis and a welcome reprieve to the outside chaos that is Marrakesh. The Dar Tazi in Fes was nice enough, but I don't think there was anything especially great about it. But Riad Nomades was GREAT and I highly recommend staying with them. The prices are reasonable and Pascal has a lot of great practical advice on what to do, where to go, how to shop, etc.
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| Ben Youseff Madrasa |
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| Ben Youseff Madrasa |
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| Ben Youseff Madrasa |
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| Ben Youseff Madrasa |
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| Like I was saying - crowded with many mopeds |
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| One of the smaller prayer minarets |
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| The Saadian Tombs |
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| The Saadian Tombs |
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| Taking a break back at the Riad Nomades |
A note about food in Morocco: in a word - awesome. The main staples of Moroccan cuisine are harira (a tomato based soup), couscous (Semolina wheat), bastilla (a sweet flaky pastry wrapped around meat) and tagine (a dish of meat with vegetables cooked at high heat in a cone shaped ceramic pottery, also called a tagine). The one thing I did crave after awhile on our trip though was some fresh greens. It was tough to find a place where I would trust eating salad and not regretting it later. The meat in tagines and other dishes is often cooked with the previously mentioned spice - ras el hanout.
Dante And The Quest For Ras El Hanout, Part 2...
Speaking of ras el hanout...just before we went on the tour of the sites, Ali took us to an herboristerie. Basically, it's a shop that sells fragrances and spices with the added bonus that many of these items will cure you of various ailments. I'll blame this one on Dante, who decided to ask Ali what the price of genuine ras el hanout was. Ali said that good ras el hanout was expensive - 300 dirhams for 100 grams. A sinking look came across Dante's face. See, we started wondering after we left Fes whether even the second place that Dante got some spice from, gave him genuine ras el hanout. Now with Ali telling us that the prices were quite expensive for real ras el hanout, it cast doubt on the authenticity of both of Dante's bags of ras el hanout.
So of course, Ali took us to an herboriste, who was probably a brother, or a friend. Regardless, he was almost certainly a source of commission. If you're going to visit Morocco, you just have to accept that this is just the way things work there. So the herboriste of course gave us this whole song and dance with all the various items he had for sale there. And he showed us some ras el hanout. It was un-ground and you could see the various spices in there. So this time, not taking any chances anymore, Dante decided to buy the ras el hanout unground. Both so that it would last longer, and so that he could see the contents of his spice, which was deceptively reassuring. You know where this story is going don't you?
When we returned to the Riad Nomades later that night, Dante overheard Pascal in the lobby talking with one of the other French guests staying on the floor below us. The French guest sounded irritated. Dante went over to the railing to take a peek and saw the French guest taking out a bag of spice. Pascal took a pinch, sniffed, and shook his finger. "C'est ne pas vrai!" It is not real. The Frenchman gathered up his spice with a look of disgust on his face and stormed out to return his spice to the shop. Once again, a look of panic came over Dante. He grabbed his now very large and heavy bag of spices and went downstairs to show Pascal. I followed him down sensing I was about to see some drama.
One by one, Pascal opened each of Dante's bags and denied each one as being real ras el hanout. "Daaamit", sighed Dante. Pascal went to his own kitchen and brought out his own stash of ras el hanout. We each took a sniff. It had a rich wonderful complex scent, and in spite of the number of spices, you could smell the anise, the coriander, the cinnamon, amongst everything else. It was the same olfactory sensation one got when a freshly cooked tagine was opened up in front of you.
As for Dante's unground ras el hanout? Pascal opened up the bag and took out the spices one by one, and found a grand total of about 15 spices - short by half. Then to pour salt on his own wound, Dante hesitantly asked how much real ras el hanout cost. I think he was secretly hoping that Pascal would say it was extremely expensive. Without hestitating, Pascal declared...100 grams for 20 dirhams. The first place would have priced 100 grams at 200 dirhams. The second place would have priced it at 50 dirhams. The Marrakesh herboriste priced it at 300 dirhams. You start getting the idea of how difficult it is to accurately price things in Morocco, not to mention even just confirming that what you're buying is authentic.
We talked about it later, and we marvelled at how difficult it was to just get a spice that is perhaps the most commonly used spice in Morocco. It was almost like each vendor, having found an already ripped off tourist, took it as a challenge to see if they could prolong the con game. It's hard to otherwise explain why they would go through that much trouble to con you with a cheap and widely available spice.
In the end, Pascal sent out one of his employees to retrieve 500 grams of genuine ras el hanout for Dante, at grand cost of...100 dirhams. 500 grams is a LOT of spice. And in case any of you ever want to try this elusive spice, you can do it the easy 21st century way: Amazon.
But as Ibrahim might say, at least Dante learned something about spices and got a good story out of it.
La Canaille
With Pascal's eye for interior design, our delicious breakfasts, and his nose for spices, it was obvious Pascal had a taste for the finer things. So when he made dinner recommendations, we were ready to go with whatever he picked. He made two strong recommendations, but both of them required reservations and were difficult to get into. Somehow, he managed to squeeze us into both, though they were also very late reservations. At the end of our first day, we took a cab to the first place - a French restaurant called La Canaille. All I can really say is that the food was fantastic. If you're going to Marrakesh, definitely book a table. It's not super cheap compared to the simple Moroccan cuisine we had been eating up to this point, but we decided to treat ourselves and it was well worth it. Maybe even a little over the top.
La Canaille
With Pascal's eye for interior design, our delicious breakfasts, and his nose for spices, it was obvious Pascal had a taste for the finer things. So when he made dinner recommendations, we were ready to go with whatever he picked. He made two strong recommendations, but both of them required reservations and were difficult to get into. Somehow, he managed to squeeze us into both, though they were also very late reservations. At the end of our first day, we took a cab to the first place - a French restaurant called La Canaille. All I can really say is that the food was fantastic. If you're going to Marrakesh, definitely book a table. It's not super cheap compared to the simple Moroccan cuisine we had been eating up to this point, but we decided to treat ourselves and it was well worth it. Maybe even a little over the top.
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