February 20, 2008
From a food perspective Marrakech was a hard city to plan. I bought the guides. I perused the websites. I even tried to contact people in Marrakech for insider tips about where to eat. In retrospect, the best advice I read was that the best Moroccan food is not found in restaurants but in the home.
Sweet shop in the warrens of the Medina, Marrakech
We stayed for a week in a riad (a traditional house) located in the medina (the old walled city). This beautiful restored house, is well located, features four rooms and is kept by the most wonderful staff (see http://www.riadtroiscours.nl/). The website warned us that many people come to Marrakech only to find that the best meals are those prepared by Touhammia, the riad's cook. Initially I took this to be puffery, but it turned out to be true. Touhammia prepared by far the best meals I had in Marrakech.
Touhammia and Majid, the riad manager, display a magnificent milk pastilla: NYE meal
MEALS AT THE RIAD
The highlight meal was the one Touhammia prepared for New Year's Eve (St-Sylvestre in the French tradition). We had originally intended to eat out at a restaurant but the set menu prices for New Year's Eve per person were astronomical for restaurants without world-class reputations. Most places we called were charging around 3,000 dirham (C$350) without wine or drinks but Touhammia made us a splendid meal at a fraction of the cost.
We started with a course of Moroccan salads featuring pickled beets, pickled turnip, a cool pumpkin puree with honey and cinnamon, a grated carrot salad with a tinge of hot pepper, eggplant roulades stuffed with spicy tomato sauce and green beans in vinaigrette.
A selection of Moroccan salads: NYE meal
Then came the main courses, an immense pumpkin and zucchini couscous and a chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives. The chicken, achingly tender and bursting with flavour, was well complemented by the tangy lemon, salty olives and the elusive fragrance of orange peel. The couscous, topped with a sweet mixture of caramelized onions with raisins and served with a side of pleasantly spicy sauce was the lightest I have had and miles away from the sad, boiled couscous we often get in this country. The secret is apparently not only in steaming the couscous multiple times but also in moistening the grains with olive oil prior to cooking. In any event, whatever magic Touhammia had done to the couscous, we were more than happy with the results.
Couscous and first tagine from NYE meal
Even though we were not able to finish the first couscous and tagine, Touhammia quickly produced a second one. This may have been the best dish I ate in Marrakech: beef shanks with fresh almonds, dried prunes and apricots. At that point we were barely able to stand and the fact that we ate more than half of this dish was a testament to how good it was. The meat again was sublime (a recurring theme in Morocco where dinner, be it beef, lamb or chicken, has often had the opportunity to eat grass, weeds and bugs and run around in a field). Its richness complemented the sweet, moist fruits nicely with the almonds providing a bitter and crunchy contrast.
The best tagine in Marrakech: beef, almonds, prunes and apricots: NYE meal
Surely we could not eat another bite. But dessert in the form of a fresh pasta with sweetened milk and fresh fruit could not be resisted. I have never eaten so much in my life and amazingly (I am an insomniac of some renown) slept for 13 hours after our New Year's Eve dinner marathon.
After that meal we were hooked. Over the course of the next week, Touhammia prepared us a number of other amazing meals including her traditional harira soup, a hearty tomato and chickpea concoction served with dried dates, a couscous with merguez and turnips, another amazing tagine featuring chicken, cauliflower, squash and peas and other traditional courses and desserts.
Chicken tagine with cauliflower, squash and peas. Another big winner.
Another traditional Morrocan dessert: fresh oranges, cinnamon, powdered sugar and dates.
I doubt every visitor to Marrakech will be as lucky as we were, but if you are planning a trip here, access to home-cooked meals should be high on your list of priorities when you are looking for lodging.
RESTAURANTS
After passing on a restaurant for New Year's Eve we figured to try out a few during the week. Even deciding which restaurants to go to was a bit of an ordeal. A few names are consistently repeated as along the best in Marrakech. These include Moroccan restaurants Dar Yacout and Al Fassia and French influenced Pavillion and Casa Lalla. After much deliberation I crossed Dar Yacout off the list after hearing a lot of negative comments about the restaurant being more about the decor than the food. I also crossed Casa Lalla off the list after hearing that the formerly two-Michelin starred chef had gone off to greener pastures and we made reservations at Pavillion and Al Fassia.
Pavillion, Derb Zaouia, Bab Doukkala (Medina)
Consistently recommended as one of the top dining experiences in Marrakech and the French restaurant to beat, Pavillion had some definite high points but a few letdowns as well. Located in the alleys of the Medina and sporting a pleasant inner courtyard accessible through a Levantine door, Pavillion's crisp white tablecloths and well manicured interior bespeak a first rate operation. And some of the food truly does rise to the occasion. The foie gras en torchon with a pear and ginger compote and a dozen fresh oysters were both excellent, while a risotto appetizer was disappointing, having been made with long grain rice rather than one of the traditional varieties and cooked to a mush. A roasted rack of lamb in its jus with braised cabbage and an eggplant roulade featured lovely fragrant meat cooked to rare perfection but the chine bone was not cut through causing me to hack the meat all over the table (to be avoided in polite company). The Mediterranean sea bass, which consisted of a couple grilled fillets was also disappointing. Desserts, on the other hand, were on the mark, including a beautifully cooked not-too-sweet chocolate fondant and a deliciously balanced lemon tart. If you are accustomed to fine dining in the French tradition you will likely not be blown away.
Nice presentation: the rack of lamb prior to being mangled in an attempt to cut through the chine.
Al Fassia, 232 Avenue Mohammed V, (Gueliz)
Probably the best option for dining out in Marrakech, Al Fassia serves all the Moroccan favourites, salads, couscous, tagines and pastillas in warmly decorated restaurant just off the main drag in Gueliz. Al Fassia is notable for being run by a woman's co-operative and all the staff are women (in fact, the only women servers we saw while in Morocco). The selection of Moroccan pickles and salads was an immense and varied appetizer featuring everything from carrot salad to beef tongue with vinaigrette. Pigeon pastilla, that classic Moroccan dish, was intensely delicious with a rich, sweet filling of fried pigeon, onions, honey, cinnamon and other spices wrapped tight in warqa, a phyllo-like pastry dough and topped with powdered sugar and a lattice of cinnamon. Al Fassia offers a wide selection of tagines and couscous, including a few you don't see on every menu in Marrakech. I enjoyed my lamb tagine but it wasn't as tender or succulent as the ones we were eating at the riad. I suppose this makes sense as I understand a tagine was traditionally a slow-cooked dish and serving it in a restaurant likely involves some pre-cooking and sacrificing some all-important braising time. If you want to eat here, it's a good idea to pop in and take a look at the menu before you dine as there are also a number of specialty dishes that can only be ordered on at least 24 hours notice.
Sorry, all the meal pictures are in my mother-in-law's camera.
Rotisserie de la Paix, 68 Rue Yougoslavie (Gueliz)
We stopped for lunch at this Gueliz institution featuring charcoal grilled chicken, meat and seafood served in a palm-fringed inner courtyard. Oysters from Essaouira served with a Gris de Gerrouane were fantastic but the food from the grill less so. The grilled chicken with frites was a little dry while the merguez were merely average. The arrouse, a pita stuffed with grilled chicken or beef and cheese is reminiscent of Lebanon or Syria. A good enough place to have lunch but nothing earth shattering. This restaurant is built to handle tour buses and comes across that way.
The remnants of oysters and a grey rosé from Gerrouane.
Jacaranda, 32 Boulevard Mohammed Zerktouni (Gueliz)
Another lunchtime trip to Gueliz led us to the eclecticly decorated Jacaranda specializing in French influenced cuisine. A brochette of monkfish was quite good and fairly priced appetizer. The three course lunch menu for around 100 dirham consisted of a green salad, minute steak with mixed vegetables and a couple of scoops of ice cream for dessert. Nothing too fancy here, but it might have been the best value lunch of our trip.
The venerable Jacaranda has been serving solid if unspectacular cuisine at good prices for many years.
Pizzeria Venezia, 279 Avenue Mohammed V (near the Koutoubia)
An aborted attempt to have lunch at the Chateau & Relais listed Villa des Orangers (which was closed for lunch) resulted in us settling for pizza on the Pizzeria Venezia terrace right across from the Koutoubia. A restaurant that could use a good mopping and some elbow grease but the pizza was surprisingly quite good. The thin crust tasted somewhat of the ubiquitous flat bread of Marrakech and the toppings were liberally applied and packed with flavour. Not light and delicate like Italian pizza and not thick like American pizza either: I suppose this is Morrocan-style pizza. You can't beat the view of the Koutoubia and if you're in Marrakech and dreaming of pizza, this may be as good as it gets.
Beef sausage and onions: way too much for a pizza purist but tasty nonetheless.
The Contenders
There were originally a few more restaurants on my list but these fell to the wayside due to our preference for eating at home, the fact that most of these places are closed for lunch and a general lack of time. I concentrated my research on Moroccan and French influenced restaurants and had noted the following as potentially good bets. In addition to Villa Des Orangers, the other Chateau & Relais in Marrakech Ksar Char-Bagh. Either of these is likely as not to produce a superior meal. As an alternative to Al Fassia, you might try Dar Moha in the Medina which specializes in contemporary Moroccan. One trendy spot in Gueliz I did not make it to is Comptoir and another, Bô-Zin, is located on the road to the Ourika Valley (though also not open for lunch which would have been handy as the trip to the valley is well worth it). Both of these restaurants get a lot of hype but they may be more flash than substance. I had also considered going to Jana or Crystal in the Pacha nightclub complex on the outskirts of town but if its anything like the nightclub (i.e. half empty on a Friday and looking like it's held together with duct tape) then eating in this strip mall is probably not worth the trip. For information on restaurants in Marrakech, these two web sites were the most helpful:
http://www.ilove-marrakesh.com
http://www.bestrestaurantsmaroc.com
JEMAA EL FNA
A culinary must for any foodie in Marrakech and one of the highlights of a visit to the city is a meal in Jemaa El Fna, the square that is the focal point of Marakchi social life. In the afternoon, the stalls set up and hundreds of vendors hawking everything from shish kebab to boiled sheep heads get to work. You can't walk through the smoky aisles without being accosted by (literally) dozens of touts, so keep up a brisk pace until you find a place you fancy.
Kebabs and other grilled delights on offer at a stand in Jemaa El Fna.
We settled on a stand with a good crowd in front of it and chowed on brochettes, some excellent kefta and merguez, fried eggplant, potato pancakes with saffron and frites. Most of the food was a bit overcooked but this is a meal that is all about the experience and is very affordable to boot. In any event, the over cooking should get rid of any pesky bacteria
Renowned stand #31. Every stand has a number.
After dinner I nipped away to the renowned No. 31 for a second course of what are apparently some of the top saucisettes in Jemaa El Fna. Served with a loaf of the flat bread and a thin cumin-infused tomato sauce, these little sausages are the genuine article. Quench your thirst afterwards from one of the many orange juice stalls that surround the square all day.
The saucisettes at stall #31. Worth the visit.
The McArabia: from one of the busiest restaurants in Marrakech.