1. Bastilla - minced chicken with lots of cumin, onions and other spices baked within layers of thin and flaky pastry crust, topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon.
This place has the best mini-bastilla in town.
2. Lots of tender meat cooked on the bone; lamb, chicken and fish.
3. The prevalence of carmelized onions, raisins and almonds -- they are in everything!
4. Tagine - it's like a stew so you can soak up the steamy liquidy goodness with bread. [Jay has replicated a chicken tagine with lemons and olives since we returned. I love my chef-husband! Also, I think it was the tagine that finally overcame his aversion to olives.]
5. Moroccan salad includes chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, whole olives, parsley, lots of vinegar and spices. It's the perfect thing on a hot day.
Posted by cbsisco at August 10, 2005 03:35 PMdude, all i ate in greece was greek salads. sooooo good. and similar to moroccan ones only with feta cheese on top.
if you're looking for good bastilla in the city, aziza on geary and 22nd ave(?) is pretty damn tasty. and their meditteraenean spreads appetizer is one of the most delicious things i've ever had.
Posted by: michele at August 10, 2005 10:16 PMYour pictures are awesome! What a wonderful, unique experience! What was it like being in a place where homosexuality is illegal? Did you still room together? Did anyone suspect? I like that you opted for western clothes in the end; the traditional ones just don't seem airy enough for the climate.
Posted by: Kristina at August 11, 2005 07:14 AMMichelle, greek salads are yummy, though I haven't had any while in Greece. I like sweet red onions on salad and olives on everything. In the old cities, there are olive stands where the guy creates a mixed bag of many types of olives and then adds some spices. I love the red olives, so tasty. I'll try Aziza's bastilla. Again, yum.
Kris, I haven't had to "pass" as straight in a long time, though I think it's easier there than in, say, the midwest, because for a lot of people in Morocco homosexuality isn't even a concept, whereas in America right now we gays are a hot topic. And macho men are quick to prove how straight they are.
Jay and I slept in separate twin beds. Sharing a big bed is not an option.
I saw two verifiably gay people while in Morocco. The first was flaming even by SF standards. He lived in Larache, my brother-in-laws birth town. The gay guy is likely the victim of multiple hate crimes every year, but you have to respect his courage.
The other gay guy was a barber who spent 10 minutes massaging my face before he shaved me and then didn't want me to pay him. I brought Jay to him for a shave the next day and he asked, despite the linguistic communication barriers, whether we were a couple.