Marrakech - November 2, 2025

 I'm catching up from last night's food tour.  Our group included the guide Basam, a couple from England, a single woman from Greece who has lived in LA for 15 years and a single woman from Argentina who has lived in Manhattan for 12 years.  It was a really fun and interesting group.  I think we visited 7 or 8 different restaurants, some big, some small family owned.  We spent the entire time back at Jemaa el-Fnaa, the large market in the medina.

We got back to our room around 10pm absolutely stuffed.  You can see some of the food we ate in the pictures below.  Most of the places we went were off the beaten path in parts of the souk that are local oriented and not touristy.  That was great.  It was a lot different than most of the area we explored yesterday.  Last night it was much less busy, quieter and more personal.

Last night was also game 7 of the World Series between the LA Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.  I listened until the 11th inning when the Dodgers ultimately won by 1 run.  Local time here was 5:30 am when I turned it off.  I'm paying the price today, and moving very slowly, again.  Sooz got a massage at our hotel while I rested.

This was our first stop. If you tap the picture and zoom in you might recognize some of the chefs that have visited this establishment.  We heard about the tour from "Fill" Rosentstein's Netflix show Somebody Feed Phil. His picture is top left.

This goat and sheep meat was served upstairs.  The plates on the far left and right were cooked using the traditional North African technique using a tangine pot.  It was the first red meat I have eaten in about 22 months.  It tasted okay, but was fatty and sat a little heavy in my stomach.  I did try some sheep tongue which was on the plate second from left.  Not sure I'll have anymore on this trip, or maybe ever.

The 2 guys on the left are brothers who owned the donut restaurant.  The one on the left did most of the cooking, while the guy in the middle managed his brother on the left.  They were really fun to watch.  Our guide is on the right.

These are heart of cactus we sampled.  We ate the purple ones which were tasty and had a lot of large seeds, that we also ate. 

This picture gives a good impression of the market area we walked around.  Super busy, kind of loud and fun, once I got over my sensory overload.

This is a picture of Fatima on the left and our guide Basam.  I asked if I could take her picture and she agreed but looked at it before she approved.  She was a sweetheart and cooked our couscous dish seen below.  The establishment was owned by her husband who considered himself retired, only cooking for this guide, and family and friends.  We really enjoyed it and was our favorite stop.

This was a traditional mint tea service made and poured by Fatima.  It was an elaborate process with several steps.  Very fun and interesting.  Fatima used fresh mint from the bowl in the center right.

Vegetable couscous made by Fatima.  It was our favorite.

One of many, many spice stands in the market.  

I didn't catch her name but she made us fresh Moroccan pancakes.  They were savory not sweet using a kind of vegetable and spice mix in the middle.

The ancient tower at Jemaa el-Fnaa.  I think it was built in the 12th century and was damaged in 2023 by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake and is still under repair.

I can't remember his name but I called him the cell phone magician because he was able to successfully install a sim card in Susie's phone after my phone rejected it.  The card provides Sooz's phone with 4g cell network coverage all around Morocco.

This is another motorcycle tour company getting setup right in front of our hotel for a tour starting tomorrow.  The owner knew the guide of our tour which starts Tuesday.  It's a small world.