What to eat Morocco? culinary specialties and gastronomy

Rich in spices, local cuisine makes good use of cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, paprika, coriander, saffron, cloves, fennel, anise, nutmeg, pepper, fenugreek, caraway and sesame seeds. Twenty-seven spices are traditionally combined to create the famous ras-el-hanout (literally "at the head of the spice store"). They range from the most common spices, such as cinnamon or cumin, to the more unusual, like dried rosebuds or iris root powder. Common herbs include mint, parsley, coriander, oregano, peppermint, marjoram, verbena, sage and laurel. Although the local cuisine is not very spicy, harissa - a fierce paste of chilli and garlic - is popular.

Apart from the Sahara and Atlas peaks, Morocco has a generally mild climate all year round, offering a variety of produce: eggplant, bell pepper, tomato, potato, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, carrot, turnip, artichoke, onion, but also all kinds of fruit, including citrus fruits (lemon, orange, tangerine), plums, figs, dates, apricots and grapes, which are used for both sweet and savoury dishes. Candied lemons, preserved in salt and water, are prized for their particularly powerful flavor. Olives and olive oil are also essential to Moroccan cuisine. Cereals such as wheat, barley and rice, as well as legumes (chickpeas, lentils, beans and split peas), are used extensively.

Lamb and mutton are very common, as are beef and chicken, and to a lesser extent, duck and pigeon. Snails - simmered in a spicy sauce - are one of Morocco's most popular market snacks. With almost 3,000 km of coastline between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, fish and seafood abound in Moroccan cuisine: sole, swordfish, tuna, mackerel, eel, snapper, crab, shrimp, lobster and all kinds of mollusks. The kingdom is also the world's leading exporter of sardines.

The souks can be a great opportunity to discover many products to take home in your luggage (spices, preserves, dried products, etc.) at very attractive prices. Beware, however, of the little deceptions, such as fake saffron, which is actually the petals of marigolds, a vaguely aromatic orange flower. A saffron pistil is a long, uniquely dark-red filament.

An essential pillar of Islam, the month of Ramadan is strictly observed in Morocco. From sunrise to sunset, observers are forbidden to eat or drink. Its date changes each year according to the new moon, but it always lasts around 30 days. At sunset, the fast is broken (ftour or iftar) with rich snacks such as soup, honey pastries or dates. This snack allows you to wait for the real dinner, which takes place later in the night. Ramadan ends with Eid el-Fitr (literally "Feast of Breaking").

In Morocco, the menu often begins with appetizers, particularly salads or savory pastries. While chlada is a fresh blend of tomato, cucumber and parsley, there are many cooked salads, served cold or warm, containing tomato, bell pepper, eggplant, beet or potato and carrot, enhanced with olive oil and aromatic herbs. Taktouka, for example, is a preparation based on tomato, bell pepper and onion confit. Matbukha is similar, but very spicy. Another example is zaalouk, which is similar to eggplant and tomato caviar. Sweet and sour is very common here, with salads of oranges and carrots, flavored with cumin, cinnamon and coriander.

Soups are very popular, such as harira, traditionally served during Ramadan, made with meat and offal, onions, saffron, chickpeas or lentils, served with rice, tomato and coriander. Chorba is very similar, but with the addition of vermicelli. Simpler, bissara (or tamarakt) is a very thick split pea or broad bean soup. Chakchouka is a compote of tomatoes and green peppers into which a few eggs are cracked and cooked in a boiling sauce, served with bread.

Many savoury pastries are made with brick pastry, a kind of thin pancake that becomes crispy after cooking. Another example is pastilla, a puff pastry with a poultry-based filling (chicken, guinea fowl, partridge or, more refined, pigeon), onion, almonds, scrambled egg and coriander. It is decorated with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Some modern versions include a seafood filling. Briouats are triangular turnovers generally filled with minced meat (beef or lamb), onions, preserved lemon, and sometimes cheese. Brik" - a distortion of the Turkish word bürek - is a turnover filled with tuna or hard-boiled egg. Makouda are fried potato croquettes with herbs. A typical street market snack, msemmen is a kind of elastic, nourishing patty, sometimes stuffed with a mixture of minced meat, onion, tomato and chili pepper.

Couscous, the emblem of Moroccan cuisine, is so well known in France that it needs no introduction. In fact, couscous royal is a French invention, allowing customers in metropolitan France to enjoy several different meats with an "oriental" vegetable sauce. In reality, couscous generally consists of a single meat and several vegetables, served with semolina. There are some 140 varieties, containing merguez, lamb, chicken or even meatballs, not to mention vegetarian versions.

You can also enjoy couscous with onions and caramelized raisins(t'faya), which also contains lamb, or belboula couscous made with barley semolina. Couscous with khlii is a classic recipe, the only difference being that instead of fresh meat, khlii is added: lamb confit in its own fat, with a very strong taste. On the coast, you can also enjoy a finely spiced seafood variant. Almonds, pistachios, dried fruit, preserved lemons and pigeon or duck meat are also used in some couscous recipes.

Another must-try dish, tajine refers to both the recipe and the dish used to prepare it. Meat (mutton, lamb, chicken, etc.) is stewed with spices, vegetables and sometimes fruit. Unlike couscous, a tagine contains very little liquid, apart from the juices from cooking the food, and is served with bread rather than semolina. Of course, there's the inevitable chicken tagine with preserved lemon and olives, as well as the mrouzia, a common tagine for breaking the Ramadan fast, made with lamb, almonds and prunes. Fish and seafood tagines (especially shrimp) are also popular.

Tanjia, not to be confused with tajine, is a mutton-and-spice dish simmered overnight in a clay pot in hot ashes. Also worth mentioning is r'fissa, a roast chicken flavored with fenugreek and saffron, served on a bed of galettes(msemmen) soaked in the poultry's cooking juices. Grilled meats, especially kebabs, are an inexpensive and very tasty snack. Merguez, made from beef and/or mutton, are obviously much better on the spot, as are keftas, spicy meatballs (lamb and/or beef), often grilled but also served with a tomato and coriander sauce. And let's not forget mechoui, a whole lamb roasted on a spit for several hours until the meat melts in your mouth.

Popular Moroccan sweets include baghrir or crêpe mille-trous (a very spongy pancake served hot with melted butter and honey), chebakia (a fried rose-shaped pastry soaked in syrup), cornes de gazelle (shortcrust pastry croissants filled with marzipan and orange blossom water), feqqas (crunchy almond cookies), ghriba (very crumbly cookies made with walnuts or grated coconut) or makrouds (thin semolina bites filled with date paste, fried and soaked in syrup). The sfenj - which translates as "sponge" in Arabic - is simply a type of doughnut. The more classic meskouta is a simple crown-shaped cake flavored with orange juice. Originating in Greece and Turkey, baklava is common in Morocco and consists of a multitude of layers of filo pastry, walnuts, pistachios and crushed almonds, which are soaked in syrup. Finally, pastilla au lait resembles a mille-feuille made of crisp brick pastry sheets, topped with orange blossom-scented milk cream.

At the heart of social life in the Maghreb, mint tea is traditionally prepared by the head of the family and offered to guests as a sign of hospitality. Tea is consumed throughout the day at the slightest social interaction. Although the arrival of tea in the Maghreb - which originated in China - is open to debate, it is thought that the plant began to be consumed in the region towards the end of the ^18th century. Made from green tea, fresh mint leaves, boiling water and lots of sugar, the proportions and brewing time can vary considerably.

Unlike the rest of North Africa, Morocco was never part of the Ottoman Empire. As a result, coffee, a beverage much appreciated by the Turks, only arrived in the country at the time of the French protectorate. Today, most hotels and tourist restaurants offer good coffee, although tea remains the most popular hot drink. Fruit juices are also popular, but beware: some are made with tap water, which is not drinkable in the country.

Although Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol, Morocco remains quite flexible, especially where tourists are concerned, and beers, wines and spirits are readily available in international restaurants and hotels. The most common beer is Flag Special, a light lager, while Casablanca is stronger. Morocco is also renowned for its wines, such as gris de Guerrouane, boulaouane and oustalet, cabernet président, but also thaleb, père Antoine, bonassia or cardinal Amazir, in the red wine category, or chaud-soleil and valpierre in the whites. Finally, mahia is a fig-based digestif at 40°.