Marrakesh, the red city
A few years ago, a cousin of mine who owned a restaurant a few doors away from Edinburgh Playhouse, decided that he had had enough of the Scottish weather.
A friend of his put him in touch with a fashion photographer who had just bought a run-down house in the middle of Marrakesh old town to turn it into a six-bedroom Riad (traditional hotel) and was looking for a project manager who spoke English, French and Arabic.
He got the job and moved to the Red City, the nickname given to Marrakesh for its distinct orange-red clay and chalk walls.
He invited me, I did not refuse and went to spend a few days with him in July when the temperature at midday easily hit the forties.
The city is famed for its big Jamaa El F’na Square just by the Medina (old town), a bustling market during the day and a foodie paradise by night.
At dusk, the stalls are quickly transformed into culinary heavens and filled with Moroccan delicacies such as tagines, grilled meats, fried fish, steamed snails, freshly squeezed orange juice, etc.…
Multitudes of diners, local families and foreign tourists sit side by side on wooden benches to enjoy an alfresco meal while being entertained by colourful snake charmers, musicians, jugglers and trapeze artists. A scene straight out of the Arabian Nights.
Marrakesh, being but a stone’s throw from the Atlas Mountains, virtually the entire town’s population heads for the heights on warm Sundays and Summer holidays. The road snakes its way up the mountain along the Ourika River, a wild torrent in Winter but a gentle stream in Summer. So gentle in fact, that riverside restaurants and cafés set their plastic tables and chairs in the shallows for diners to enjoy delicious tagines while their feet are gently caressed by the cool Atlas spring water.
The word Tagine is the terracotta dish used to cook food and just like a casserole, it is often used to describe the dish that is cooked in it.
There is no limit to the number of tagines one can enjoy in North Africa, from the delicious lamb tagine that always awaited my return home from university to one with chicken and olives, fish and shellfish, vegetarian, etc.… Think of a casserole of your choice, add a few chickpeas, dried fruit, spice it up with a pinch of cumin, coriander, saffron, chillies and it becomes a tagine.
There is a lovely TV series on BBC2 called Remarkable Places to Eat presented by Fred Sirieix. The episode on Marrakesh is truly remarkable.