I spent the last two weeks in Morocco and was lucky to see a fair amount of this wonderful country. I flew into Casablanca and then went to Rabat, Chefchaouen, Fez, the Sahara, the Atlas Mountains, Ouarzazate, Essaouria and finally Marrakech. Each region was unique but what was consistent was how great and generous the food was, no matter the location. Each Riad served breakfast which typically included Msemen flatbread, baguettes sliced, boiled eggs, jam, butter and sometimes a white cheese or yogurt.

I really enjoyed the diverse beauty in the multiple areas I visited and even though this is a Muslim country, I never felt ill at ease. The people were genuinely kind, helpful and accommodating. What I loved the most was the cooking, especially tajines. I am vegetarian and so ate either tajine or couscous in pretty much every city I visited. One morning my eggs arrived in the tajine and that is when I realized this tajine has a lot of flexibility and even though I almost never buy souvenirs I did bring home a tajine so that I can experiment at home. I plan on, of course, making vegetables in the tajine but I think I am going to also cook pears and apples in it this fall.

I felt cooking in Morocco felt like an act of love and there is a bit of showmanship in cooking with the tajine. The flair when they raise the cone-like lid to do the “big reveal” was one of my favorites things on this recent trip! Some other food “winners” was pureed broccoli, cumin on everything (but especially on boiled eggs), the amazing Msemen flatbread and coffee with cardamom and cinnamon. One version of the Msemen had so many layers similar to filo dough. I asked what the secret was since it really set itself apart from my other daily breakfasts of Msemen and was told that it was rolled and folded many times. Wow, what a difference that made to essentially laminate the dough similar to a biscuit.