My Unfinished List of Moroccan Culinary Treats: Mint Tea, Marinated Olives, Pure Olive Oil, Chebekia, and Harira

Moroccans are proud of their cuisine and they should be; it's some of the most tasty, best seasoned, and diverse in the Mediterranean.  Sometimes you need to take a drive to experience the diversity, and if you do, you'll certainly be rewarded.  Below is just one list of many lists to come.

I actually did not cook a lot of Moroccan food while in service, but was a happy recipient of a lot of home-cooked meals.  In most cases, the kitchen was off-bounds for me so I had to ask other female volunteers or search the web for insight into the magic that was taking place behind closed doors.  As I sit back and reflect on my two years of Peace Corps service, the cuisine is something that I'll surely miss.  However, even though I am back stateside, there's no reason why I shouldn't try to recreate the magic.  I'm going to give it my best shot.  Some of the items listed have links to recipes and preparation videos so I invite you to do the same.  Enjoy the read and enjoy the food!

Aatay b na na (Moroccan Arabic name for their sweet-as-molasses Moroccan mint tea) a.k.a. "Le Whisky Marocain"

Some Moroccan Tea at the Cascades of Ouzoud

Moroccans cannot be separated from their tea.  If the price of tea were to go up or if the government were to impose a tax on the consumption of tea, without a doubt there would be a massive revolt.  It is a Moroccan staple that is unlikely to change for many years to come.

No matter where you go, there will be countless invitations to share a little tea.  In the cold winters, there's nothing better to warm you up or to give your body a sugar jolt.  At first, I was really turned off by all the sugar, but then I began to miss the taste of their tea and towards the end I would get on the garçon's (waiter) case about skimping on the sugar.

The distinct taste is a result of two main factors.  Unlike the American or British tradition of pouring hot water over the leafs or herbs and letting it brew in the mug, Moroccans brew their green tea leaves in their ornamental teapots, they then add a brick of sugar and brew it a little longer, and then they turn off the gas and add fresh mint (naa na), verveine (luiza), or other seasonal herbs like wormwood (chiba) - the stuff they use to make absinthe.  All three varieties are super delicious and healthy if you cut down on the sugar.  I invite you to try them all.

You may also find that many Moroccans don't blow on their tea to cool it; instead, they slurrrp it.  It took me a while to master the technique, but essentially you breath it in as you drink it and it has the same cooling effect if you do it right. BssHA (To your health) on your tea drinking! 

Mountains of Olives

Moroccan black olives

Seasoned Moroccan green olives

Morocco is blessed with the perfect climate to produce some of the finest olives in the Mediterranean.  Their seasonal winter rains and clear, blue summer sky are ideal for the sun-loving olive groves.  For someone who was a fan of olives already, arriving in Morocco and seeing heaps upon heaps of olives at the souq (market) was such a comforting and overwhelming experience.  What's even more mind-blowing is how great each variety tastes and even more amazing than that is how cheap they are.  Your typical U.S. supermarket stocks various sizes of green Spanish olives or bland black ones.  In contrast, most Moroccan markets showcase their largess in rows of olive peaks of light and dark green olives marinated in a mix of red peppers or lemon and parsley, purple olives, and the bitter and wrinkly, but flavor-packed black olives. 

Moroccan cuisine incorporates olives into their meals quite well.  I remember one day during my Community-Based Training my host mother marinated a whole chicken with onions, peppers, lemon rinds, and a dash of saffron and other spices, placed it in the oven with all the seasonings and then brought out a golden brown chicken that was surrounded by a moat of tangy chicken broth on an innumerable amount of green olives bobbing in suspension just asking to be devoured.  I had this meal over two years ago and I can remember it as if it was yesterday.  What a delicious feast!

Unadulterated Olive Oil

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of Moroccan olive oil.  In terms of appearance, it looks a lot like the olive oil from Spain or Italy.  Some oils are filtered more than others.  Personally, I liked the strong bitter taste of some of the country-pressed oil that had undergone less filtering.

A typical breakfast in Morocco consisted of fresh out-of-the-oven bread that was then broken up and dabbed over olive oil.  Not what you would typically eat as breakfast in the U.S., but oh was it tasty.  The hot, toasty bread dunked in a little oil would simply melt in your mouth and the aroma of the oil was so wonderfully pleasant.

With such a large supply of olives, olive oil can be found everywhere also for much cheaper than you would find at U.S. or European stores.  I am surprised that Moroccan olive oil has not made it to U.S. stores yet.  According to the latest "Free Trade" deal between the U.S. and Morocco, olives and olive oil were going to be one of the few commodities that would start flowing to the U.S.  I hope it does, and I hope it does soon.

Ramadan Sweet Treats: Chebekia

When I arrived in Morocco back in September of '08, I got in about mid-way through Ramadan, a month characterized by the dawn to dusk no food or drink fast and more religious observance.  As you can imagine during the day, most people in the streets deprived of any liquids or food are moving in slow-motion careful not to exhaust their reserves.  When I first heard of Ramadan, I wasn't aware of the liquids ban and thought, "Now that's extreme." Then, later on I was invited to break the fast with my host family and tasted my first chebekia and thought, "Now that's extreme flavor!"

Even the bees are crazy for chebekia

These golden brown rolled and folded fried cookie dough treats smothered in honey and sprinkled with sesame seeds were a wake-up call to my taste buds.  No MSGs necessary to go on a binge.  These confections are naturally addicting.

Sometimes I think that I should go on an anthropological expedition to find out how different foods came about.  Is there a National Geographic show or something on the Food channel on this?  Well, if there is, the next episode should focus on these crunchy, sweet hard-to-put-down confections.  Until a show reveals the history and evolution of this delicious Moroccan delight, I will thank the culinary God(s) for giving my fellow Moroccans this bit of divine inspiration.    

In my old town of Sefrou, I could buy about a quarter kilo for 5DH (less than $1) from a old medina hole-in-the-wall Hlwa hanut (sweets vendor), and I would typically finish it in one night.  If I wanted some with real honey instead of syrup, I would shell out about twice as much at a fancy patisserie for about the same amount.  It's a dieter's worst nightmare.  Mountain Dew wouldn't stand a chance against these guys in jacking up your blood sugar so unless you're going to expend the calories, eat responsibly.

Click here if you wish to see a recipe.  Fortunately, if you're on your way to Morocco, no need to wait until Ramadan; most patisseries and some old medina Hlwa street vendors carry them year-round.

Harira

Whenever someone utters the word harira, my mind automatically drifts to my first bowl ever where I learned the art of eating it with bowl in hand, swishing it around in circular motion, and then giving it a hearty slurp.  In the cold Moroccan winters, it was a lifesaver.  When I was broke, it would stave off a growling stomach without breaking the bank (2DH or 25 cents for a bowl).

Harira, harira, hariraaaaa!!!

Tomato serves as the base, but with cilantro, parsley, ginger, onions, chickpeas, lentils, carrots, celery, and a handful of vermicelli all mixed in, it's much more than a tomato soup; it's a bonanza of flavor that is full of substance.

Harira is also very common during Ramadan.  Generally, families break the fast with a bowl before moving on to other life-reviving foods.  Not to worry though, harira can also be found year-round at most restaurants, hole-in-the-wall harira vendors, and a lot of families make it to survive the winter.  Some will add a bit of harsha (the equivalent of American corn-bread) to it or will break apart a chebekia on top.  Others that like the sweet and salty combination will simply eat some dates while slurping a mouthful of harira.  There are many ways to experience this hearty soup.  If you're unsure how to approach it, try them all!

Do try this at home! Click here for the recipe.

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Before I wrote this entry, I thought about ranking the items, but then I thought about how silly rankings really are.  I mean how do you compare chebekia to couscous; they're on two different playing fields and my rankings were in constant fluctuation as one couscous tasted better or different in someone's home than it did in someone else's.  Also, every region in Morocco prepares things slightly different depending on the availability of ingredients.  I still have a lot more food items that I need to write about.  This list is bound to grow in the coming months and years.

Thanks for reading and again BssHa (To your health) on your culinary endeavors.

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I found a few bestselling books on Moroccan cuisine on Amazon.  According to one reviewer, Paula Wolfert wrote a textbook-like guide to Moroccan cooking back in the 1970s that is still the authoritative book.  Some of the newer ones have better pictures, but may not be as authentic.  Check them out!

  

Interior and Exterior Affairs: Moroccan Cafe Culture, Static or Dynamic?

Morocco loves their tea and their coffee. They've even branded their sweet as molasses mint flavored green tea, using their French, Le Whisky Marocain. I blogged earlier about the syncopated and sometimes harmonious tea and coffee slurping that goes on in many cafes. Women are no strangers to the slurp. In fact, one of my host grandmothers could slurp it better than anyone, teeth or no teeth. Nonetheless, because the cafe is a public space, my grandmother would never be able to establish her slurp as one to be reckoned with, but bear in mind that this may be something she has no desire to do.

A year into my service and I still feel like something is wrong when I walk into a cafe replete with men. Some are reading their newspapers and others engage in conversations that involve a lot of arm waggling and hand gestures that appear to be heated but are completely normal.  Most, though, are staring out yonder, people watching.  As a man in Morocco, I do my best to meet societal expectations, which means frequenting a number of cafes on a regular basis and performing the aforementioned behaviors with great dedication as doing so is part of my job as a Peace Corps volunteer. The PC mission is to spread "World Peace and Friendship" and its goals are, in abbreviated form: first, to provide technical assistance; to promote a better understanding of Americans to the locals; and third, to have Americans understand my host country friends. So when I pause from saving the world with my technical prowess, I hit a cafe and chat it up with the men.

We have man talk, which comprises of the weather, the price of the vegetables, work, the lack of work, a lack of social entitlement benefits, the latest news, some politics, some minor sex talk, the kids, questions about whether I like Morocco or not, some more convincing that I am American, am I Republican or Democrat, Obama, and do I like FC Barcelona or Real Madrid. These are great conversation topics. My Arabic is to the point where I can understand just enough to get the gist and throw in another follow up question that may only be slightly related, but still demonstrates that I understand. As much as I enjoy crashing the cafe, I must admit that these conversations get repetitive and I wonder how would the cafe be with more women around. Would we perhaps talk about Hillary instead of Obama?

Because the cafe is a public space, it is almost exclusively a male franchise. The big cities can be exception to this rule, but the percentage of patrons at cafes is still overwhelmingly male even in the biggest and most progressive of Moroccan cities. As a westernized women's rights promoter, I would join any "Take Back the Cafe" movement if there was one, but there isn't one that I'm aware of and I'm not sure that women were ever present in cafes in the past so the movement may need to be named something like "Taking Over the Cafe", but then that implies ownership.  The slogan and acronyms need to be given more thought, but you get my point.

For traditional and perhaps some religious reasons, public social interaction between men and women is highly segregated especially in most rural areas of the country.  As such, women have ceded places to men that men frequent and men have likewise ceded to women the home as women's domain. I remember during homestay how I would rarely see my host brother who would only come home for brief moments to grab a bite to eat and then fly out as soon as the meal was over, not to work but to the cafe. Sometimes there was a must-see soccer game to catch and it made complete sense since now a lot cafes are equipped with top of the line flat screen televisions. Not feeling like hitting the testosterone gathering or to exit out of the cafe smelling like cigarettes, I stayed home to study with my host mother. However, my host mother had an agenda of her own. It was time for tea talk with ladies. After some odd glances from a number of ladies, I understood that I needed to take my studying from their conference space to another room so the ladies could chat it up.

I don't think my mother or some of my host sisters are disheartened about not being able to crash the cafe. I have only come across a few Moroccan ladies that have asked me whether I liked Barca or Real Madrid.  That's not to say there are no female soccer fans, but going to watch a soccer match may not be a major draw for a large majority of ladies. Also, I don't encounter a lot of female smokers (perhaps one of the reasons why women outlast men by over 6 years) so I presume that they don't need a venue to do so.

There is no law in Morocco preventing women from congregating at cafes.  In my small town cafes, I have seen some young people, male and female, meeting up, which I've yet to determine if that is a new generational trend that will continue to grow or if they will adhere to the norms after a certain age kind of like how the Amish do in my state of Indiana. Then, supposedly as I've been told by the locals, some ladies that go unaccompanied and light up a cigarette at some specific cafes or with more certainty at a bar are perhaps going there not for casual conversation but for business reasons, which is nothing out of the ordinary in many U.S. establishments. Perhaps another reason why some women refrain from going to cafes unaccompanied and from lighting up.

In this patriarchal society like much of the western world, men are still expected to bring home the Halal bacon. They interact with fellow men at work, travel to other parts in search of employment, and when the sun goes down, they relax at a cafe.  On the other hand, the women do their shopping at the local market sometimes in the morning, prepare the meals, and mingle with other women throughout the day and into the evening in the comfort of their own homes.  Both men and women sip and slurp their mint tea or coffee in the company of their dear friends, men in an outdoor cafe and women in their respective living rooms.

I think granny is fairly content sipping her tea with her female friends.  It's what she has known and how she has lived.  With the rise of Western influence on the younger population through countless media outlets and many more Moroccan women attaining higher levels of education, joining the workforce, and filling prominent political roles in Moroccan society, will younger generations continue to leave things as is?  Will the cafe as with many other public spaces remain primarily a male environment, and vice versa will the home continue to be the meeting place for many women?  Will cafe owners seeing the growing buying power of some women retrofit their cafes to attract female clientele?  I can't really say, but I'm curious to see if and how it may develop.   

The Slurrrrrp

Medina Harira

I remember the day when I was handed my first bowl of harira, a dish that ranks up there as one of my all-time favorite Moroccan dishes. It´s a chunky tomato-base soup with chickpeas, lentils, onions, parsley, some vermicelli  and sometimes with a bit of meat.  I proceeded as I normally do with my soups to dab the bread and to munch on the dunked portion. I went about it without a care in the world completely immersed in the smells and the warmth of the soup. I was focused on my bowl, my bread, and devouring it all. As my tunnel vision began to dissipate with every bite, I remembered that others were at the table with me. I looked up from my bowl and saw my host family staring at me. I carried on with my bread dabbing, but much slower this time. As I placed the doused bread in my mouth again and savored the bite, everyone began to laugh. I laughed along with them and then tried to tell them in my limited Arabic how delicious the bread dunking really was.

My host father then proceeded to show me his way of eating the soup which involved grabbing the small bowl from the bottom, swirling the soup around in a gentle circular hand motion, and then to avoid the burn sssslurrrrping it with authority. I saw the rest of my family do the same so I decided to give it a go. My first initial slurps were painful lessons that quickly taught me to create the great vacuum that would enable me to slurp the scolding hot soup without having my lips, tongue, and throat suffer 3^rd degree burns.

Moroccan mint tea aka Le Whisky Marocain

Although I have burnt the roof of my mouth and tongue on occasion, it has not deterred my will to master the slurp. The slurp is not only used for soups; it is also commonly heard in many cafes where hot sugary mint tea and coffee are served. Often, when several teapots are delivered at the same time, you can hear for a very brief moment a symphony of slurps. There is the full, open, and loud slurp that is usually followed by a deep sigh of contentment, and the shallow, less overt slurp that is usually accompanied by a measured sip and a comparable sigh. I have also noticed that some simply seem to enjoy slurping and engage in what other Moroccans regard as long somewhat overdrawn slurps. My host father from my home-stay would probably fall in that category. Every here and then, we would compete to see who could generate the most volume and who could drag it out the longest.

Not everyone in Morocco slurps and I have encountered some Moroccans that dunk their bread like I do. I continue to dunk my bread, but I have also added the slurp into my eating and drinking repertoire. It feels good to slurp and to have Moroccans offer a bssha or “To your health” as I do so. If you haven’t slurped loudly and freely in a while or ever, I invite you to do so. Forget the spoon, grab the bowl or mug, swirl it around a bit, and then slurp like there is no one but you and your soup, tea, coffee, or whatever it may be. If you get some strange stares, tell them that this is how they do it in Morocco.