Para além do clichê do tajine. Os pratos que os marroquinos realmente comem em casa e onde provar bem feitos.
Tagine, couscous, mint tea — every guidebook lists them. The richer Moroccan kitchen is hiding in plain sight at home tables and small neighbourhood restaurants.
1) Harira. The soup of Ramadan, eaten year-round. Tomato base, lentils, chickpeas, lamb or beef, fresh coriander, lemon. Served piping hot, eaten with a spoon, and traditionally accompanied by dates and chebakia (sesame-honey cookies).
2) Pastilla. Phyllo pastry layered with shredded chicken or pigeon, almonds, eggs, and dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Sweet and savoury at once. The Fes version is the standard.
3) Mechoui. Slow-roasted whole lamb, traditionally cooked in a pit oven for 4-5 hours until the meat falls off the bone. Salt is the only seasoning. The Mechoui Alley off Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakech does it well.
4) Tajine — but the right one. Chicken with preserved lemon and olives is the classic. Kefta (meatballs) in tomato sauce with eggs cracked on top is a working-man's lunch. Lamb with prunes, almonds, and cinnamon is the wedding dish.
5) Couscous. Traditionally eaten on Fridays. Steamed three times over a broth of meat and seven seasonal vegetables. Served family-style. Light, layered, the opposite of the dry quick-cooked version most Europeans know.
6) Zaalouk. Smoky aubergine and tomato salad, mashed slightly, eaten cold or warm with bread.
7) Msemen and amlou. Square Moroccan pancakes (msemen), folded and fried in butter, eaten for breakfast with amlou — a paste of toasted almonds, argan oil, and honey, native to the Souss region near Agadir.