It's been a month and a half since I arrived in Rabat, and things have settled into something I can call "normal". So for those of you wondering just what it is exactly that I'm doing here, this is a "typical" week looks like. On Sunday night, usually late because she is one very busy woman, I will get a "programme" of classes to visit or other activities connected to the university from my advisor. There are no classes being offered this semester that are about the pedagogy of teaching a second language (as I had hoped when I developed the project), but Hafida has done a superior job of making sure that I am getting to see a variety of situations in which students are learning French for the first time at the university level, getting support for French language mastery that didn't occur for one reason or another in their high schools, or using French to pursue masters and doctoral degrees because that is the language of instruction in their field even though not a first language for them. Sometimes, I'm in a French literature class, along with all the spring semester students studying to become French teachers. So in a typical week, I will attend about 4-6 hours of classes at Université Mohammed V. Here is a shot of my advisor doing something called a Soutence d'Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches. In essence, it's a doctoral defense for a person who already holds a doctorate, but must publicly display evidence of her work and accomplishments over a period of years to show continued professional growth. (The jury gave her highest honors after their deliberation. She is an impressive individual.) I take 6 hours or so weekly of French tutoring. I am working with a woman from Strasbourg, France who lives here now, and we just talk. This helps me with my accent and (most especially) improving the way that I use French locutions rather than simply expressing an idea in the way an American would, but using French words. Here's an example: you can say "je voudrais vous demander une question" ("I would like to ask you a question, ") and it makes sense in French, but a native speaker would not word it like that. More probably he would use the verb "proposer" instead of "demander". So my French gets better the more of those French-ish constructions that I work into my conversation. There's also stuff like inserting the right kinds of fillers and emotion words-- expressions like "well," "like," '''wow!" and "sooo..." in English ---and I'm attempting to learn better French body language. I spend about 10 hours weekly in Moroccan Arabic classes. At first, I was just learning some functional vocabulary for getting around in a city where Standard Arabic is the one official language, some people speak French, some speak English (and these at various rates of fluency), some speak a Berber language like Amarigh, and EVERYONE speaks the unwritten form of Moroccan Arabic called Darija. So I've been working on my Darija, and then we slid into the Standard Arabic alphabet so that I can read things here. Now I've learned the verb tenses and I'm working on actual conversation. This is hard for me because there are so many sounds that are just ridiculously hard for me to make (and even hear), so my tutor Adil is a saint. He also teaches me a whole lot about Moroccan culture. We meet in a restaurant or cafe for our sessions. I try to get to at least one school visit per week, observing the way that education is happening in middle and high schools. This past week, instead of visiting a school, I attended a conference of the Moroccan Association of Teachers of English (MATE). The conference was really interesting because the attendees (except for me, the language officer from the American Embassy and the language officer from the British Embassy) were supervisors of English teachers throughout the country, and it was informative to get their perspectives on what is happening in education. The conference was entitled "Reforming Teacher Education and Training in Times of Change". The presentations were about providing education to 21st Century learners, and highlighting (just like in the US) that skills, methods, benchmarks, and goals are in a period of fast and vast change. It was really helpful to me to see how our challenges are really so similar in the US and in Morocco, and I made a lot of contacts with people who can arrange for me to visit second-language classrooms in other parts of the country. I really was overwhelmed by how welcoming and helpful the MATE people are. I also typically walk or tram-ride quite a bit around Rabat, which allows for some high-quality people-watching and is constantly fascinating. I check in every week or so at the MACECE office (Fulbright administrators) to chat with Ahlam (my liaison) and Dr Miller (the director) who are always full of great advice, information, and suggestions. There is a wonderful library there of books about Morocco that is a great resource. In the evenings sometimes I do something social with friends I've met here, or return home to study (sometimes, haha!), watch the sun set over the ocean, deal with on-going issues with my hot water supply, immerse in French language TV (now that I have the proper satellite dish), and write blog entries or check what's happening in the US via Facebook. And the weekends are for going on "toots!"
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When I met Cindy Reedy, a DAT Fulbrighter last year in Morocco, she gave me some great advice: Every weekend, go on a toot somewhere." So when my Saturday plans fell through at the last minute, I decided that my "toot" this weekend would be to the city of Meknès. I bought a train ticket, and off I went into the mountains, through some incredibly green fields. You are going to have to take my word on this, because I can't figure out how to take a decent picture through a moving train window. Then a petit taxi took me to the Place el Hedim which is bordered by the old Medina, and the enormous Bab Mansour which led to the palace complex of the sultan. I sat at cafe on the place, drank a "panaché"-- which is a punch with various fruits and avocado-- and took in the scene, which has some kind of normal things, and also some kind of tourist attraction not so normal things: Painted tajines massed for sale- normal. Boys driving small cars. Definitely normal. Big and mini horses: Not so normal Look carefully. Those are monkeys that will sit on your shoulder. Who knows? Maybe they drive the scooter, too. Not so normal Guy with oboe-ish sounding horn, (in blue) and his buddy, with the snake (in white). Just like the movies, huh? Then I did some more serious stuff. I went into the medina and visited a museum called Dar Jamai, which was the palace of a wealthy, well-placed family. I was also able to visit a medersa, which is a Koranic school from the 1300s with amazing architecture. And finally, I decided, "Hey, this is a toot-- why not?" And took a calèche ride to see the parts of town that were beyond the former palace complex and beyond the current king's palace complex. I'll post additional pictures on a page called Meknès you can access from the drop-down menu. looking through the palace main floor out to the garden Carpeted and cushioned sitting room upstairs. Detail of carved plaster wall Also a detail of the wall deco. TELL ME THESE ARE NOT CATS!
Eating, shopping, laughing, taking lots of pictures of ourselves: it was a "girlfriend weekend"! This is my friend Hanane. We met in DC last summer when we both took part in the orientation for this Fulbright award. She spent this past fall semester in Bloomington Indiana researching and visiting schools. This weekend, we got together in Casablanca where she lives. It's a very easy train ride from Rabat, just about an hour. She took such great care of me and really welcomed me to her hometown! We started with a Moroccan brunch. Inside that tajine, there are eggs scrambled with a salty dried meat. It was delish! Fresh squeezed juice, fruits, and 4 different breads. In the small bowls under the bread there are some oils and spreads. In one yellow dish is olive oil; in the other is-- Argan oil!! Not just for skin care here in Morocco, it's often eaten with bread. Next stop: Hassan II Mosque. It is a giant complex, really reminding me of the size of St Peters Square at the Vatican. It was built recently, in the last 30 years, and the building materials came from all over Morocco. As you can tell from my hair, it was a windy day, and it was really misty too. The Mosque sits directly on the coast-- in fact, there is part of the floor inside where you can look down at the sea below you. Hassan II is unbelievably big, and is the only mosque in Morocco where non-Muslims can enter. There are several guided tours every day. We missed the morning tours, and decided that we would spend the afternoon inside Morocco Mall instead. (Also a large, new, and impressive building sitting directly on the beach.) Inside the Morocco Mall were several American brand stores, including American Eagle Outfitters and Ralph Lauren, as well as the eateries and drinkeries that you might imagine. There are fancy stores, too, like this and Louis Vuitton, and Fendi, and an indoor souk that felt just a little bit like Epcot Center's Morocco. And there was this: an indoor aquarium. Hanane says there is a mermaid show every once in a while in the aquarium, and I may have to go back for that. There is a cafe area for relaxing and it overlooks a lake with a "dancing waters" fountain, which is directly on the beach. As you can see, it was not a pleasant day for dancing waters or beach strolling, but it was a great day to be indoors! The store where I actually bought stuff was Marjane, Morocco's Target. "They have everything at Marjane," I was told when I arrived, and indeed, that's where I've gotten sheets and towels, cleaning products, and socks, and on this Saturday, the cutting board and knife I need to make my own tajine at home! They also have a grocery store, and this was the seafood section. Those of you paying close attention will note that there was a shark in the aquarium shot, and a shark in this shot. Coincidence?? Sunday was a much sunnier day! Clear skies, and a great day for photographing some of the architecture of the city. (Check out more of the shots of architecture if you want on the soon-to-be-created Casablanca page in the drop-down menu.) Notice that on this day, I am wearing a cool new leather jacket. That is because after the Morocco Mall on Saturday, Hanane took me to the for-real souk in Casa, and we visited some of the leather shops. And here is a great thing about shopping with a local girlfriend: she helped me find a super quality jacket at a very fair price. Whoo-hoo! Here are some sunnier shots of the Hassan II Mosque; There was couscous, too! We stopped by Hanane's brother-in-law's business. Besides being a high school English teacher, Saad runs a private language center. We stopped in Saturday for mint tea and were invited to come back for lunch on Sunday. Here are some of the center staff with tea and with couscous, which is usually accompanied by buttermilk. Everyone at the center was very friendly, even though they were apparently amused by my (not-yet-fully-comprehensible) Darjia. Finally, with Hanane's help, I was finally able to conquer the challenge of finding the right spices in the souk to buy for tajine at home. She took me to the right part of the market for quality spices, and we talked to this man (who looks like a doctor or lab researcher more than a spice guy, doesn't he?) and he prepared little sacks of spices from the jars on the shelves. I bought black pepper, red pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, and cucurmin (which may be turmeric) and my total charge was $1.00. I think this is the basic combo that makes Moroccan cooking "moroccan". I'll let you know how it turns out!
I live in a neighborhood called Ocean. It's not the chicest neighborhood, but I don't think I'd like anywhere better. It's perfect for me. Everything I could need or want is within walking distance. For example: This is the shop that shares the entrance into my apartment building. George Clooney apparently frequents this salon whenever he visits Rabat. A three-minute walk to the east past a laundry, several bakeries, an auto-repair shop, an optometrist specializing in progressive lenses, a party store, a billiards and games place, and several restaurants gets me to this corner: nice clothing shop next door to a Carrefour (good grocery) and right at a tram stop. The tram, and a very nice little schwarma restaurant. Three more minutes and I am passing this gate to the Medina, although I usually walk on the other side of the street if I am not heading in. (This is Bab El Had, also pictured on the homepage of my blogsite.) After a couple of blocks, I turn and walk down this main street (Mohammed V Ave) though the Nouvelle Ville (new French-built city from the Protectorate days) and in 10 more minutes, I arrive at the Gare de Ville, the main train station. I have passed clothes and shoe stores, jewelers, books stores, a movie theatre, the Parliament building, (where they were filming a movie last night), and many restaurants. Usually I walk here in the mornings and pick up the tram to the university here at the train station. It's good exercise, and endlessly interesting. The Avenue continues beyond toward the Grand Mosque. By the way, it's not that everyone in Rabat loves little blue cars. These are the "petit taxis" that take you all over town for pretty cheap. If I wanted to taxi this walk instead, it would cost me 50 cents. Back to my apartment. That's mine, in the first floor corner apartment, with the plant in my living room window, and a small balcony off the guest bedroom. And there's George again. I could have chosen a picture showing the Salon de Thé (coffee and tea shop) right there on the corner, but why, when I can show you George again? Now, we're going to go 3 minutes to the west, passing an ATM and in the direction of several good quality patisseries: This souk, or market, has just fruits, nuts, eggs, and veggies, and stretches for three blocks. When you get to the white church at the end of this street, the Eglise de Mer, you turn right... and you walk 3 more minutes (maybe more, due to traffic, because you have to cross a street), and you can sit yourself down to enjoy this: which I really, really do enjoy. Even in the winter.
Tangier is about 4 hours north of Rabat by train, and the first class ticket costs about $15. On Friday after my Darija lesson, I hopped on the train and headed north to explore. This was my view at dinner, in a riad near the top of the Medina at the Kasbah, overlooking the old port. There was only a single French family dining when I arrived, and when they left, a group of Argentinians arrived. So I got some great practice overhearing conversation in two languages! While this seems unusual for Americans, it is absolutely common here. People speak many languages, no matter what their language of conversational choice is. So you can never assume that you are saying something that everyone around you doesn't understand! My hotel-- recently renovated, but a classic French hotel from the 19th century, the Grand Villa de France. A heated room, loads of hot water in the bath, a flatscreen TV on which to watch French language broadcasts, a super comfy bed-- and a view over the Medina and out to the sea. Lux and lovely!! View from my window. I visited the American Legation, which was the first US Embassy in the world-- remember, Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States in 1777?-- and a wonderful Museum of the Kashbah, which had a great display of the history of the people of Tangier from pre-historic times to the international zone that it was in World War II. As a former sultan's palace, it also had some spectacular architecture and gardens. I visited the Medina souks and tried to take a few more surreptitious photos, and I wandered down to the beachfront (where there is an actual sandy beach) along the corniche. I enjoyed really great food-- the breakfast buffet at the hotel was a symphony of fruits, nuts, and French pastries-- and I had my favorite dinner so far in Morocco at a seafood restaurant where there is no menu. Just come in, sit down, and let them bring you the prix-fixe whatever-is-freshest menu of the day. There are some pictures below of all that. I have also created a page here on the website where I uploaded a few of the other images that I took of the day. Click on the three little white lines at the top right of this page, and a drop-down menu will appear of the other pages on the site. (This is for you Dad.) There is now a page called Tangier with more photographs. One last cool thing: on the train ride back, there were 3 American college students on study abroad in my compartment, and one of them is from the same small college where I went! We were both quite excited to meet another person who had even heard of Ohio Wesleyan, so we took a picture of ourselves! It's on the Picture of the Day page. Minaret at the entrance to the Medina from Nouvelle Ville. Multi-cultural movie theater on the Grand Socco. La la Land, Adios Carmen, Fils de Pub Interior courtyard of the American Legation. Window at the Legation Olives-- see the reddish-purple ones in the back row? Yum! Look! Prepared, packaged veggies! Babouches-- traditional leather slippers; these are for women, and children. I am wearing one of these pairs right now as I blog! On the way up the hill to the Kasbah. Tangier's medina has much steeper streets than Rabat's! Saturday at noon: school is letting out for the day. Note the winter jackets they kids are wearing. Sultan's palace courtyard at the Kasbah Museum Ceiling of one of the rooms in the palace. Turns out good architectural photography is difficult!! This is really 3-D, like a Ryan Homes coffered ceiling on steroids. A wall in one of the rooms. Ceramic mosaic, carved plaster, and I don't even know how they did that wood! Gardens within the palace. Garden gate to a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Enjoying the sun and the view from one of the hotel terraces Afternoon ferry arriving from Spain A dusk stroll while waiting for my chosen restaurant to open for dinner, brought me to a sandy beach right in the heart of downtown Tangier. (If you were to look 180 degrees away from here, you'd see a lot of traffic businesses, and high rise hotels and apartments.) "Well, this is something unexpected," I thought when I realized there were camels waiting to take you for a ride. This is why you should never be without your camera in this country! Now for my fantastic prix-fixe dinner. First course: still warm toasted walnuts, almonds, and other nuts, three kinds of bread, hot peppers, and olives accompanied the fish soup. No, that is not wine in the glass. This is a Muslim country, and the only place I've seen wine was in the piano bar of the Grand Villa de France. This is a fruit punch with about 10 kinds of fruits juiced and mixed. Wonderful, and the glass kept getting re-filled. Second course: "fruit de mer" (seafood) mixture, onions, spinach in a searing hot little tajine. Main course: some kind of fish (turbot maybe??) grilled and seasoned with Moroccan spices, most especially cumin. And for good measure, there was a "brochette" of some other kind of fish. And, dessert: this was just absolutely the best! Seasonal strawberries and raspberries, with a nut, honey and maybe sugar topping. There's a bowl of the sugared nuts back there in the background if I needed more. Notice the rather rustic wooden utensils. The owner came by my table at the end and gave me two sets of utensils to take home as "souvenirs". And no, it wasn't because I was snapping pictures of my food. Everyone was! And I'll end with a picture of the restaurant itself, in case you ever want to go there: Saveur de Poisson.
Moroccan storks, of course! They have quite a few of them to do the job, too! More on the storks in a minute. Saturday, I visited Chellah, which was the site of the first city on the Bouragreg River where it meets the Atlantic. It is actually about 3.5 km upstream, and it was the site of a Phoenician city, then a Roman one, then a Merenid (Moorish) one before the current Kasbah and Medina were built. Today it is an elaborate set of gardens, with the ruins of the Roman city (2nd century BC-2nd AD) and the ruins of the mosque, madrasa (Koranic school), and royal burial site from the 13-14th centuries. Here are a few pictures of it. Some reconstruction of the walls is happening. Hydrangeas! Dragon tree. See it? Standing in the forum, surrounded by market stalls, carrara marble columns, half a toga-ed statue, and an inscripted column. Ignore the gray socks, please. I clearly did not bring enough socks with me to Morocco. If you are wondering how I got such a shot of myself, I had a personal guide through Chellah. Here's what happens: when you enter one of these sites and look like a tourist, suddenly a very helpful young man appears to give you directions or identify a tree you are looking at. If you let them, they will give you a very good tour of the site, and point out all the best places to get a photograph. You pay them something at the end, of course. I am quite glad to do it, since these are public-school educated (and most of them clarify for you that that means "poor") young men who have really learned passable French and English in order to do this work. Roman bath complex; there was a thermal water source, so there were three temperatures of baths available. Koranic school-- sleeping alcoves for the students. I imagine because they lived there full time, not because the lessons were boring. Sultan's burial room, and the minaret. There's alliteration if you say it in French: les chats de Chellah. These cats are lounging by a pool, still held sacred. There are eels in there, and women come to feed them eggs in order to receive help with fertility and childbirth. My guide asked if I wanted to see a sacred eel, and I said no, thanks. Artisans village from the Roman period, with a view across the river. Belladonna tree, which I 've only read about in books. #HarryPotter
Now for more on the storks. For some reason, this is a favorite spot for storks. They have over 75 nests on the grounds of Chellah, and another 25 in the area just to the south. There are a pair sitting on each nest, and the "cigonettes" are supposed to hatch in March. I so wish that I could upload video to this blog: they make an incredible noise that sounds like woodpeckers really attacking a tree, but it is entirely with their beaks. (Come to think of it, I am glad this is not a sound in the Arabic language! haha!) Here are few pictures of the storks: I was able to visit two other cities this week: Casablanca and Kenitra. Casa is about an hour to the south, by car, and another hour through lots of traffic in to the site of the book fair, which is very close to the new Hassan II mosque near the port. I was planning on taking the train, but Ahlam invited me to go in the car with some of the MACECE staff. Casablanca is about five times the size of Rabat, and more congested. As we left the Book Fair at about 4:30, a fog had rolled in from the ocean and made a magical view of the minaret of the mosque. Do you remember in the movie "Casablanca" (which was not shot here, BTW) the foggy scene at the end? I wonder if it is often foggy, or if it was just something special for my first visit! This is the Mosque in the morning when we arrived. On Friday, Adil and I took the train north to Kenitra, the town where he lives, so that I could enjoy Friday couscous with his family. He has a beautiful wife named Rajat and two young children. Rajat made a lovely couscous and a wonderful (and large!) flan for dessert. Of course we had tea too. This one wasn't mint, though. The plant in it is called "sheeba" in Darija, but I'm not sure what it is in English. It is in season now, she said. When Hamza, the 4-year-old boy met me, he asked, "Comment t'appelles-tu?" in French. It was adorable! The children are learning French, and Rajat speaks it, so we could carry on very well. We had a very interesting discussion about arranged marriage in Morocco (which theirs was) among other things. Thank goodness I didn't have to rely on my Darija!! This is Adil. He's been awarded a Fulbright in the US next year. He's waiting to hear to which university he'll go. The salon of their home. Look at the carved and painted plaster ceiling! The couscous! This one had beef (chuck roast) between the couscous and veggie layers. Hamza and Mariam with their father. Tea and flan. "It's so much better than restaurants," Adil said (because I had ordered a flan in a restaurant one day at Darija lesson/lunch). "You can have two pieces!" It WAS absolutely delicious! And I had two pieces.
My work week was busy this week, though it's a flexible schedule that I have! Every morning (at the crack of 11:00!) I have a Darija lesson with Adil. He is a good teacher, and I'm learning a lot (bzef) though it is really hard for me to make some of the sounds of Arabic/Darija. For example, there is a sound that you make somewhere in the bottom of your throat, like where you gargle, and it's a pretty common vowel. Adil says it is the "sound that sheep make". Well, I can tell you that American sheep do not make that sound! So I struggle with it, and sound a bit like I'm choking, and eventually I get something like it coming out of my mouth. But putting it into the middle of a word is something else entirely. The struggle is real. I got to go to a dissertation defense this week. The gentleman who was earning his doctorate went to public schools all the way through, and my advisor Prof Mderrsi thought it would be interesting for me to see the eventual possible outcome of a totally public education. There was an audience of his family, friends, and colleagues, and some students who came to see what a doctoral dissertation defense looks like. He explained his research for about 20 minutes with a power point, and then a panel of five judges who had previously read the 250-page written version each made 20-minutes-worth of comments. What was most interesting to me was that their negative comments had to do with his French writing style and the composition of the dissertation, not with his research, which was in the field of management of a large public project for transportation and development. Ultimately, they gave him high honors after their deliberations, because, as the president of the jury said, they weren't conferring a doctorate in French. His mother yipped, his wife cried, and I felt honored to be a witness. Afterwards there was a reception with tea, fresh fruit juices, and sweet and savory finger foods. I saw a cat come streaking through the reception room and into another connected room, where my advisor was talking on her phone; she shared some hors-d'oeuvres with the cat, too. On Thursday, I accompanied some of the MACECE staff to the International Book Fair in Casablanca. Publishers from all over Africa and Europe have booths there where they have their publications on display and for sale. MACECE went to the Dar America booth, hosted by the Consulate in Casablanca, and talked to people who might be interested in study abroad in the US, and the Fulbright Commission. There was also a booth hosted by the Presidents of Moroccan Universities, for which Mme Mderrsi had handled some logistics for UM5. There were TONS of school children. It must be quite the annual field trip. Think of it as the Scholastic Book Fair at an elementary school on steroids, with an adult version layered over top. There were guest speakers and hand-on activities. I wandered, bought posters for my classroom (of course! fruit and vegetable posters with the names in French, Arabic, and English, etc) and met an interesting man who was a Fulbright scholar in Michigan and teaches English to the blind at a school in Casa. He invited me to come and observe a few of his classes, and I will be taking him up on that.
I'm so glad you asked! Happy Valentines Day! I was glad to see that February 14th dawned with bright blue skies, and though I carried my umbrella all day, it wasn't needed at all. La vie est belle when the sun is shining! I was surprised to see heart-shaped boxes of chocolate in my local grocery story (the Carrefour). It was an endcap, sort of like a a promotional display, but there they were. Adil and I talked about it at my Darija lesson. He says Valentines Day is a pretty new thing here, and that many people aren't too happy about it. "Some people say it's nice and it's fun and why not. But others say why should we take on the holiday of a culture that is not ours? We don't believe in St. Valentine." Well, I told him, there are mixed feelings about it in the US, too; it's what I call a commercial holiday. And so I could see throughout the day the creeping evidence of Valentine's commercialism. At the flower market that I passed, they had lots of red roses, opulent sprays, and small bouquets in vases ready for sale. At the restaurant where I had some dinner tonight, the tables were decorated with floral centerpieces. I took a survey of the customers (OK, I didn't ask them, I just attempted to perceive their reasons for being there tonight.) All of the women were wearing western clothing: A pair of Gal-entines having dinner together; two families with young children taking Mom out so she didn't have to cook, and one For Real Date-- a couple very dressed up and flirty, and the woman took pictures of the courses as they were served. Perhaps she expects this to be a date to remember. But as I walked by the tea room on the first floor of my building, I could see that it was packed with men--all men--watching a soccer game on TV. Even now I can hear the play-by-play and cheering in my apartment. Maybe they already gave their wives flowers and chocolate. Bouquet in vase: $5.00 In the Agdal neighborhood on February 15-- sadly, the concept of the half-price sale has not immigrated to Morocco.
Driss very kindly decided to have a tajine dinner party on Sunday to introduce me to some of the other Fulbrighters that he knows here, and some of their friends. (That is Driss over there to the left.) He told me he'd teach me to make tajine, which is a pretty common dinner dish here. The word refers to both the ceramic dish that you cook it in, and the food itself. So I went over to Driss' apartment for an evening of mint tea and conversation, salad, and tajine. Here are my two take-aways about the food so far in Morocco: I still love that red pepper paste that I mentioned in a previous post. But, there are two other foods that I have decided are the bomb! One is pickled lemons. I know! Doesn't that sound weird? But they are pickled still in the rinds, and then they get sliced up and added to the tajine near the end, and we also had some in the green salad and they were so yummy. And, the second one will really surprise those who know my eating habits: OLIVES! Honestly, I generally don't like olives at all, and make a beeline right past the olive bar at Wegman's. But here, I have tried some that are probably marinated in that same red piquant paste, and some that have a bit of a lemony back-flavor, and I really liked them. In the fashion of Morocco, and of Youth everywhere, we started cooking at 8:30 pm and ate our dinner at 11. It was late dining for me, but I met some pretty interesting young people, I ate a tasty dinner, and I now have the basic recipe for tajine under control. I understand though that although the basics remain constant, every cook has his Tajine Maison, and no two are really fully alike. Here are some pictures, but I'll put the full process and pictures over on the Recipes page of this site, which has been waiting patiently for an entry. I am getting better at the "bread as utensil" technique. Clear benefit of eating right from the tajine itself: very few dishes!!
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Marcie StutzmanTeacher, Researcher, Adventurer, Explorer; Maybe crazy; Possibly too old for this Archives
October 2018
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