This week in the medina in Fez, the market stalls are piled high with artichokes, which is always a sign that summer is just round the corner as their abundance tends to precede a spate of much warmer weather in this part of North [...]
‘But I have 5 kilos of Chebbakia in my hand luggage, that’s why it’s overweight’ says the man just ahead of me in the check-in queue for the Air Arabia flight to London Gatwick. The member of Fez airport ground crew hesitates then looks up [...]
Friday is the holy day in Morocco, where the mosques are the fullest; the midday prayer is the longest and where family kitchens excel in the variation and refinement of the Friday Family Couscous. But Sunday is the day where most people mark a [...]
Excerpts from latest article in the daily mail online ‘Now, confession time’ writes Liz Hoggard in the dailymail.co.uk ‘I don’t cook much’. In a delightful article on the Tajine and side dishes cooking workshop at Fez Cooking School, Liz Hoggard, one of the top writers [...]
Following the course of the river that bears the same name, Fez El-Bali spills down the hill from the plateau of the new town. In shades of cream and gold dotted with the green roofs of its places of worship, it sits there like [...]
Morocco never ceases to surprise me for the speed with which things grow. As the chill of winter fades, little lines of green stripe this hills surrounding Fez like a 70’s knitted sweater; sage green knotty ridges against the chocolate brown earth. Blink and [...]
When travelling, we see unusual sights, sleep in unusual places, and eat unusual food. Tourists observe and move on. Travellers also observe, but they compare and compute, they scratch at the surface and are keen to understand where they find themselves. Travellers are looking [...]
Guernina, or when squid came to supper. ‘Is that some sort of squid?’ she said pointing at a heap of tentacles on an upturned crate? ‘Guernina’ said the stallholder, picking up a star like plant with long pale stems fringed with green joined at [...]
Summer is out and the gold of Autumn starts to show Over the summer months they have been charred on charcoal, stuffed, peeled or mashed. One week saw them thinly sliced and sautéed, then sandwiched with delicate local cheese and piled high, as the [...]