Food Travel in Morocco: What to Order When You Visit

Bismillah, in the name of God and welcome, foodie adventurers and culinary curious to Destination Morocco podcast.

If your travel plans are often guided by your taste buds and you believe the best way to understand a culture is through its get ready for a feast. Today, we're diving fork first into the incredible, aromatic Moroccan cuisine. From the bustling food stalls eateries, we are going to explore

what makes Moroccan food so unique and delicious. And joining us to guide this is our expert guide, Ted, the true connoisseur of Moroccan gastronomy. Welcome back to Destination Morocco podcast, Ted.

Ted Cragg (00:49)
Well, I've been a connoisseur since I went to Morocco, which is a great place to discover it for sure. I had no idea. Well, we talked about it maybe a bit, but I really didn't have much idea what tagines were and the other things till, of course, we went to try it, which was pretty amazing. So that's what we're going to chat about today. mean, food comes up on all kinds of episodes for sure that we've done. But I, again, I don't know if we've done a dedicated episode. So.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (00:51)
Perfect.

Ted Cragg (01:16)
That's just it really. mean, until, unless you know the food already, and or unless you've been to Morocco, right? And you have some kind of connection like maybe it's hard to kind of grasp exactly what is it tagine and what is couscous made from and stuff like that. yeah, we thought we'd go over some of those questions. Most of these questions, of course, that you've received from people over the last little while. So we put it all together here in one episode. Yeah. Well, when someone mentions Moroccan cuisine.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (01:39)
Thank you.

Ted Cragg (01:44)
I mean, yeah, tagine, couscous, things like that often come to mind. So we can talk about that, but beyond those staples, what are some maybe equally iconic or well-known must-try type dishes that people should look for, should really ask for when they're in Morocco?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (02:01)
Okay, that's a really really good question Ted. Just to give you a little bit of numbers, last year Moroccan cuisine ranked number one internationally and for the last decade or so it has always been ranked probably top five. So the Moroccan cuisine is very diverse but I do agree with you, Tajine and couscous are the most known dishes and in Morocco some dishes are more familiar.

in certain cities or villages or culture or a tribe versus others. So there's so many to try, know, and again, depending on the occasion, depending on if it's a religious, if it's a celebration. So many, many things are different and they change depending on the occasion. So.

Ted Cragg (02:50)
Yeah, well, let's take I'm going to share my screen here for for those who's watching and watching and if you're listening, we'll do our best to describe it here. But just looking at tajines, I mean, what's the best way to kind of summarize? You know, is it would you call it a stew?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (03:06)
It's well, it's similar to a stew with a lot less broth, if you would. And again, when you talk about, you know, the sauce or the broth, depending some people like it almost with no sauce. Some people like it with sauce so they can dip in the bread. And you know, the bread in Morocco, the culture is just, they feed you  bread all the time, anything that we put, it's going to have bread next to it. So these are really, really diverse tajine dishes, if you would. And some are made with

Ted Cragg (03:23)
Yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (03:35)
you know, chicken, some are made beef, with lamb, with fish. you can make it with anything you really want, vegetables only and so forth. And it varies. There's some dishes that are popular again, like in terms of celebration, like, ⁓ you know, with prunes, with almonds as decoration, like the one that you see here,

Ted Cragg (03:45)
Okay. yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (03:58)
That one, yes. So that one looks like, know, it's with apricot and prunes. It's really, really nice. And then next to it, yes, and you can see it, it is chicken. It's made, you know, yeah, I can see it in the title, with prunes and apricot. Yes, it's really, really good. And it's very tasty. This can be just a regular...

Ted Cragg (03:58)
Here. Okay.

I see, yeah.

okay yeah of course the prunes and apricots there you go yeah

Azdean Elmoustaquim (04:18)
day, Tarjin, or it can be an occasion. ⁓

Ted Cragg (04:20)
Hmm. That's a good question.

Like are these special occasion type dishes or everyday? Yeah

Azdean Elmoustaquim (04:24)
they can be absolutely they can

be in terms of celebration some people you can see there's little bit of decoration or garnish in terms of cilantro I see it in on top and then some will add you know just roasted peeled almonds on top of it and some will add as well reasons so yeah so those are just garnishes and and and when you look at the next to it on the left hand side that's a couscous

Ted Cragg (04:32)
yeah.

No reason,

Azdean Elmoustaquim (04:48)
The same tagine that he just showed yeah, that one is it's a vegetable tagine This is very traditional and you can see it has kind of brown olives ⁓ But it shows here that it's beef So the beef the beef or the lamb is going to be basically underneath the vegetables So this is more like for maybe three people, you know ⁓ Yeah, yes, yeah and then

Ted Cragg (04:51)
This one here.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yep, slices of vegetables, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Here's good one too. This is vegetarian. Yep

Azdean Elmoustaquim (05:14)
it depends on the city. Sometimes the culture of the city, they have certain type of vegetables. You know, it's very popular, especially in fact, they say the seven vegetables, which means it's very diverse. There's a lot of vegetables, like as you can see here, there's, know, carrots is a must. And then you can see zucchini squash, the red squash, they have eggplant in it. Olives is common. Yeah, so it's...

Ted Cragg (05:28)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (05:37)
really really delicious the sauce comes from the ingredients of let's say pull up any tagine ⁓ so so this is this is a chicken tagine this is a regular tagine and and it looks like maybe I don't know if that's looks kind of greenish I'm not sure what that is but yeah it's kind of weird but

Ted Cragg (05:38)
And what kind of sauce is going on these?

Yeah, okay, here's the Tajin Chicken one.

Yeah.

There's broccoli in there, yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (06:02)
I've never seen broccoli in tajin but then again you can make it your own and whatever

Ted Cragg (06:05)
Sure, yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (06:06)
fits you can have it normally there will be onions there will be garlic maybe another but then the spices you add the salt and pepper the cumin ginger sometimes dry parsley or fresh parsley

Ted Cragg (06:19)
yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (06:22)
cilantro sometimes as we saw it it can be used as a garnish or can also be chopped up really really thin inside the dish and then with water paprika then you know some you know hot sauce not really hot sauce but if hot peppers as well and it depends the ones that are used there's some just regular green ones in the US those that available or you can do jalapenos so just it depends on your flavor really so that's what really

Ted Cragg (06:32)
Hmm.

yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (06:48)
mix the sauce and then you steam it until it gets little bit brownish and just add whatever you need to add to it because certain things in Tajine they cook in different times so sometimes you add everything all at once it in low heat and sometimes you need to add for example potatoes first and then afterwards you add something else because they cook in different times

Ted Cragg (06:51)
Hmm.

Now as far as cooking, is it fair to say that this is what makes it a tagine? It's the pot that it's cooked in and the way that that cooks it?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (07:17)
100 % This is, if you look at this pot here, it's very unusual We're we're gonna, yeah, we're gonna leave and yeah, find a different one Look at the one on top with the tea pot Yep, yep, that one Yes, so this is more like a traditional tajine And you can see this I see some olives, I see some lemon ⁓ wedges, maybe chicken

Ted Cragg (07:26)
You can find a different one.

here, yeah, okay.

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (07:44)
So, normally

this is what you would cook it and again, you cover it and you put it on low heat and that's the best way to cook a tagine and cook it for a couple hours, you know, because it's slowly cooked, it's steamed everything everything, all the meat, whatever it's beef or chicken stays juicy and very, very flavorful. That's a really good picture as

Ted Cragg (08:01)
Hmm.

Now remember the thing you said a while back about how the ones you cook with have a hole and the decorative ones don't. Is that right?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (08:13)
That's right. Yes,

that's right. Yeah, because I remember that incident that we had with one of the guests, ⁓ she was eating at the restaurant and, know, waitress out of the blue just said, Hey, that's not very bad is fake for no reason or evidence. And she panicked. But anyways, so most of the tagines that you will get here in the U.S., they are for cooking. Most of them. And you can see

Ted Cragg (08:19)
Yeah.

Okay.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (08:38)
when you look at the lid of this tagine when you lift it up towards the end of it or the top you're going to see a small opening and that's where the steam you know leaves

Ted Cragg (08:45)
Yeah. Okay. So the steam doesn't

come out the hole in the middle. It's this little hole kind of halfway down on the side. Or maybe both. Yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (08:53)
It's actually close to what you have right there, yes.

So that's where the steam comes out. And it's very slow steam cooker if you would. So very low heat. And the ones that are just for decoration, they'll be looking just like this or some are really, really fancy with a different ceramic made different clay if you would. But then they will not have that opening on top.

Ted Cragg (09:00)
Right.

Yeah, yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (09:18)
which means that you cannot really put it in the oven or cook with it however you can still serve food in it and it's still just perfectly fine so that's the only difference you cannot put it into a hot oven or a stove but you can still serve the food even the food is hot you could still do it if it's yeah cold or salads that's fine too

Ted Cragg (09:25)
Yeah, okay.

Hmm

Mm-hmm. Yeah. saw a picture of some nice couscous here. Maybe this is a good one. Is that that's some good. That's quinoa. Yeah, that's kind of. Maybe.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (09:43)
That's quinoa. I think it looks like, yeah, it says couscous, but yeah, it is couscous. That one is couscous.

Couscous, can be made, you know, in vegetables. And again, it's completely up to you in terms of vegetables. Normally there's carrots, eggplant, and there's different type of eggplant and different cuts of eggplant. Some they just use the small eggplant as a whole.

and some they just cut it into small pieces if the eggplant is big. Then you have the zucchinis, then you have, you can do zucchini, can do red squash. You can do veggies. It's completely up to you. there's a different way of making the traditional Moroccan couscous versus just cooking.

Ted Cragg (10:14)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Now, are there different

types of couscous in the sense there's different types of rice, know, white rice, brown rice, all that?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (10:28)
Yes,

you're absolutely right. That's a really really good question. just regular couscous which is just... But then there's couscous that is made out of wheat grains and it's a little bit different. The texture is different, the look is different. It looks a little bit darker color lighter color of the regular couscous. The taste is different.

Ted Cragg (10:41)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (10:54)
So if you look at this one,

You see, this one has cabbage. And cabbage is really, really popular as well. So the one next to it in front of us, that looks like carrot. And then you can see some chickpeas next to it, in between those two. Yeah, there's a chickpea. Then is...

Ted Cragg (11:00)
⁓ yeah.

Right?

⁓ yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (11:12)
forgot the name in English but the next one is the eggplant that's what I was talking about yes and then on top you can see the zucchinis you can see all kind of things and the meat as well or this one it says seven vegetables so yeah which is really really nice so this one is just the regular couscous it's not the wheat couscous or the this one will be kind of smooth if you would

Ted Cragg (11:22)
Yeah, it's underneath there.

Okay.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (11:35)
The other

one is kind of a little bit, you can feel it's very different, probably a little bit, uh, textured, yes, a little bit dry, a little bit harder. So, but this is the most popular. let me see. Sumerlina? Yeah. Sumerlina. I think. Yeah.

Ted Cragg (11:39)
Texture.

And what's like regular couscous made from?

O spirulina isn't it is that it? Sumerlina

Yeah, OK.

Cool. Okay. So let's talk about spices too. You know, spices and aromas. Are there essential spices that define Moroccan cooking? Are there spices that only appears, if you know, in Moroccan cooking? We can find some of those.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (12:09)
That's a really good question. That question really changed I would say in last few years because there's a certain formula that say hey this one goes with this, this one goes with the fish, this one goes with the beef, this one goes with the chicken but now it doesn't really matter it's up to you in terms of the flavor but then you have the stables obviously you know salt, pepper cumin is definitely a must in a lot of the dishes ginger as well saffron

Ted Cragg (12:21)
Yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (12:37)
is definitely a must. Paprika or you know back home we don't call it really paprika but it's it has a different name but that's the equivalent to it. And sometimes we do ⁓ you know if you like it spicy then we just add something spicy you know like a spicy pepper if you would. So yeah.

Ted Cragg (12:54)
Okay.

Now when you see something like this, this maybe is more of a North American thing, but still they talk about, I've seen this a lot, know, you get your Moroccan spice rub or something. Do you know generally offhand what spices would be in that?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (13:08)
I honestly wouldn't. Yeah, it's different. Yes. Yeah, it's different. Yeah, you're right.

Ted Cragg (13:10)
because it's different everywhere depending who's put it together maybe they'll tell us here

Azdean Elmoustaquim (13:16)
And again, if it's for meat, if it's for chicken, it's different. But then if you look at this list on the right hand side, that's really good.

Ted Cragg (13:19)
Okay.

So here's a good list, got brown or coconut sugar, paprika, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, pepper, and cayenne. And of course they're all ground up. So you're not using a full clove, you're using the cloves ground up as an example.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (13:31)
Yes.

Yes.

Yes, yeah. The brown and

coconut sugar, that's very rare. It depends what you're using it for, but it's not really common in terms of, you know, daily use. So the rest of it is very accurate, yes.

Ted Cragg (13:45)
yeah.

Hmm. Interesting. So what kind of like, I guess, flavors should people look for? What's that? Is there a distinct flavor, you know, to Moroccan food, to maybe your average tagine, you know, that makes it really stand out?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (14:09)
It's the mixture of the spices, the amount that it's mixed, you know, just like a bartender, have to have the right amount of everything. You don't want to have one spice, you know, too much of it overpowering the other spices. And that's what makes the flavor really, really tasty. And also the way of cooking it, because when you're cooking it, you want to give it its time. You know, there's a process, for example.

Ted Cragg (14:15)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

⁓ yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (14:36)
you know, with the chicken, if we take an example of the chicken, ideal to have it at least cleaned, completely cleaned and marinated for a minimum of 24 hours. So you let it sit in all those spices. So it absorbs all those ingredients. The other thing that we forgot is ⁓ lemon juice. Lemon juice, especially with the chicken. And then you have as decoration and also

Ted Cragg (14:55)
yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (15:00)
it adds to the flavor which is lemon peel, is preserved lemon peel is very very flavorful and that takes a couple of months with the process how to make it to have really nice lemon peels to add to your dish so again it's the way that you cook it sometimes

Ted Cragg (15:15)
Mm-hmm.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (15:20)
Saffron is a must because it adds to the flavor. Sometimes it's not needed depending on the dish that you're making and it does make a huge difference.

Ted Cragg (15:28)
Yeah,

for sure. Interesting.

Now I got to bring this up. Harira soup. Do you have to ask for it really? Because if I remember, they pretty much serve it all the time. So what is Harira and where can people expect to get it?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (16:21)
Yes.

Okay, that's a really good question. Ted, if you can pull one up so the audience can see it, and there are really different pictures here. That one is a good one. Yes. So this one, it's not gonna normally look like this, but if you ask me, soup, the bowl of soup was just picked up all the way from the bottom of the jar, if you will, because ⁓ it's supposed to be very juicy.

Ted Cragg (16:37)
Yeah, maybe this one here. It's got chickpeas, lentils.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (16:56)
like running like that the reason because I wanted you to show this it's it's it's very important this is more like it you can still see the chickpeas you can still see I forgot the name of ⁓ Sharia

Ted Cragg (16:56)
Okay.

Aha.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (17:08)
and it's garnished with, some people they garnish it with the lemon wedge on the side. And now it's very popular. This one, Harira, is very specific to Ramadan. That's what it serves when you go to houses or somebody invites you. it's a stable. It's a must. It's in all the tables it's the time to break their fast. So this is what we

Ted Cragg (17:18)
yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (17:30)
Harira for Ramadan because it is specific to that Ramadan period of every year. Now it depends on the city with the culture and everything. Now it is served outside Ramadan almost every day and in a lot of places they serve it in dinners like when you go to a coffee shop you can order Harira and they'll serve it to you just like this some

will have a lemon wedge to the side depending on what city you're in if it's Chefchaouen and if it's Agadir, if it's Ma'arakash and some will have a boiled egg next to it and as you can see here this is really accurate it was a date and some halwa Shabakia that's yeah, yeah so you can see the date on the right hand side yep and then next to it Shabakia yes and the Shabakia again these are all Ramadan

Ted Cragg (18:09)
Yeah, yeah, that's And shabekki as the sesame dessert.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (18:20)
sweets if you would and again this is is a perfect example right here depending on the region you can see it shows this is a lentil soup but it's very you know if the harira the ramadan harira were served you can see the lemon wedge you can see here some figs dry figs and in the next to it you can see ⁓ a half boiled egg as well and again it just it depends on the region where you're getting it the market the street food so it's served in different ways

Ted Cragg (18:21)
Hmm.

Yeah. Okay.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (18:47)
So this one looks a little different but again you can see the lentils you can see the garnish the cilantro but it's not juicy because I say juicy or not juicy because it is supposed to have more juice than ⁓ everything you see here is supposed to be into the bottom of the soup so yeah it's a lot

Ted Cragg (19:03)
Right.

yeah, it does seem a lot thicker.

But the point is that you can get it year round, right? And if you want to do can, here's a question. Can you do kind of a Harira food tour in the sense of sampling different types of it, right? In different cities.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (19:14)
Yes, absolutely yes.

that's a good question. Yes, you can do this is very interesting because we did this one in Marrakesh and it can be done in literally all the major series. First is highly recommended as well. The food tasting tour and there's three types. There's one that you do in the morning. There's one that you do during lunch and there's one that you do late afternoon and it extended it extends to to around maybe nine, 10 p.m. and it's considered dinner. So when you do the one in breakfast,

A lot of people will not do this one because their breakfast is already included at the Riyadh hotel. So we rarely do those. But they breakfast tours and they'll take you to the Medina, the old downtown, whether it's in Fes, whether it's in Shefchaou and whether it's in Samarkash. And you'll see the dishes that are normally associated with Moroccan breakfast.

Ted Cragg (20:02)
I see ya.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (20:17)
You'll see the eggs in the tajjeen, you'll see the delicacies that we serve. And you really have to have a tough stomach for those type of things. Then you see bisara, which is really, really good as well. And olive oil and black olives. Then you see honey. We serve honey quite a bit in breakfast. And semmen as well. So there's a lot of dishes it includes in the breakfast tour. And you can just sample.

Ted Cragg (20:25)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (20:43)
from place to place to place and each place has its own specific dish that they are really known for, they are really good at. So, and that should take, I would say, maybe two and a half hours or so. This is for the breakfast. So you're just going from stall to stall and place to place and sampling the breakfast menu, if you would. Then the one for lunch, it is popular as well. And then you do the same thing, but it's going to be a lunch menu.

And again, it depends on how strong your stomach is. There are going to be a lot of delicacies. May not for everyone, you'll have your couscous, you'll have your tagine, you'll have the beef, the lamb, and a lot of delicacies. If you want to taste them, you can. If not, you just skip them. Then the dinner, which is good as well. ⁓ I like the dinner because

And we did it in Jem Elfna Square because you see the change in the square. Jem Elfna becomes alive depending on the time of the day, the year, before the sunset. mean, we started, I think, around five o'clock. And that's when everybody started to get ready in terms of the performance in the square, in terms of the stalls in the square. start setting up their little shops and stuff. And was very interesting and it was absolutely worth it.

Ted Cragg (21:38)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (22:00)
and recommended. And then we ended up at a place where we had the Harira as well. And you can see it in some of the posts that we guide Ahmed. He did a really, really good job with the Muslimin as well. in terms of food tasting tours, they're really, really popular and highly recommended.

Ted Cragg (22:01)
Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah,

me. Now that leads into street food. So how can people sample street food safely and deliciously too, but mostly safely?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (22:27)
That's a really good

speak a little bit more about Marrakesh. I don't want to sound biased, but I am from Marrakesh. Marrakesh has the best street food in the nation right now. And that has changed, I would say, in last decade. street food in Marrakesh was terrible growing up. eat it, if you don't have a really good, strong stomach, even for locals,

Ted Cragg (22:30)
Sure.

you

Mm.

Yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (22:52)
it

will get you sick. If you don't go to the square and eat in the square almost once a month or so, that food will make you sick. The taste was terrible, but You know tourism being the you know very big in Morocco and so many changes the restrictions, now I highly recommend street food in Marrakesh, especially Jema el-Fnaa. Because it's very safe. It's really really good. It has changed completely into the best

Ted Cragg (23:12)
Okay, yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (23:17)
possible way for me. Because I remember, you know, having chicken comparing it to what we have at home. There's no comparison in terms of, you know, tenderness and juiciness, even texture, flavor. Just it's completely different. Now it's it's it's definitely worth it and I highly recommend it. you look at street food, definitely Fes. Each city has its own amazing street food. We've had it in Tangier. We've had it in Essaouira, in Fes. Chefchaouen. It's it's really, really, really incredible.

Now the only advantage that Marrakesh has is the square and they have literally everything in one place but then there's other street food everywhere else you go in Marrakesh but Jamal if you would is really the hub for street food and it's very diverse that anything you can think of and they eat all parts of the animal nothing really goes to waste if you would that's when we talk about delicacies and again it's not for everyone so

Ted Cragg (24:11)
Well, how do know that it's safe and that they're following hygienic stuff?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (24:16)
because they

have doctors, have checkups all the time. also the local, let's say when you look at Jamal al-Finaw, the whole square is under camera, then the police station is right there, so just a few steps away. And tourists are very important to Morocco. Again, if we look at the numbers last year, 14 port.

Ted Cragg (24:34)
Okay.

Yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (24:42)
No, 17.4 million visited Morocco. Now we are in almost the holiday season, and that number has been surpassed already. So when we talk about travel in terms of tourism in Morocco, this is the best year ever in terms of numbers in Morocco. So it's pretty, pretty big. And then we're going to be hosting the African Cup and some...

tournaments just this month and next month and you have December and January so it's very important. so and the violations are you can lose your license so nobody wants to take that chance. Yeah if their food isn't safe you know you'll get a penalty then a penalty then you need to leave that spot for somebody else you know yeah.

Ted Cragg (25:13)
Like if their food isn't safe?

So do

they have inspectors that come to the food stalls?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (25:24)
Yeah, they do. They do

have inspectors just like, you know, secret choppers. They do have inspectors and they just don't inspect just the food but also make sure that everybody's charged the right amount because I remember we talked about it couple years ago. was a couple from England visiting Morocco and they ate, you know, just something normally would cost probably 20 US dollars for dinner, but they were handed a bill of $500.

Ted Cragg (25:29)
Bye.

Bye.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (25:52)
They didn't say anything, they just paid it and took the receipts. They just walked to the police station and that guy just, you know, in deep trouble. yeah, they're very serious when it comes to tourists and more.

Ted Cragg (25:55)
Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah, that's good. Hmm. All right. Well, last thing I want to cover here, at least in this episode, we can certainly do lots more about food, I'm sure, but at least a bit of an overview here. But what about dietary restrictions and allergies? You you talk a lot about bread, for instance, but if you're gluten free, you know, is there any way around that? And just in general, how do they have kind of systems, you know, accommodations in place for people, dietary restrictions, generally speaking?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (26:31)
Yes, they do. And we do get those requests all the time and we accommodate them all the time. So and the good thing is, you know, the travelers, they let us know ahead of time. So we we make sure in every stop they are served the right food. So there's no no sickness, no allergies to anything. if it's gluten free, if it's just vegetarian dishes and stuff like that. Yeah. So yeah. And also when you go to restaurants on your own,

Ted Cragg (26:54)
Okay.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (26:58)
Just ask. ask. If you cannot ask right away, just make an arrangement. Check with them ahead of time. Say, hey, I'm going to be there in three days. Will I be able to find something vegetarian or gluten free? Or I have allergic to this. it be safe for me to eat at your restaurant? So it's always good to check ahead if you're traveling on your own. If you're coming with us, then we do the checking for you and we make the reservation booking for you.

Ted Cragg (27:00)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, exactly. then, I mean, more touristy it gets, the more likely they'll speak English. if you have a guide, you know, they're there to help translate a course if that's an issue, too.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (27:30)
Yes.

Absolutely, absolutely. That's why guides are really, important on the tour.

Ted Cragg (27:40)
Oh yeah. Good. All right. Well, that's a good overview. As I say, I'm sure we'll be back talking more about some different kinds of dishes. There's always lots to cover. So, but yeah, it's a very, very popular topic and absolutely one of the highlights of Morocco is trying some different foods. So it's one of the best reasons to go.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (27:57)
Thank you, thank you. I completely agree. I'm biased.

Ted Cragg (27:59)
Yeah.

You get to eat it all the time at home, right? Because your wife. Yeah.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (28:02)
I know, I know. I'm very spoiled. I mean, I'm very grateful and you know, it's

so funny because I remember coming to the US one of my neighbors back home, you know, they helped me come to the US actually. So when she invites us and we have couscous and was like, oh my God, I didn't think I was going to have couscous until I go back to Morocco, but it's just, it's a really, really nice treat. So it's just, it's amazing.

Ted Cragg (28:25)
Yeah.

Do you find it, ⁓ you can get fairly accurate, authentic ingredients in Houston? Were you there?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (28:33)
I would say probably 80 % but we do bring them from back home. Yeah, the taste is different. And that's a really good question by the way, Ted. The reason is because here everything is kind of grinded and pre-made but back home we bring the, we don't crush the grains. So we just crush them if we need to use for a month or so that's the...

Ted Cragg (28:39)
Sure.

Okay, ready?

Azdean Elmoustaquim (28:57)
we crush that amount needed but the other thing is yeah that way it is more fresh and then we go to it's kind of a Pakistani indie place and that's where we most of the spices here as well the ones that we need yeah

Ted Cragg (28:58)
Yeah, yeah, so it's more fresh.

Yeah, interesting. That's a point then if people are interested in doing some Moroccan cooking at home, know, especially if you've been and you want to replicate you may not find a Moroccan market per se, but a lot of the East Indian and maybe general African markets, I suppose, could have some of those places. Yeah. Cool. All right. So, yeah, we'll be back again with another episode soon, but this is been fun.

Azdean Elmoustaquim (29:16)
Yeah. Yes.

Absolutely, Awesome.

Thank you so much, really really appreciate it. Thank you. Bye bye.

Ted Cragg (29:39)
Cheers.