Welcome to part two of my epic foodie road trip through Morocco! In the first part this trip we had explored the cuisine in the cities of Casablanca, Marrakesh, and Dadès Gorges in the Atlas Mountains (you can read about it here if you missed it). Up next we will visit Merzouga which is a village at the Northwestern edge of the Sahara Desert, then take the long road trip north to Fez, and finally the capital city of Rabat. We will end this road trip back in Casablanca.

We were up early and ready to start the second half of this journey. After having a big breakfast at Auberge Miguirne chez Ali, I learned at checkout that our hearty and delicious dinner for two the night before was only 160 MAD ($16USD), woohoo! We decided to drive through the Dades Valley and take in some sight-seeing before the 5 hour drive southeast to the village of Merzouga. It was a quiet and peaceful morning and as the sun rose, the mountains became warmer and more beautiful. We explored the Monkey Paw Mountains which was located in the immediate area of our hotel, then it was time to go. Morocco is such a beautiful country, and each city we departed offered a diversity of scenic views along the way.

Merzouga is a village in Southeastern Morocco, about 31 miles from the Algerian border. It is home to the Erg Chebbi dunes, some of the tallest in the Sahara desert. We arrived at the Riad Dar Morocco early in the afternoon, just in time for lunch. The Dar Morocco is a stunning riad with Moroccan style luxury rooms, a pool, and fantastic views of the Sahara sand dunes. I highly recommend this place if you plan on visiting. The staff is very accommodating, friendly, and knowledgeable of the area. Since we were visiting the country in early January (the off-season), there were not a lot of tourists in the area, so the staff upgraded us to one of their biggest rooms facing the Sahara Dunes (pictured below).

We were absolutely starved for lunch, so one of the staff from our riad walked us across the road to a small place called Restaurant Nomad. Now this was a VERY interesting restaurant in the middle of the desert. We were given no menus, so I figured it would be a pre-fixe meal. What made this restaurant different were the menu items were fashioned as a Moroccan/Italian fusion type of meal. We had a noodle dish resembling pasta with marinara, but the sauce was seasoned with Moroccan spices, an eggplant/tomato tagine with some type of melted white cheese that was similar to mozzarella. Then there was a dish called Medfouna, also known as “Berber pizza”, this is a traditional Moroccan dish which is sort of like a stuffed round flatbread. This was our favorite course of them all! We finished the day with a wonderful dinner in the riad of Berber-style lemon chicken with aubergine.

The next day it was time for our Saharan adventure. The plan was to ride a couple of camels into the Sahara desert and spend the night in tents under the stars. We began the day with another stellar breakfast at the riad. We drove to a nearby village to watch some live local music nearby. After walking around a bit, the smell of grilled meats lured us into the main street of the village for lunch. There we met a young guy named Mohamed who flagged us down and urged us to visit his place for lunch. Most of the restaurants to eat here are connected to a local butcher shop which sells everything from beef to camel. My choice here, fresh grilled camel ribs. If you have followed this blog you know that I love cooking exotic meats, and I have actually cooked camel ribs before (recipe here). So I was excited to try them again. The butcher immediately chopped the ribs for me, seasoned them and tossed them on the grill along with onions, hot peppers, and tomatoes, and skewers of lamb kefta kebabs. This was an absolutely amazing lunch capping a beautiful day in the village of Merzouga!

Later in the afternoon we packed our bags and took our 2 hour camel ride into the desert to stay at an overnight camp. There are many different camps throughout the area. The camp we stayed at had a beautiful presentation and very nice tents with a shower and bathroom. One catch: it was mid January and they had no space heaters. January is the coldest month in the Merzouga. Temperatures can range from 68F/20C in the daytime to 28F/-2C at night. In their defense, they stocked each tent with an abundant amount of very heavy blankets which helped me sleep like a baby. The dinner here was amazing and we spent the evening bundled up and dancing around a campfire while the locals performed live Berber music. This is must-do activity if you ever visit Merzouga.

Overall, I think that I would have liked to spend an additional day or two in Merzouga to explore a bit more. But, it was time to drive the longest stretch of this road trip to the northern city of Fez. This is normally an 8 hour drive from the Merzouga region, it took me 9 1/2 hours because I made the mistake of setting my GPS to “skip tolls”. This took us through the more rural and mountainous regions of the country. I can’t really say that this was a big mistake, because the drive exposed us to the different climates and scenic views in the countryside. There were clear bright skies that changed over into torrential rain which turned into snow when we hit the higher elevations. The scenery itself, more than made up for my GPS hiccup. We stopped for lunch at the halfway point in the city of Midelt which is referred to as the “Apple Capital of Morocco”. We did not explore this city much due to timing issues, but we stopped to have a couple of delicious chicken kebab wraps and we kept it moving.

We arrived in the city of Fez about 7:30 pm and we were beat down from the long drive. We pre-booked a room at the Riad Dar Anebar. The staff met us at the lot right outside the medina, escorted us and carried our luggage to the riad. Upon entering we were amazed by the beauty of this place. One of the staff, played a trick on me by telling me they were fully booked and had a room for me in another hotel, only to reveal that we were being upgraded to a large and stunning luxury suite. It pays to travel to Morocco in the off-season! The riad had its own restaurant on-site which was great since we only wanted to eat and hit the sack after the marathon drive we had just completed. We enjoyed some harira soup, chicken pastilla, and lamb shank Moroccan-style.

Fez known for its well-preserved and huge old city, and it is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Medina of Fez is generally recognized as the largest medina in the world. You will definitely get lost in the maze of streets and alleyways. Unlike Marrakesh, no vehicles or motorbikes are allowed to operate inside the Medina, which makes it less stressful to maneuver your way around. The great flavors and aromas of Moroccan food were ever present. We spent the afternoon eating camel meatballs, cous cous royale and drinking Moroccan beer.

Fez also is known for the Chouara Tannery from the 11th century, one of the oldest tanneries in the world. so the next afternoon was spent touring the tanneries and purchasing some handmade leather and suede products. One of the highlights of Fez was a cooking class we took with a local chef to learn some of the techniques of Moroccan cooking. He took us into the souks of the medina to do our ingredient shopping where we met some of the local food vendors and sampled some of their tasty fares. Back at the kitchen we prepared a few of traditional Moroccan dishes which included fried eggplant, lamb tagine with onions, and chicken tagine with preserved lemon and olives. This was one of the most fun activities of the entire trip. I felt truly connected to the people and cuisine of Morocco!

The next day we did some sightseeing, and purchased souvenirs at the souks. For lunch, we opted for a fried sardine and eggplant sandwich on a fresh Moroccan roll, which is a popular street food here. The shop owner Ahmed was very friendly and we spent a bit of time sitting at his stall munching on our sandwiches and watching the crowds of people shopping. Our final dinner in Fez was at a popular restaurant called Mom’s Touch. I enjoyed a very delicious and unique meal here. I ordered Kedra Touimi’Ya Tajine which translates to “pigeon or lamb tagine” prepared with saffron, cinnamon sticks, smen, almonds, and chickpeas. The pigeon I selected was quite gamey but really deliciously prepared, and the kefta skewers or “Mom’s Kebabs” were also an amazing addition to this fabulous meal.

The next morning after another outstanding breakfast at the riad, we packed the car up for the 2.5 hour road trip to the capital city of Rabat. As I explained in part 1, highway police will aggressively enforce traffic rules, so once again I was pulled over by the police and ticketed again for going about 3 miles per hour above the speed limit (sheesh). We arrived early afternoon and had lunch at Tacos Avenue which is a popular french taco restaurant. They opened their first restaurant in Montpellier, France in 2009, and they rapidly expanded, and now boast 28 restaurants throughout France and one in Rabat, Morocco. I had a very tasty taco stuffed with kebab, fries, homemade cheese sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, white sauce, and fried onions. Super tasty!

I found Rabat to be very unique compared to the other cities we visited. It was a bit more polished and cosmopolitan than big city Casablanca, which boasts a more frenetic pace. Also there was a heavy police/military presence, though not threateningly so. It’s one of Morocco’s four imperial cities and is known for its blend of modern and historic elements. So the first thing we decided to do, was to walk a couple of miles to visit Museum of History and Civilizations and the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art since they are literally a 3 minute walk from each other. It was a very educational experience in human history and art and I really enjoyed it. I cannot say that Rabat was our best food city in Morocco. It was an up and down experience, so I will give you what I thought were the worst and the best food experience of our choices of cuisine in Rabat.

Let’s start with the bad: “X-lazze food” located in Rabat’s Central market. This by far was the worst food we had eaten during our travels through Morocco. Generally, restaurants we encountered throughout the country that were in the immediate vicinity of a meat or fish market always served up the freshest and best tasting food. NOt here. There were NO fish items on the available (although advertised on the menu) when a large fish market is 30 feet away. Ordered a Moroccan salad and was sent the more expensive sorry looking nicoise salad with a glop of mayo slapped on top. The entree of shrimp/squid tagine looked like fish bait. The food was bland and unsatisfying. I’m glad to have already traveled and eaten food in most of the country, so I knew this place was just a bad example. Now the good:

The best food experience we had in Rabat was at “Chez Amy La Saint-Louisienne“. We stumbled upon this place while taking an evening walk through a pop-up farmers market. Chef Amy serves up some delicious Senegalese food in a comfortable, art-filled restaurant in the Northwest section of Rabat. Amy is a great host and chef who prepared us a wonderful meal of “Thiep Poulet” which is chicken braised with spices with Senegalese Jollof rice, and a tender, delicious mutton mafé. The food and the hospitality here was fantastic! I urge you to visit her restaurant if you are ever in Rabat.

The next morning we had another stellar breakfast at the restaurant Sunway Café which was right across the street from our rental. It was then time to drive back to Casablanca for our flight home. The drive was only about 2 hours and I began to wonder if we would have our last meal in Morocco at the airport, which did not sound appealing at all. Along the drive we passed through what appeared to be an industrial area close to the airport, and lo and behold there was some type of restaurant that was attached to a truck service station. This unassuming restaurant gave us one of the best tagines of the trip! Beef, spicy peppers, tons of onions, prunes and heavy on the Moroccan seasonings. This is exactly how this foodie road trip should end, with great food, great memories, and an appreciation of the Moroccan people and their culture.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and for taking this epic road trip with me across Morocco. The next foodie road trip is in the works, so stay tuned. Join me as I take the drive from Brooklyn, New York to Chicago, with stops in Cleveland, Indiana, and Pittsburgh along the way. Until then, Happy Eating!