Eating in Essaouira

When it’s hot, and boy was it hot in both Marrakech and Essaouira, the best meals are made with loads of fresh vegetables. But Moroccan food doesn’t seem to be very veggie centric. Accompanying every meal that we had though, was this simple but deelish dish tomatoes.

Made mainly from tomatoes, all chopped up, with chopped onions, slithers of cabbage, cucumber and a smattering of chopped flat leaved parsley, seasoned with salt & pepper, this dish is very similar to the Italian bruschetta that everyone is probably more familiar with.

And because we were by the sea, we thought we’d have some seafood as we had been eating too much meat tagines in Marrakech. We didn’t really come across many restaurants in Essaouira; maybe we didn’t know where to go. So the food we had was mainly street food, little cafes in the main streets, very functional seating, at “eat & go” types of places. Here we had an assortment of seafood, fried in some crispy batter. It was alright and we were hungry but fine dining it was not. (I personally don’t think too much of Moroccan food. There are other more appetizing cuisines.)

Oranges must have been in season, or are simply in season all year round. Even in the cities, there are orange trees lining the sides of roads and courtyards. Orange juice was good. :)

Walked around the market streets and came to an actual (wet) fish market. 

Dinner that evening was with the locals and we bought stuff to cook - make a guess - a tagine. Chicken this time. We went to the food area of the market streets.

So much of the stuff in Morocco is preserved. Preserved lemons, dried herbs, toasted spices, and of course olives. I wonder why? Maybe withthe combination of the heat and a slower rate of adoption of modern conveniences such as refrigerators.

So with a couple of handfuls of olives, some chicken and some potatoes, we left the market and walked back to the house and started making dinner.