As one the of the social activities on our recent conference in Marrakech, we organised a tagine cooking class at Maison Arabe. The cooking school in this riad receives exceptional reviews on web sites across the world and it is totally deserving of such. The design of the physical space one cooks in is well organised and the women who run the school are very professional with just the right amount of humour to ensure the lesson is alot of fun plus highly informative. I enjoy cooking and am reasonably adventurous in my choices, but had never previously cooked a tagine as I thought they seemed tricky. However our class showed they are easy as long as one has access to fresh spices and good ingredients. We also visited the local bakery where we watched a skilful baker baking the breads brought in by local women - it is traditional that each suburb in any Moroccan city has its own wood fired oven where the woman of the house sends her homemade bread to be baked. We learnt the technique to making a perfect glass of Moroccan mint tea and at the conclusion of the class we enjoyed the fruits of our labor by lunching on the tagine and Moroccan salads together with some very nice Moroccan wines. We laughed heaps, ate well and all in all it was an excellent way to acquire some new kitchen skills in the company of friends.
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| The entry to the local bakery is non descript to a foreigner but a vital part of the community life |
