JetSet Coco: Moroccan Cuisine

Sheep's brain anyone??

Food seems to be the easiest way to begin to describe my stay in Marrakech. I ate countless amounts tagines, couscous, kebabs, and Moroccan mint tea. Those are the obvious choices of cuisine. I branched out of my comfort zone to try a few Moroccan delicacies that I was extremely curious about: pigeon (yes that street bird that is dirtier than any other thing with wings I can think of) and snail soup from a street cart. While there are famous restaurants in Marrakech that are noteworthy and worth trying such as Cafe de France, I preferred to rough it and eat from carts and the mobile restaurants that surface every sundown in the Jemaa El Fna main square. There are tons of food carts serving any Moroccan delicacy imaginable, such as snail soup, sheep brain, and the least adventuresome but delicious fresh squeezed orange juice that tons of carts serve for a mere 50 cents. Don't miss something called vanilla orange in the cafes surrounding Jemaa El Fna. It's like a delicious creamsickle in a glass- full of fresh squeezed orange juice with a hefty scoop of vanilla gelato and topped with whipped cream. I still dream about this! At night, the square turns into a chaotic and buzzing place, where each restaurant has hacklers grabbing you into their restaurant, which is always "better that the next". When you can't bear to eat another bite of Moroccan food, head to Cafe Arabe for a trendy place to people watch, grab a bite of surprisingly delicious pasta, and sip on a well deserved cocktail (they're hard to find just anywhere in a Muslim country). I would also recommend a cute open air restaurant called Bougainvillea Cafe that serves both pizza and Moroccan cuisine in a cute and very pink setting.