The Food of Marrakech

Welcome to our food tour. A main mission of this trip is to assimilate with the locals by dressing discreetly (pictured below) and by eating their food (many pictures below). I think we each consumed approximately 3-4 thousand calories a day justified by two runs for a total of seven miles over the past five days. While we have seen some amazing cultural sites and learned much about Marrakech and Morocco more broadly (plug for Jake's post), much of this trip has been wandering from food to food.

CJ preparing for day 1:

The rooftop breakfast was always a crowd pleaser, with minimum four types of bread along with assorted dips and toppings (oil, jam, honey, cheese, egg). The two Spaniards were our unexpected roommates for a couple nights (shoutout Amine for hustling and booking out our one unused bedroom).

Day 1

After our breakfast we had a couple lunch tajines (best of the trip):

Followed up by an unpictured beef sandwich and a ~$1 chicken street sandwich:

We capped off our first full day in Marrakech with another tajine dinner:

Left with unsatisfied appetites we continued on with a second dinner of more beef sandwiches:

Day 2

After another delicious breakfast on the roof it was time to set out for the main mission of the day: McDonalds. In the least efficient and most calorie dense route imaginable.

Our warmup lunch was a round of chicken shawarma (with French fries of course):

Like moths to a flame, this dripping spit of roast chicken drew us right in. It was time for the roast chicken platter (also with French fries):

We agreed on a cake palate cleanser to carry us through for the rest of the outbound trip.

Finally, we reached the promised land: McDonalds. Our third lunch of the day. Croquettes, a burger, fried chicken McWrap, and a McFlurry ensued:

We decided to go back for more street beef sandwiches for dinner (he recognizes us by this point).

Day 3

Having run out of free rooftop breakfasts (and Spanish roommates), we decided to substitute our normal refreshing fare for a grilled lamb breakfast. This was potentially the greatest food of our Marrakech experience.

Then some pastries for the first dessert (our best baclava yet):

Drawn by more dripping roast meat we had to try this shawarma:

And then follow it up with some cake for our second dessert:

Our rooftop dinner claimed the best shawarma of the trip so far. I couldn't even get a photo in before the vultures descended.

Day 4

We started the day off with a return to yesterday's shawarma for breakfast at 12pm:

Then we had an immaculate couscous lunch:

We snuck in some more balaclava during the interim between lunch and dinner. We then enjoyed our fancy final send off meal ($25 per person - with dessert and appetizers of course. Splurging!):

Pictured: our 'Cookie Monster' dessert. Goodbye Marrakech food - you will be missed!