I have fallen in love with Marrakech. It's been a really awesome experience and today wasn't any different. I went to the secret garden in the morning and did a street food tour in the evening. And wow, that street food tour was amazing! It's arguable one of the best food tours I have done. The tour was hosted by Marrakech Food Tours. I will tell you more about it in this post :)
The secret garden
In the morning I went to explore the secret garden. And it amazed me more than I expected. It's a big garden hidden in the médina. You wouldn't think that there would be any gadens in this crazy city center. The enterance fee is 50 dr (€5). But I would say that it's worth it. It's a place of silence and calmness right inside the crazy center of Marrakech. There are birds chirping, the garden is beautifully structured and it's filled with fruit trees and water fountains. It's a little escape from the médina.
I went early and I was the first person to the enter the garden. This meant that I had the whole place for myself. I was able to enjoy all this peace and I had a nice chat with the people working here.
When you enter the garden, you get greeted by a waterfountain and a tiny canal that runs in a straight line all the way to the back. The garden is split into 2 parts. The first part is the tropical garden and the second part is the islamic garden. The islamic garden is a lot bigger than the tropical garden. I spent most of my time in the Islamic garden. I found it way better.
The architecture of this place is really amazing. It gives off a traditional moroccan vibe. There's a tower with a view over the garden. But this tower cost extra. I didn't book the the tower entrance. However there's also a rooftop bar over the garden. Which has a stunning and relaxing view. Specially when the garden is empty. You can get some fresh tea here while enjoying the view.
Street food tour
This is the highlight of the day. It's the first pre tour I'm attending to and it's the first time I'm meeting the fellow travel bloggers attending the event. This is what I have been looking for and it truly was amazing. The tour guides were the best!
On the first stop we were shown where they cook the sheep. There's a big pit in the ground that has been there for over 200 years. It's a small opening on the top and the the inside is filled with wood. In this pit they can cook up to 30 sheep at a time and it takes about 2 hours to cook them.
After seeing where the sheep is cooked we went to the rooftop of the restaurant. Here we were served very delicious tangia and less delicious sheep head. They have a special oven to cook the head in. It's smaller than the other oven, it's more moist and filled with plenty of spices.
After this we got to try all the different types of olives from the market. I usually don't like olives, but these ones were really good! They have plenty of choices with all kinds of spices.
We headed deeper into the médina and stopped at a small food stall. Here they're making moroccan pancakes, and boy are these delicious! You can have anything you like between them, we had some type of onion sauce in there. It's a really great snack while wandering through the médina.
Further down the street we stopped at a small snack stop. We got introduced into an invention by the shop owner. In morocco they have a special way of making sardines and then rolling them into balls, afterwards they get cooked in a Tajine. This takes a long time. So the shop owner instead started grilling these balls of sardines and it's absolutely delicious. It's like Kefta, but then with fish. It's so delicious!
Next up we stop to get some moroccan doughnuts! They're fresh and handmade on the street. They also make their own honey to dip the doughnuts in. However it's not real honey. It's a sugar/syrup mix from the shop owner.
The tour also showed us where they make the bread. So every neighborhood has its own community oven. There's one guy who does all the baking for all the people in the area. You just have to drop off your dough in the morning and then go get your bread in the evening. You pay the baker a small fee for this.
Escargots are also popular in Morocco. We got some by a street shop. These are cooked with 15 different types of spices. People also come just to drink the soup. I tried some and it's so delicious. I swear this tour is truly one of the best I have ever done!
We saved the best for last. Here we stop at the mom of the souk! This is a very special place. A very kind woman makes all the food for anyone who wants it. All the workers in the street just have to ask for what they would love to eat and consider it done. As a starter we got served an eggplant dish. After this we got served THE BEST couscous ever! This one takes over 3 hours to make. The taste is just perfect. We got some really fresh mint tea and fruit as desert. Sadly we weren't able to finish this deliciousness. I felt kind of bad about leaving it.
Special thanks
This tour is one of the best tours ever! I want to thank Marrakech Food Tours for giving us this opportunity to get on this tour. If you are ever in Marrakech, you should definitely book this tour! I also want to thank (Trablin)[https://trablin.com] for organizing this amazing summit and making all of this happen.
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