Restaurant Typiquement Marocain

After our trip to the souks on day 1 in Marrakech, the group I traveled with enjoyed our first of many traditional Moroccan meals at the lovely Palais Chahramane.

Immediately, we were enthralled by the restaurant's beauty and elegance, by the detail in each tile making up the intricate patterns on the floors, walls and ceilings, by the music and dancing that greeted us as we entered and then entertained us during our meal, and most certainly by the wonderful tastes and aromas that we experienced in the food.

John, Alex, Paul, Julie and I - the "Achieving Service Excellence" training team - as we entered the restaurant. Each tile in this entryway was laid by hand, the stairs themselves taking a week to complete.

Our introduction to traditional fare was quite delicious, and we soon found that the format of each meal is always the same. To begin, we always sampled a variety of hot and cold salads - in this case, there were 15! - served with bread. Beef, chicken, fish and lamb main dishes were quite common, prepared with a variety of spices including karfa (cinnamon), kamoun (cumin), kharkoum (turmeric), skingbir (ginger), libzar (pepper) , tahmira (paprika), anis seed, sesame seed, kasbour (coriander), maadnous (parsley), zaafrane beldi (saffron) and mint.

My favorite tajines were those that combined sweet and savory flavors in combinations like dried prunes and beef, or cinnamon and chicken with vegetables. Cous cous was never absent, nor were wonderfully prepared vegetables. Fresh fruit always followed the meal, along with hot mint tea.

My favorites in this starter combination were the lentils and the eggplant.

Lamb infused with mint, which we were instructed to eat with our hands.

Musicians greeting us as we entered...

...then serenading us at our table.

And what meal is complete without a candle dancer....

...and a belly dancer?!?