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MOROCCO
Cooking
Lessons
in
FEZ
PHOTOs BY Xxxxxxx.
CHRISTINE CUNANAN learns
how to make a tagine at the PALAIS AMANI
xx
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APRIL - MAY 2015
MOROCCO
Like many jewels of
Morocco, the beauty
of Palais Amani lies
hidden behind its
heavy wooden doors.
T
o say that the Palais Amani
underwhelms at the outset is an
understatement. I still remember with
not a little trepidation our arrival on
the first of my two visits there last year. We’d
driven from Morocco’s capital of Rabat to the
edge of the old town of ancient Fez, passing the
palace of the King and skirting the walls of the
medina before alighting in a parking lot amidst
wheelbarrows of food and dry goods, vehicles in
various states of disrepair, and masses of people
– from rambunctious teenagers playing ball
games to old ladies hawking homemade sweets.
It wasn’t quite the setting I’d imagined for a
stylish hotel in exotic Fez. In fact, my companion
had very clearly asked me with unhappy
undertones, as we navigated an unpicturesque
passageway and walked along an equally spartan
corridor towards our destination: “What kind of
hotel have you booked?”
And then we had to trudge up a narrow alleyway
used by donkeys and pockmarked with stones,
entering this via a steep staircase sandwiched
by a budget hostel with a television blaring on
the top floor and an equally cheap-looking café
serving the ubiquitous chicken tagine.
Like many jewels of Morocco, the
beauty of Palais Amani lies hidden
behind its heavy wooden doors. That day,
a dozen steps past these doors inside and we
suddenly found ourselves in a lovely 600-square
meter garden – palatial, considering we were
APRIL - MAY 2015
WHAT LIES BEHIND
Fortunately, I chose to ignore this rhetorical
question and to simply let the hotel I’d
booked eventually speak for itself.
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xx
CHECK-IN
MOROCCO
A CITY FOR
STRONG FEELINGS
inside the medina – amidst a setting of
greenery, dancing fountains and intricately
tiled walls that hinted of a graceful past as
the well-loved home of a prosperous family.
The biggest authentic riad in Fez, it’s also
charming in an intimate way, and I was
instantly enchanted by the low-key and
easy elegance of this hotel.
Our room was one for the books as well.
I’m sure it was the best suite in the riad
because it occupied one whole wing of the
second floor. We entered via a living room
into a bedroom with two separate dressing
rooms and five large floor-to-ceiling
windows with French-style balustrades
that overlooked the garden. The bathroom
was further – yes, it was quite a walking
workout – in a lovely room that might have
been a home in itself.
We spent many happy days here at Palais
Amani, discovering the best of Fez, which
is the kind of city one either loves or hates.
Fez is a busy jumble of
dark corners and nearly
10,000 alleyways that
are chaotic by day,
and almost deathly
quiet at night – with no
in-betweens.
It was definitely love at first sight, for me
and this suite.
xx
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A major UNESCO World Heritage site, it’s
a busy jumble of dark corners and nearly
10,000 alleyways that are chaotic by day,
and almost deathly quiet at night – with
no in-betweens. But if you are charmed
by this city of contrasts that is still stuck
in time somewhere between the 13th
and 15th centuries, you will find that this
feeling about Fez will stay with you forever
like an image from a fairytale.
In our case, the Palais Amani played a
key role in our memories of Fez, because
staying in this little oasis of luxury within
the heart of the old medina made us feel
so much a part of it. We woke up to the
morning calls to prayer from the clerics
in the oldest mosque in the medina; and
at the end of the day, we said goodnight
to it from the rooftop terrace, which had
amazing views from up high of the ancient
neighborhoods sparkling with lights.
APRIL - MAY 2015
MOROCCO
In the daytime, it was wonderful to step
back in time and stroll through the ancient
souks, and then to return to this haven of
tranquility and seamless service in between
our forays out into a world still steeped in
medieval traditions.
CULINARY LESSONS IN FEZ
One day, we even learned how to
cook a Moroccan chicken tagine with
lemons, which is one of the specialties of
Houssam Laasiri, Palais Amani’s chef. We
accompanied him to the market at 10 AM
to collect ingredients for this favorite local
dish, stopping along the way for bowls of
vegetable soup at a tiny shop with a large
pot perpetually on boil; and then for mint
tea in colorful glasses, brewed from fresh
herbs by a wizened old man in a corner of
a quiet alley that was the size of a cabinet,
plastered all around with blue-and-white
tiles.
APRIL - MAY 2015
Returning to the Palais Amani, we headed
for the kitchen on the second floor where
recipes, aprons and even souvenir packs
of spices awaited us, and this is where we
cooked our own lunch.
WHAT WE LOVED
The making of a tagine is at least a twohour process, although conscientious
cooks actually start the night before by
marinating the chicken in salt and lemon
before going to bed. The major cooking is
in a stew pot, where most of the spices and
freshly-ground herbs are mixed together
with relaxed precision, after which the dish
is brushed with butter and finished off in
the oven.
Thankfully, the cleaning up was not part
of the cooking class. After we’d closed the
oven, we made our way down to the blueand-white tiled dining room on the ground
floor, for the kind of stylish meal that the
Palais Amani does so well. Here, right by
the stained glass windows, a table for two
was set with crisp linen and fine cutlery.
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ABOUT THE
PALAIS AMANI
The delicious three-course
breakfast on the terrace
The individual designs of
each of the 14 suites
The half-day hammam
experience. It’
s perfect for
recovering from jetlag.
Evening cocktails on the
rooftop and dinner in the
garden
xx
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MOROCCO
A MOST DELICIOUS MEAL
“This is the best chicken
tagine I’ve had so far,” my
companion said, as we
clinked glasses and toasted
to our culinary success. “In
fact, this is the best lunch
we’d had on this trip.”
xx
After the chaos of Fez and the heat of the kitchen, we gratefully sought relief in this quiet
sanctuary and awaited the serving of the feast we had just helped prepare. Perhaps it is
true that effort is key to any experience, because that first bite of our very own chicken
tagine with lemons sent us to the equivalent of foodie heaven. It was flavorful and it had
depth and texture, and the lemons provided the perfect tang to an otherwise oily dish.
“This is the best chicken tagine I’ve had so far,” my companion said, as we clinked glasses
and toasted to our culinary success. “In fact, this is the best lunch we’d had on this trip.”
Our three-course meal began with zaalouk, a spicy dish of roasted eggplant with tomatoes
and garlic, and ended with a delectable plate of sliced oranges sprinkled with cinnamon
powder and shaved almonds. We ate everything on our plates, and it was late afternoon by
the time we ordered our requisite pot of mint tea to finish off lunch.
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APRIL - MAY 2015
MOROCCO
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MOROCCO
ENDING ON A HIGH
And then we had the wonderful problem
of deciding what to do before a dinner
we’d booked at Al Fassiah, a traditional
restaurant on the other side of town,
supposedly Fez’s fanciest.
Should we explore another new area
of the souk, or try and haggle for the
Berber carpet that had caught our eye at
a rundown riad we had passed the day
before? Or should we head over to the
metalworks alley and finally hunt down
the Moroccan tea sets we were planning to
take home?
“Let’s go up to the roof instead,” my
companion suggested, so we climbed four
flights of stairs to the top. It was just before
the cocktail hour so the colorful pillows
were all laid out and the drinks were
already cooling in a vat of ice, but there
was no one else around.
xx
THINGS TO DO IN FEZ
• Explore the souks of Fez, taking one district at a time.
• Visit the old tanners’ district and ` watch the tanners process skins the traditional way.
• Shop for handcrafted items including kaftans, slippers, leather goods, pottery, and metal crafts.
• Walk along the spice alley and purchase exotic spices and herbs to take home.
Just then, the Maghrib, which is the second
to the last call to prayers for the day for
Muslims, sounded. By then we had grown
used to this and this call to prayer now
sounded just like music floating over the
rooftops of Fez and the hills beyond.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered, and I didn’t
just mean the prayers. At that very
moment, the sun was setting and the air
was just beginning to cool, but it was still
bright enough so that all around me I
could see the ever so different and exotic
world we had traveled so far to explore.
Everything was just right, and I was exactly
where I wanted to be.
• Visit the Nejjarine Museum of Wood Arts and Crafts and enjoy mint tea on the terrace
PALAIS AMANI
www.palaisamani.com
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APRIL - MAY 2015