The secret gardens and street food tour - TIS Marrakech [Day 4]
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.
Thank you for reading! Feel free to follow me and stay up to date with my journey :)
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The foods looks amazing, I envy travel bloggers and the new places they get to explore, imagine someone travelling for a living?
That's amazing and the Islamic garden looks breath taking and a good relaxation place.
I hope you enjoyed yourself
Thanks for sharing!
I'm chasing that dream to get paid to do this! Thank you :) this garden was very relaxing.
That's nice
That sheep head! Eeerrr… I wonder how people would "eat" that along the street? Have you tried it?
The doughnut. It obviously has sugar coating and not honey. Those snails in a basin, how were they cooked? Have you tried them too?
That last setting, I think I would enjoy that. The food seem inviting. It is a shame that you folks did not finish what were served. What fruit is that on the last photo? It looks so delicious...
It is amusing how people do things in different places so thank you for sharing your adventures here with your great photos.
We did get served sheep head. I didn't eat it, but my friends did. Someone ate the eye, a few tried the brains and the tongue. I ate the rest of the food haha!
The doughnut doesn't have any coating, it was still warm and freshly baked in the oil. They did serve a dip, which was a replacement honey. So we had to dip our doughnut into the sugar syrup.
Those snails were actually really delicious! I did have a bowl of them. But the soup was the best part! Just a bowl of that juice and then you can drink it.
The fruit is called a pomegranate. We felt really bad for not being able to finish all of the food. They should've brought us here first!
I'm happy you enjoyed this post! The difference in food is really big compared to home.
So which "rest of the food" did you take? Let me guess, you claimed vegan and go excused from the sheep head? 😃
The doughnut does not sound inviting. It still looks like too much sugar for me.
How were the snails cooked? How did you take the meat out by the way? I know how to suck that thing, do you? But I do not eat snails that big!!! They are like the garden snails that I used to kill in the farm when I was young. Eeerrr… 😳
Haha, I actually ate the rest of the sheep. It was very delicious. It was cooked in a tangia (moroccan clay pot) with veggies and spices.
Yea I can see why the doughnut doesn't look that appealing. It's not healthy at all. I loved it tho, haha.
The snails were okay. They tasted differently from how we make them in Belgium. We were given a toothpick to poke them out of the shell. And yes, they do look like the garden snails 🤣 I think they are those snails.
Garden snails! You should have tried sucking them out. It's fun! 😂 Okay, I have to admire you now. At least you have tried it even once, unlike me who grew up in a farm with many of those but never tried. 😊
Just by reading the title of this post, I knew this will be a struggle for mee...Sooo myuch YUMM :D
It was well worth it to be the first in the garden dude, it looks like heaven...soo calm and empty without people woindering around. Entrance price is pretty small compared to what you showed us on the pics :D Did you try the water hah?
The food tour - man. I've had very very similar experience to you in Lahore, Pakistan. Goat heads and all the weird other stuff. It's funny that people say bleeewww on such stuff but then enjoy their steaks and stuff..Dunno, I actually like to see those heads as it means the whole animal is being used and nothing goes to waste. So why was the head no so delicious - was it really the taste or just the weird feeling that you're eating the head?
Hah I'm also not an olive guy, but i'd as well try all those as you did.
Looks like you had amazing experience dude, I freaking need to finally move my ass ang go to Morocco really. Never been there and want to go for years already!
Try the water? Bro I don't think any water is potable in this city LOL.
That's an awesome insight. I never saw it that way. Nothing's going to waste here. I didn't like the thought of eating brains, eyes or the tongue. I had tongue before, we eat it in Belgium too. But I don't like it at all.
Morocco is amazing! There's so much beauty here. I think you will love it.
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really nice there, wish i could there too, haha...must be so happy and enjoy
It was an awesome day!
Food tours sounds both yummy and fun. :P
I love the landscape on the initial images. But I'm interested in the variety of food options you had for the day. Were the locals friendly?
Yes, the locals are very friendly. They were so happy to share their culture with us. But it's hard to distinguish the genuine friendly people from the tourist traps. There a lot of tourist traps in this city and a lot of fake friendly just to get into your wallet. That's why this tour was so great! It showed the real locals without the masks.
Howdy from Texas beforeyoupack! what an interesting post! Talk about different food, sheep's head? But everything else sounded really good and the garden in the middle of the city is so cool! This is a fine post and very unique so thank you, you did a great job on it! I assume you do travel posts alot?
Yes. I am now traveling full time for a few months. I'm flying to Hong Kong next week. I'll be blogging about it :) Thank you for stopping by.
howdy today beforeyoupack! you are very welcome, your posts are very interesting so keep up the good work!