10-Day Morocco
Itinerary

Tagine

Morocco's slow-cooked masterpiece named for its conical clay vessel, lamb with prunes, almonds and ras el hanout; chicken with preserved lemon and olives; or kefta (spiced meatballs) with egg and tomato; the conical lid recirculates the steam in a self-basting cycle; cooked over charcoal for three hours; served with khobz bread for the communal scoop.

Bastilla (B'stilla)

Morocco's most complex and celebrated dish, concentric layers of warqa pastry (thinner than phyllo) encasing a filling of slow-cooked pigeon or chicken, egg and a spiced almond layer dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon; the sweet-savoury collision is simultaneously jarring and magnificent; once reserved for royal banquets; now served at Fassi wedding feasts.

Couscous

Morocco's Friday meal and its most culturally significant dish: hand-rolled semolina grains steamed three times in a couscoussier above a broth of lamb, seven vegetables (turnip, carrot, pumpkin, courgette, cabbage, potato and onion) and aromatic herbs; served on a platter with the vegetables arranged by colour; the UNESCO-listed tradition of couscous-making in the Maghreb.

Harira

Morocco's soul-restoring soup: a thick broth of tomato, lentils, chickpeas, onion, coriander and parsley thickened with a tadelakt of flour and water and enriched with a lemon juice splash at the end; eaten to break the Ramadan fast at sunset but available year-round; served with dates, chebbakia (honey-glazed pastry) and a hard-boiled egg.

Mechoui

The great Marrakech communal feast: a whole lamb slow-roasted in an underground pit (mechmar) over argan wood embers for six hours, basted repeatedly with butter and cumin until the skin is dark and crisp and the meat pulls from the bone in wispy shreds; salted and eaten with cumin dipping; sold in Marrakech's Jemaa el-Fna square, carved to order.