Exploring Marrakech on New Levels

The second day of our Moroccan holiday we headed to cooking school at Faim d'Epices. Hubby was a bit unsure about the idea, not having done a cooking class before, but believe you me, he jumped in with both feet and made me proud.

We worked as a team replicating the Moroccan recipes that our group was challenged to make.

Our day started with a spice orientation, when

our instructor challenged us to identify ingredients using our sense of smell with glasses that had been blackened out. Not so easy!

Then we got busy cooking--first the batbout bread, which we mixed, kneaded and cooked on a hot pan.

Our main course was a tagine of chicken with candied lemon and red olives. Delicious, and it was fascinating learning how to cook in the traditional Moroccan tagine.

Salads rounded out the lunch before preparation

for the Msemen patties--our sweet for the day.

Like a square pancake, we had to knead, and then fold, fold, and fold

the dough to make these little pastries,

which were served up with fresh fruit and homemade ice creams.

We headed outside to the olive grove

where our group of 10 congratulated ourselves on a delicious meal. Two gals from New Zealand who were hilarious, four gals from France who were delightful, even though they told my friend I reminded them of Hillary Clinton--grrr... and the four of us from London--our husbands loving being the only guys amongst 8 women!

Now it was time for our reward--we headed to the Mythic Oriental Spa, an enchanting

place to retreat for a little pampering. We were treated to a purifying bath, hamman (steam room)

black soap exfoliation treatment, and massage. 

Decadent!

And since photos are not allowed past the "Boudoir of the Queens," I'll leave you here.

More to come about Marrakech and our trip to the mountains and desert next post. Hope you'll come back. Go treat  yourself to a massage first!