As a number of countries and their beautiful kitchens - Turkey, Mexico and even Spain come to mind - the Morocco often suffers a simplified fate, considered by many to be composed of a largely homogeneous landscape and some familiar ( although generally misunderstood) dishes.
As elsewhere, the food of Morocco begins with the landscape and geography of the country is much richer and more diverse than most people realize. The image of the country in North Africa as a barren place with fortified villages land and oasis of date palms is not wrong, just incomplete.
Somehow, Morocco is an island, surrounded mostly by water (the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean) and rub (pre-Sahara and Sahara). But within these limits further, a wide variety of climates and features are: four mountain ranges, river gorges, mesas, forests of cedar and oak trees, scrubby plains, olives (Morocco is the second largest exporter of table olives) and vineyards. He valleys with orchards, wildflower meadows, farms producing excellent fresh goat cheese, and, off the south coast, some of the richest fishing grounds in the world.
I traveled to Morocco for 15 years, but work on my recently published book, "Morocco: A culinary journey with recipes," took me to the many nooks and rural souks. Even if one can speak of a unified "Moroccan cuisine" with a common range of flavors and dishes found throughout the country, I was trying to get an idea of regional differences. The more I traveled through Morocco in this research, the more I became impressed by the diversity of the physical landscape and what it produces.
Driving through the Middle Atlas one day in the fields of ripening barley with red flower petals exuberant increase between the silvery green stems, the floor gave way to a dirt road gradually deteriorate crossing streams and strewn with boulders, chassis type deaf best navigation route in a 4x4 - or at least a rental car.
Many roads seem great on the Michelin map # 742 Morocco than they are in reality, and it is no exception. But I was rewarded by entering a splendid valley of cherry trees. A couple of white vans were parked here and there in the shadows and extended families were quietly picking fruit from their own trees.
I backtracked to the Berber town of Azrou, where I managed to arrive in time for a late lunch at the Panoramic Hotel, a place of protectorate era stout opened in 1928. The hatchery trout in a nearby river were a specialty and prepared in a handful of ways, including the way I eventually included in my book stuffed with shredded carrots, fresh bay leaves and a generous network black pepper, trout - offset that morning - were quick pan fried. In the dining room empty, cold, dark under the high ceilings, polished floors, massive fireplace in the lobby, not yet lit, the natural flavors of the countryside - just this campaign, hills that rise around the hotel - were fine rewards for my effort.
For all lamb kebabs grilled chicken, vegetables and couscous tagine loaded I've eaten in my travels, some of my most memorable moments on the job as a book discovered unexpected that these mountain trout stuffed prices.
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Another revelation was fungi. The High Atlas Mountains, which extends about 450 miles north-east coast of Agadir to Algeria and rising to nearly 14,000 feet, are dramatic and foreboding, but rather sterile, the chain of Anti-Atlas, at their south are largely arid and rocky part dotted. But the Rif mountains in the far north are moist, fertile, and home to dozens of varieties of edible wild mushrooms. In the hills not far from the isolation, the blue city of Chefchouen a rainy day, one of the last year, my wife, two daughters, and I was hunting for chanterelles and porcini mushrooms. (There were truffles, too, one of our local guides said, pointing to a nearby hill. "But those who are destined for export.") We returned to a country inn and had the remains of our hunting morning prepared in the most divine and herb omelettes loaded I have ever tasted.
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Even more unexpected was oysters. South down the Atlantic to Casablanca, the coastline is largely inaccessible, wild and windswept, and the road winds past rocky cliffs, misty blows undeveloped beach wave crashing and few fishing villages fortified where gulls wheel over ancient walls and brightly painted sardine. A stop along here is the village of Oualidia, whose specialty is oysters. Just as I did not expect to feast on the local trout in the Middle Atlas and wild mushrooms in the Rif, devouring a dozen Japanese oysters on the half shell while looking over the lagoon where they had just harvested came as another magnificent feast.
Rich, complex history of Morocco - the ancient Berbers to the Phoenicians and Romans, Arabs, Muslims and Jews exiled from Andalusia, trans-Saharan caravan, the French and Spanish colonial rulers - offered cooks a lot of inspiration. After traveling thousands of miles backroad in more than the value of quasi-monthly trips to Morocco a year, it was clear that, just as important, vast and varied landscape of the country gave them the raw materials they need to develop one of the richest cuisines in the world.
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For the traveler in Morocco - or Turkey, Mexico and Spain - the fun lies in the unknown and the unexpected in these tasty surprises that may be just around the next corner. The key is to leave the main road and continue to push forward to find. Satisfaction, of course, goes beyond a delicious meal. It helps to understand the land and the people. I found that learning the food of Morocco was to know its culture - and it is this idea that has stimulated me, turn after turn.
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