Morocco and Egypt 2025

Originally, this trip was going to be Egypt, then Jordan and Israel, but Israel's attraction as a tourism destination has been reduced lately. So we scheduled a trip to Morocco before the Viking tour of Egypt, which proved to exceed my expectations, both culinarily and otherwise. We traveled with SueF's sister and brother-in-law.

Morocco Overview
I have always enjoyed Moroccan food - my first experiences were at a place east of Wrigley Field whose name I can't remember, and at EPCOT. Long-cooked tagines, bastillas, couscous, it's all good.

We ate very well in Morocco, but there seemed to be too much of a sameness: unless you sought out something different, you'd get the same three tagines everywhere you go: chicken with preserved lemon and olive; lamb with apricot and prune; kefta (meatball) in a tomato sauce. Dining out was not especially cheap for those dishes either (but "snack" restaurants were extremely inexpensive), but portions tended to be enormous. After a couple of days of overeating we learned to order fewer dishes for the table... most of the time.

One of the big surprises, something I haven't seen in US Moroccan restaurants, is Tridd - chicken, lentils, onions, and what they call a pasta but is more like a sliced thin pancake. Absolutely delicious, but duplicating it may be a challenge.

Breakfasts at the hotels/riads we stayed at was always excellent. I don't think I got any pics but there were awesome breads - often sesame-seed studded, eggs with khlee (dried, possibly confit beef), pastries, fruit, and always olives at every meal.

We visited Casablanca, Marrakech (French spellings), a couple towns on the way to a tent stay in the Sahara which I called Bed and Berbereakfast (Bedouin and Breakfast is funnier, but inaccurate), Fes and Rabat. Fes was probably my favorite.

Egypt Overview
We got to Egypt a night and a day before the Viking tour started, and skipped one of their optional excursions to the market and a restaurant and fended for ourselves for several days. The Sofitel food was extremely inexpensive, surprisingly (although the Egyptian Pound has fallen from 7 to the dollar several years ago to 50 to the dollar currently, which probably accounts for it), as were the local restaurants we ate at. Flavors were bright, had some of the spiciness I had missed on the Moroccan leg, and lots of olives, feta, and pita.

Then we moved to the boat for the Nile cruise. And the food is fine. With only capacity for 100, they can't offer a lot of variety, but even though every lunch and dinner had Egyptian "specialities," I found them to be uninspired, bland, and filtered through a Nouvelle Cuisine lens. The exception was an "Egyptian Night" where I'm guessing the executive chef let the sous let loose. Flavors were bigger and more exciting. It also helped that (by accident) I found they had a harissa paste available to guests -- much hotter than I'd had elsewhere, resembling calabrian chili paste but more heat. A little dab'll do ya. I also think their chef had an aversion to olives since they never once appeared.

I have pretty much no photos from the Egyptian leg of the trip except for two meals, but I'll talk about what we had.

Israel may lack tourist appeal for you but as a culinary destination it's pretty unbeatable. We were there for a wedding last year and had several exceptional meals. We did Marrakesh/Essoaouria several years back and had lots of great food. We stayed in a riad in the Medina which included daily breakfast and we arranged for our cook to do a couple of dinners as well. We ate mostly in the Medina other than one (pretty great) dinner at Al Fassia. We did Jordan on a different trip but mainly for Wadi Rum and Petra. Our hotel in Wadi Musa had a really memorable breakfast buffet - absolutely huge.

One other observation, while the little mountains of spices in the market stands (and there were a ridiculous number of similar places) looked charming, I can't imagine who would buy them because of the constant flow of scooter traffic and the clouds of exhaust that wafted through the market - only to land on the exposed spices.

spinynorman99 wrote:Israel may lack tourist appeal for you...

Oh, it's got appeal, but it's also got risks right now I'm not willing to take.

Casablanca
Casablanca is probably the city I loved least in Morocco, but (a) we stayed at a budget hotel, (b) we didn't spend much time there before hopping a train to Marrakech. On the way to the Hassan II mosque we passed through a market district that was definitely less touristy than those in Marrakech and Fes, but also somewhat dirtier. Not far from the mosque (which is gorgeous - one of the biggest in the world holding up to 30,000 worshippers) is Rick's Cafe, which has no connection to the movie Casablanca except nostalgia and tourism. It wasn't open when we passed.

Dinner was at La Sqala, we ordered two tagines and two kabobs, and a salad that we regretted ordering because we can't trust washed fresh produce... but we ate the goat-cheese toasts that came with it. Pretty good, but nothing over the top, and I can't even remember which tagines we ordered, and frustratingly, the online menu is a reduced one for Ramadan right now. Our first exposure to Moroccan black olives, though, which unlike the mushy oil-cured ones you get here, are firm and meaty, not very salty. They were everywhere, and delicious, and I seldom got my share with the two ladies both being fiends for anything olive. Also, first exposure to Moroccan breads, the primary example shown below: small round loaves with semolina and/or sesame seeds on top, quite flavorful.


La Sqala
J93J+564, Bd des Almohades, Casablanca 20250, Morocco
http://www.sqala.ma/

The following day we took the train to Marrakech (not the Marrakesh Express, there were several stops). We had booked a Riad for a couple nights, and the hospitality in Morocco is just amazing. Three riads in three cities they each brought out tea and sweets during check-in, this was no exception. You order drinks, you're going to get nuts, crackers and olives.


We then wandered around the Jemaa El Fnaa marketplace, and found a restaurant in a guidebook SueF had, Cafe Zeitoun, which had a nice third-floor view of the market.

We started with Briouat of local goat cheese (note the olives)


I first had Pastilla/Bastilla (note that there's no P in arabic, they just use the B) at Epcot's Morocco pavillion, and I've made it a few times myself. This is a small pastry filled with chicken, nuts, eggs, and cinnamon. It doesn't sound like it should work but it does.


SueF ordered the mixed grill of lamb chops, sausage and chicken. All tasty


I saw Tridd on the menu and was intrigued: chicken, lentils and garlic? I'm in. At first I thought the yellowish stuff was cabbage, it had that slippery texture. I later saw it described as pasta, but it's actually more of a sliced pancake (I've got a picture from the Fes marketplace to come). Absolutely delicious dish, something I want to try to make in the coming months, if I can figure out how to make that pasta/pancake (I asked one place, and they buy it in the market, don't make it themselves).


SueF's sister ordered a vegetable couscous which came with a tomatoey sauce.
(the trio of covered dishes in the lower right are salt, pepper and cumin, we saw this in many restaurants).


My brother-in-law ordered a beef kefta tajine, one of the three standard flavors.


Zeitoun Cafe
107 Place Jemaa El Fnaa، 40000, Morocco
http://www.zeitouncafe.com/

JoelF wrote:I saw Fridd on the menu and was intrigued: chicken, lentils and garlic? I'm in. At first I thought the yellowish stuff was cabbage, it had that slippery texture. I later saw it described as pasta, but it's actually more of a sliced pancake (I've got a picture from the Fes marketplace to come). Absolutely delicious dish, something I want to try to make in the coming months, if I can figure out how to make that pasta/pancake (I asked one place, and they buy it in the market, don't make it themselves).

The dish is rfissa, the pancake is trid (or msemen). It's a great dish. Recipe below.

https://www.linsfood.com/msemen-moroccan-pancake-rghaif/

spinynorman99 wrote:

JoelF wrote:I saw Fridd on the menu and was intrigued: chicken, lentils and garlic? I'm in. At first I thought the yellowish stuff was cabbage, it had that slippery texture. I later saw it described as pasta, but it's actually more of a sliced pancake (I've got a picture from the Fes marketplace to come). Absolutely delicious dish, something I want to try to make in the coming months, if I can figure out how to make that pasta/pancake (I asked one place, and they buy it in the market, don't make it themselves).

The dish is rfissa, the pancake is trid (or msemen). It's a great dish. Recipe below.

https://www.linsfood.com/msemen-moroccan-pancake-rghaif/

Fixed (brain not back to normal from traveling). I didn't think I saw Rfissa on menus, it was listed as Tridd. We had plenty of msemen, often served at breakfast but sometimes on dinner buffets. Loved it, but it's a thicker, layered bread; tridd is more crepelike, a lot like the pork with sliced pancake at Katy's.

JoelF wrote:

spinynorman99 wrote:

JoelF wrote:I saw Fridd on the menu and was intrigued: chicken, lentils and garlic? I'm in. At first I thought the yellowish stuff was cabbage, it had that slippery texture. I later saw it described as pasta, but it's actually more of a sliced pancake (I've got a picture from the Fes marketplace to come). Absolutely delicious dish, something I want to try to make in the coming months, if I can figure out how to make that pasta/pancake (I asked one place, and they buy it in the market, don't make it themselves).

The dish is rfissa, the pancake is trid (or msemen). It's a great dish. Recipe below.

https://www.linsfood.com/msemen-moroccan-pancake-rghaif/

Fixed (brain not back to normal from traveling). I didn't think I saw Rfissa on menus, it was listed as Tridd. We had plenty of msemen, often served at breakfast but sometimes on dinner buffets. Loved it, but it's a thicker, layered bread; tridd is more crepelike, a lot like the pork with sliced pancake at Katy's.

I've had trid (in Marrakesh). It can vary from restaurant to restaurant.

I brought home one of those "pepper-salt-cumin" service pieces -- saw it everywhere in Morocco.

Very much enjoying the report of your adventure.

The next night was Valentine's Day, not particularly celebrated in this majority Muslim nation, but we went for something a little fancier (but definitely still very affordable). NO|MAD, in the middle of the Marrakech souk, serving dishes inspired by Moroccan ingredients, rather than the traditional favorites.

Zucchini and Goat Cheese Fritters (forgot a picture), were light, crispy and creamy.

My dinner: Calamari with Roasted Eggplant, Squid Ink Rice, and a Lemon Cucumber drink


SueF had a poulet pastilla, a little more refined than other versions, served on an apple puree. Also a jasmine tea with marigold.


Brother-in-law had the Nomad Burger (lamb and beef) with caramelized onions, and a flight of juices.


Sister-in-law's dinner was monkfish in cream sauce with herbed couscous; very good bread also pictured.


Desserts: Saffron Date Cake (very much like a sticky toffee pudding), and ice cream (chocolate spice and vanilla)



As everywhere, great service, rich flavors combining sweet and savory in ways we don't get in most cuisines other than Morocco and Persian.

NO|MAD Marrakech
1 Derb Aarjane, Marrakesh 40000, Morocco
https://nomadmarrakech.com/menu/

We then left Marrakech for a tour of points south and east, culminating in a night in a Berber-run camp (I wanted to call it Bedouin and Breakfast but that's culturally wrong, so it's Bed and Berbereakfast). One of the stops was at an argan oil cooperative, where I was introduced to amlou, a mixture of argan oil, honey, and ground almonds. I am now ruined for almond butter.

The tour included dinners but not lunches, but it got a little repetitive as pretty much just the Moroccan classics were served everywhere. Several good hariras (lentil soup), but the tagines weren't anything special. Below are pictures from the midpoint hotel; the food at the camp was similar.

Harirra and Tomato Salad


Chicken Tajine with Olives


Vegetables and Bread


Next up - Fes!

We arrived in Fes pretty late, so we had arranged for the Riad to make a dinner outside of their normal dinner hours -- they do have a restaurant, but we only ate this meal and breakfasts, which were included.

I know this isn't a travel site, but I can't recommend this place strongly enough: Riad Le Calife in Fes is the best lodging experience I've had in my life. Beautiful rooms decorated with rugs, antiques and books; terrific service; great food; and the hosts are enthusiastic, happy, delightful people. The previous riad in Marrakech had a small pool, on-site hamam services, and some beautiful mosaic tile, but this place is just stellar.



They started by bringing out dates, figs, bread, olives, peanuts, crackers, and a crisp honeyed pastry we had all over Morocco.


The harira here was excellent, this was one of the few places that actually provided lemon, which the soup almost always needs.


The main course was this giant platter of rfissa/trid - it could have fed eight of us instead of four. Absolutely perfect fall-off-the-bone chicken, lentils, and slippery pasta.


Dessert was a poached pear, oranges with cinnamon (another recurring theme), quince paste, and vanilla ice cream. One of the best meals we had in Morocco, I felt bad that we couldn't eat more of it, but I would have felt worse if we had.

Riad Le Calife
19 bis Derb El Ourbiya, Fès 30020, Morocco
+212 5357-62608
https://riadlecalife.com/

The following day we hired a guide on the Riad's recommendation (who turned out to be the VP of some tourism association, and knew pretty much everybody in the market district), who took us to weavers, tanners, ceramicists and all kinds of cool stuff in the market.
Baby Chickens for Sale

Community oven, locals bring dough to be baked

How Tridd is made -- that's a globe-shaped griddle. We also saw it being stretched onto flat crepe griddles

Butcher specializing in camel


The guide brought us to one of his favorite restaurants in the market. The meal included an array of salads that puts San Soo Gab San's banchan to shame: Bread, olives, white beans, cucumber & tomato, baba ghanouj, carrots, tomatoes and peppers, black eyed peas, favas, lentils. The tomatoes and peppers, baba and favas were among my favorites.


Everyone ordered kabobs, either of filet or minced beef, and I forgot to snap a pic until it was mostly gone. There were bowls of harrira in there somewhere too.



Cookies and tea (a good picture of that crisp honey thingy) finished the meal

An enormous spread, and about 300Dh/$30 for the four of us.

Les Mystèries de Dar Tajine
N 4 derb Hammam Guerniz Fes Ancienne medina، Fes،, 30000, Morocco
https://www.dartajine.com/

Lunch was so huge we couldn't stand the idea of a big set meal for dinner, so our gracious hosts recommended one of the "snack" shops on the square. These are smaller restaurants serving a la carte dishes (although harrira was of course provided), really cheap.

Harrira and those crisp honey pastries[/i]


[b]Shawerma and fries


Lyon-style tacos - more of a burrito with a mayo-based salsa


Those ran about 60-70Dh each ($6-7)

Restaurant Almandar
Rcif, Boulevard Ben Mohammed El Alaoui, Fès 30000, Morocco
+212 660-796286

Fabulous tales. Thank you. You are reminding me of why Morocco is one of my all time favorite destinations.

Incredible food. I had wanted to make it to Morocco but have never been able to make it work.

Our last day in Fes and environs we hired a driver to take us out to a Roman ruin (Volobulis - built by Carracola who shows up in Egypt too). We had lunch in Meknes at Palais Ismalia. A lot of the same sorts of stuff we've been having:

Meatball Kofta this time with a fried egg and some salads mostly gone at this point


Mixed Grill - Chicken and kofta


Again, huge portions at low prices.

Palais Ismalia
N°6 Bab Belkari Moulay Ismail, Meknes 50060, Morocco
+212 661-251445

For dinner, our gracious hosts at Riad Le Calife recommended another of the snack shops on the square. The four of us split two small pizzas, and it was more than enough. Nothing worth photographing, but outstanding service.

Yalla Yalla
34 Derb sefli, Fes 30000, Morocco
+212762307033

Our final day in Morocco was in Rabat. Oddly, I was the only one hungry at lunchtime, and took a gamble at some delicious-smelling kefta/kofta being grilled at a tiny storefront on the same street as our Riad. Two little kebabs in pita with some tomato and cucumber, tahini and a spicy sauce, for 10Dh ($1).

While exploring the Kasbah, we spotted a vendor carrying a tray of doughnuts. By the time we caught up with him, they were no longer hot, but still delicious: fried, sugary, yeasty pastries.


We had a recommendation for a fancier restaurant in Rabat called Dinarjat, and a look at their online menu revealed that they went beyond the three basic tagines, so we were in. Strangely, the map directed us to an entrance to the market area about two blocks from the restaurant, but the restaurant wasn't there, just a guy in traditional garb carrying a lamp. The streets don't all connect to the main thoroughfare, so he's there to guide people to and from the restaurant (he also helped us find an ATM afterward). As always, great service, and here there was live music including a lute-like stringed instrument and a zither.
Lamb with Raisins, Almonds, and Honey - Very sweet and rich, the meat falls off the bone.


Medallion of Lamb with Pears, Tomatoes and Honey - Not as sweet, very elegant dish.


Lamb Kabob with Rice - Brother in law wasn't feeling adventurous


There were also some briouat (phyllo pastries) with triangles of chicken, triangles of fish, and cigars with beef, that we devoured before photographing.

Dinarjat
6 Rue Belgnaoui, Rabat 10030, Morocco
http://www.dinarjat.ma/

The next day, endless travel by car and plane to get to Cairo.

Summary of food in Morocco: Prices are reasonable at restaurants, extremely cheap at snack shops. Both will serve more food than you expect, and soup and a small pastry might be included but not listed. Hospitality is huge there -- tourism is one of their major industries. Markets are safe, not as food filled as, say, Barcelona's Bouqueria or Vienna's Naschmarkt, but you can find plenty of olives, breads, spices, fruit and juices. We were warned by guidebooks about eating fresh produce, but eventually gave in here and there, nobody got sick - we did stick to bottled water, which even in hotels and touristy areas wasn't outrageously priced.

There's not a whole lot of pictures from what we ate in Egypt. I really liked the food there, and it's cheap as heck (the exchange rate is 50EGP to the dollar, from 7/$ just a few years ago -- a 40-minute Uber is about $5). Even the Sofitel food was reasonably priced, for the couple of meals we had -- two in their Lebanese cafe, one in the upscale Italian (not too cheap, like a moderately-priced place here) -- they also had a pan-Asian and a steakhouse, and a cafe with pastries. Dining at the Grand Egyptian Museum was also very reasonably priced (the Field Museum could definitely learn a thing or two about mummy-adjacent dining).

Egyptian food is spicier than Moroccan, to my pleasure, and somewhat similar to the Levant/Syrian things familiar to Chicagoans, if spelled a little different. The breakfast buffet included some Egyptian things, including ful, which was not too different from refried beans except for toppings of pickles, olives, tahini, etc.; and small, globe-shaped falafel that I found a little pasty (the falafel in their Lebanese cafe was crisper and lighter).

One thing to note: Egypt does not restrict smoking much. There may be areas inside hotels and restaurants permitting smoking, and Egyptian cigarettes may be in violation of the Geneva convention for including chemical warfare agents.

The hotel was preface to a Viking Nile cruise, so the majority of what I ate after that was on the boat. And like the Danube cruise 3 years ago, the "local" foods they had each day were generally toned down, frou-frou'd, and nouvelle cuisine-infected. For instance, the "falafel burger" was served on a bun with basil aioli. The one evening they had "Egyptian night" I think they let the cooks have a free hand and the head chef took the night off, because the flavors were brighter. What helped was an accident: after ordering a pasta dish I asked for crushed red pepper, "like you'd put on pizza" and they brought a small dish of a quite fiery harissa that was almost like a chili oil. From then on, I asked for it at more than half my meals.

After that very long day of travel (note: Iberian Air doesn't even provide water, let alone soft drinks, without a fee), we arrived at the hotel around midnight tired and hungry. Luckily their Lebanese cafe was open into the early hours of the morning, and was quite tasty.

Manakish - sort of a Lebanese pizza: bread and cheese, served with radish, tomato and basil. This was the other couple's, I didn't taste it.


Falafel - these were very tasty. I learned on the boat that the traditional spring-loaded falafel scoop gets coated in sesame seeds to aid in releasing it into the oil, this results in sesame seeds on one side.


Hummus Awarma - Bits of lamb and lots of tasty lamb fat, one of the best bites of the trip, actually.

The meal also included bread and crudite. The dishes were the equivalent of about $4-7 in a hotel.

Jayda Nile Terrace
Sofitel Nile Downtown
1191 Nile Corniche, Souq Al Asr Bulaq, PO BOX 2044, 11221 CAIRO, Egypt

The following day we went to the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is a truly amazing place. The biggest museum in the world, also drop-dead gorgeous. We spent two hours in the foyer and "grand staircase" then had lunch in Zooba, in the museum, but there are apparently branches of it elsewhere.

I had something that was very much like a biryani: tender lamb in rice with yogurt, fried onions, and a spicy sauce


Sue had kefta which came with fries


My sister-in-law I think had a burger, which came with torshi


Zooba
https://www.aesuperlab.com/zooba-gem

There was one other meal pre-boat at a restaurant called Zaza Cuisine, on the Nile requiring a life-endangering crossing of the road. There's lots of cafes, shops and restaurants on that side of the road against the river bank, and no easy way to get there.
I didn't take pictures, I don't even remember what we ordered, but it was delightful, fun, filling, cheap, and a great cultural exchange with a waiter who spoke little English and me having the most Arabic at about 30 words. Just be aware that there's hookah smoking within the restaurant -- which somehow doesn't irritate my eyes and lungs the way cigarettes do but YMMV.

Zaza Cuisine
Mamsha ahl masr Infront of fairomnt hotel Nile city, Cairo Governorate 11765, Egypt
http://www.zazacuisine.com/