Fes' medina is a magical place, and actually represents the world's largest non-car street area- or so it claims. Locals tout how you are sure to get lost in the medina's 9,400 streets, however the truth is they don't know where most of the small streets are located. By Day 3 in Fez our bearings could tell us where the major streets were, and more importantly where our hotel was, which was enough to get by.
The real beauty of the medina lies in its colours, its sounds, and most of all its smells.
The colours of the medina:
Colourful clothing, bags of spices, glasses, plates, vegetables, carpets, etc
The sounds of the medina:
Chickens squabble on top of large boxes, unaware that they will be quickly turned into lunch through the swift movement of a meat cleaver.
Donkeys bray, tired of pulling the cart up the cobblestone street, dreaming of days back in the paddock
The rapidfire Arabic words in the midst of price negotiation (sometimes French is used also)
The smells of the medina:
The spices, a blend of which makes for an intoxocating infusion in our nostrils
Fresh produce, such as fish, meats, and live chickens
Donkey or horse droppings (thankfully regularly cleaned by shopowners).
Overall, walking through the medina is a lively and enjoyable experience.
The shopping of the day firstly required us to find the largest suitcase in Fez, which was difficult given there are mostly leather bags. The frame we have purchased in Marrakesh was so large that it took several hours to find a suitcase big enough to fit it in, and if we were to buy more, we needed an additional suitcase to carry it. Eventually we found one, and this allowed us the opportunity to buy up a full suitcase worth of Moroccan products. Cinthia was in shopping heaven. Bags, pencil cases, ceramic plates, silver tea pots and serving trays were quickly redirected our way for a moderate amount of Dirham. Given the number of shops in the medina the consumer is king, especially once they learn how to outtalk the Moroccan salesman- which takes some practice. "One thousand welcomes", "My Friend, how much do you pay?", " Special price for you" and leading with "Which size do you want?" and normal openings. Whilst "Just looking" doesn't really cut it as a reply, I reinforced to Cinthia that the best method of negotiation is the lowball offer, quickly followed by the walkaway. Once you are back outside the shop and 3 steps closer to the next shop.... you really see what their best offer actually is. Within the hour Cinthia perfected it, and mutually beneficial transactions were being conducted. Good fun shopping in a medina when you have your confidence up.
For the afternoon we had arranged with the hotel owner to do something that I had really wanted to do- a Moroccan cooking course.
On the way to cooking class we ventured through what could only be called the 'industrial area' of the medina. Although we had already seen the Tannery in operation, we now peered into doorways and saw cooking furnaces, weaving looms that were making carpets, sewing machines surely closer to 200 years old than 100, and basic hand tool workshops where goods were being hand made. The workshops again put things into perspective, as the tools we could see were much older and run down than the Bunnings set that the twice a year Australian handyman has in his backyard garage.
The cooking class was based in the kitchen of Trip Advisor's No. 1 Restaurant in Fez, so we were confident it would be good. We were not to be disappointed.
Firstly, off to the market with Karima, in order to get some fresh meat. Given we wanted the beef tahine, she order the beef shoulder, cut into pieces freshly in front of us. Back to their spectacular house (which was doubled as the restaurant). She dressed Cinthia up in appropriate Moroccan attire (a purple dress) and we started... to prepare and cook the restaurant (and our) food for the night.
Karima had 3 assistants, and whilst we were careful not to get in their way, I managed to sidestep them several times and get some photos of the cooking. Meanwhile, Cinthia was scribing the notes to these secret recipes. We also had another important job through the course of the cooking- official taste testers. There were no microwaves or slow cookers to be found- several pressure cookers and the key spices were the main secrets.
The meal- it is hard to describe, other than to say it was easily the finest meal of our trip, and one of the best meals we have ever had. We devoured a multitude of vegetables first- the highlight definitely a smoked eggplant (aubergine) mixed with tomato and corriander and garlic. The beef tajine with mouthwatering, and the beef was more tender than I'd ever tasted.
Everything was superb, and the other restaurant patrons were also captivated by how good the food tasted. When we return, the question will be can we cook the recipes as well as Karima?
We returned and straight to sleep, our bellies overfull with a wide variety of delicious foods.
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