Cooking and Clubbing Moroccan Style

Okay, no photos in this post, I apologize but I'll add them as soon as I have the means to do so.

My Friday consisted of helping my mother cook our lunch, which consisted of Riifa, chicken, lentil, and broth and is AMAZING. I forget the name, I will find out from her soon and let everybody know...for my meat eating friends I'm going to make it for you when I get back to the states, it is so yummy.

Riifa is a flat, flakey thin bread which you make by stretching dough really thin and then folding it to form a square...you then follow the same procedure with another piece of dough, stick the folded piece in the middle and fold the second one around it. Then you stretch the two layers flat like before and cook it in a frying pan just like you would a pancake. When it was done my mom cut it into little pieces, put lentils and a melange of veggies including onions (yummy) and then pieces of chicken over it and poured on the broth. It was seriously my favorite dish cooked here so far. Although my mom does make some awesome pizza (better than any of the Italians in Kenosha), I feel like this traditional meal is my current number one!

Anyway, I only helped with the riifa (which I will be an expert at making when I return to the States) due to my need to shower.

Afterwards I headed to the Centre Ville and met up with some fellow Americans and we wandered around the souks in Medina again and headed to Oudaiyas, a neighborhood on the ocean where the Casbah (I mentioned day one) is located. The streets are narrow and the buildings are all in whitewash or blue, and it is stunning. Many Europeans buy vacation homes in this neighborhood. I really do enjoy the slower paced lifestyle of Rabat compared to Casablanca. We enjoyed the views of the Atlantic while being hit on by more Moroccan men who were surprised when Chiara responded in Arabic and when I understood them when they said something else in Arabic.

The evening consisted of heading to Club Yakuut to watch an awesome band from Cote d'Ivoire perform and drink and dance the night away. It was a ton of fun although I was sad to deny the cute Moroccan boy I spent most of the night with a kiss, but I know what they want and alas no life altering decisions in Morocco! :-)

On a final note I have realized how little French my mom knows so I have changed to speaking in Modern Standard Arabic and Dharija as much as I can, although I have to revert to French quite a bit at the moment. I am excited regardless because although it is a challenge to communicate I am actually using my Arabic!