#TasteMorocco - Dinner With Amb. Imane Ouaadil

2 things I love - meeting women in high places (it’s all the motivation in the world) and trying new cuisines. Over the weekend I got to do both - I was invited to dinner with the Ambassador of Morocco, Her Excellency Imane Ouaadil!

There are currently no strictly Moroccan restaurants in Accra, so this was actually my first time trying the cuisine. Moroccan food flavour is influenced by its surrounding countries, which are European (French) and Mediterranean but it has African and Middle Eastern ones as well.

“The main Moroccan dish people are most familiar with is couscous. Beef is the most commonly eaten red meat in Morocco, usually eaten in a tagine(a north African spicy stew cooked in an earthenware dish with a long conical lid) with a wide selection of vegetables. Chicken is also very commonly used in tagines or roasted. They also use additional ingredients such as plums, boiled eggs, and lemon. Like their national food, the tagine has a unique taste of popular spices such as saffron, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and cilantro, as well as ground red pepper” - Google.

Moroccan Food is generally spicy and centred around meats and specific fruits like almonds. Their staple food is wheat, which is the main ingredient in things like bread and couscous.

We had:

An Assortment of Moroccan salads.
Fish Pastilla
My favourite thing from the menu! It’s a fish pie but has an assortment of seafood inside, like squid and shrimp. The best way to describe the taste would be a seafood and noodle springroll.
Lamb Tagine
A Tagine, as explained before refers to both the pot/bowl the meat is cooked in as well as the meat itself. The lamb was spicy and slightly sweet and was super soft.
5 Grain Saharan Couscous with Vegetables and Lamb.
To a Ghanaian, the best description for couscous would be very soft gari with bigger grains.
Pastilla Jawhara
Second favourite. Thin, fried crusts layered with Moroccan milk (which is sweet, thick and creamy) and topped off with dried fruits. What is there not to love, its absolutely delicious.
Assorted Mexican Sweets
- Coconut and Apricot Jam Cookie. These are dough balls stuffed with apricot jam and sprinkled with coconut shavings.
- Gazelle horns. They are thin crisp pastries filled with almond paste.
- Chebbakia. These are deep fried strips of dough rolled into a rose shape, coated with honey and rosewater syrup and sprinkled with sesame. They’re soft and very sweet.
Cucumber & Lemon Juice &
Beetroot & Orange Juice