Suffocating

Y

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Mary started with some harira which wasn't anything special, but was still better than most harira we have had so far.

Z

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I opted for a salad, which was nothing like yesterday's - just tomato and onion with dressing, served over a few leaves of lettuce. Interesting note - the couple sitting next to us also had the set men and ended up paying 70 dirham each, but their food was fancier. They received the more expensive olives instead of lentils to start and their salad was more like last night's, a selection of salads, instead of what I received. The mains ended up being the same as ours, however. The girl is from California, and the guy is from Santiago, Chile - they met in Chile when she was teaching English there and now live together in New York. If only one day someone would write of me "He met this unbelievably beautiful Spanish girl in Spain, and now they live in pure bliss running their cozy little hotel in Spain." The couple had a much simpler journey to Morocco than we did - a direct seven hour flight to Casablanca.

zzze

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For the mains I opted for a beef and vegetable couscous, while Mary had a chicken tajine. Mine was decent with very tender beef, and was quite nice with some incredible little raisins.

zzzd

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Mary's was better and had an excellent flavour in the tajine's broth, which we couldn't identify. Overall, it was a good meal, though last night's was still better.

ZA

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In the middle of this review one paragraph says that "In five years of eating here, nobody has had any need to rush for the Imodium!" First of all, how would you know that? Do you think anybody that has had the runs because of the food there would broadcast it to everybody out there? And if it was true, Mary and I joked that given her sensitive stomach, she was surely going to end that streak today!

zzzf

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A shot with Thami, the owner - his food must be good, because I've suddenly developed a double chin! I think he's even gesturing about it!

P

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After so much effort and time to get to the Royal Palace, was it worth it? In a word ... no!

Q

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The photo on the guidebook in Mary's hands was completely photoshopped - you expect the colours to be enhanced somewhat, perhaps brightened ... but they had actually added colours! The tiles surrounding the gate are mostly white in real life, but the guidebook had magically turned most of them blue. The thing is, the gate is beautiful as it is, and didn't need to be photoshopped like that. It was only disappointing because it ended up looking different than we expected.

R

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Big square just outside of Bab Bou Jeloud - I guess it's the Fes version of Marrakech's Place Jemaa el Fna.

ZB

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Interesting game Moroccans play - if they can get the ring on the neck of the bottle they win the bottle of pop, we assume.

S

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View from the guesthouse's rooftop terrace.

ZC

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Cafe Clock - on the right is Erin, from the guest house.

ZD

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Mary's chicken satay was decent, though quite different from what it should have been. It's probably hard to get a lot of the necessary ingredients here, so some substitutions are probably required. I opted for a camel burger - seems gimmicky, but what the heck? It was actually pretty tasty though I couldn't taste any camel, not that I would know what it should taste like. The flavour was great probably not because of the meat, but because of the various spices in the burger. The only thing I can say about the flavour of camel meat is that it is sweet, because while the seasoning was good, it overshadowed the meat. The bun was interesting, not really tasting like a burger bun - I'm guessing they have to be specially made for the restaurant, since burger buns are completely different from typical Moroccan bread. The thick cut fries that accompanied the burger were pretty tasty but the salad wasn't - the quality of the vegetables was great, but the dressing tasted like olives - blah!!! The burger was also quite juicy, but this could have been largely due to the fact that ...

ZE

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... it was quite raw in the middle! I didn't realize until eating half of it, and asked the waiter if camel meat could be eaten rare - he wasn't sure and said he would ask. My remaining burger returned several minutes later, now fully cooked - I took this to be a resounding "No!", to my earlier question ... hopefully undercooked camel meat doesn't lead to e. coli poisoning ...

ZF

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Bizarre Mary photo - I was using the internet in the living room and returned to find Mary posing like this for a good ten to twenty seconds. Is Mary: a) Practicing for her upcoming "Canada's Next Top Model" audition. b) Listening to the song "Vogue" and doing as Madonna says "Strike a Pose" c) Fantasizing the wall is actually her favourite hot Dutch guy, Anders, and that she is reaching out to him. d) Killing a bug against the wall with her sandal and holding it for twenty seconds in case it wasn't dead yet.

zzzi

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The answer is 'd' but with Mary, any of the other answers are also plausible.