50 Fun Facts About Moroccan Food

Which steamed semolina dish is the one most people associate with Morocco?

Steamers for it dating to the 12th century were dug up at Igiliz in the Sous valley.

A tagine is a stew and also what?

The Arabic word descends from the Ancient Greek tágēnon, a shallow clay frying pan.

The tagine's cone-lidded cooking pot is said to have originated in which Moroccan town?

The same Greek root gave Marrakesh its tangia jar and Tunisia its own tagine.

Moroccan mint tea is brewed from which type of tea?

Spearmint, not peppermint, is the traditional mint, and the sugar goes in generously.

Why is Moroccan tea poured from high above the glass?

Glasses are filled in two stages and the tea comes with hard sugar cones or lumps.

Tradition calls for serving a guest at least how many glasses of mint tea?

The tea is drunk all day as a social act and is central to Tuareg life too.

Who traditionally prepares the mint tea offered to guests?

Offering it is a sign of hospitality; in winter it may be warmed with sage, verbena or wormwood.

What does the name of the spice blend ras el hanout mean?

It implies the best the seller has; every shop and family has its own mix.

By one count, as many as how many spices go into ras el hanout?

Cardamom, cumin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace and ginger are among the regulars.

Harira, the heavy soup, is typically eaten during Ramadan with plain bread or what?

It is also a winter dinner, and Moroccans happily eat sweet chebakia alongside it.

Bissara, the winter soup or dip, is made from which legume?

The name is thought to come from a Coptic word meaning 'cooked beans'.

Pastilla, the sweet-savoury pie, is made with which paper-thin dough?

Tunisia's version is called malsouka; briwat turnovers use the same dough.

The name pastilla comes from a Spanish word meaning what?

The p became a b in Arabic, giving bastilla.

Historian Anny Gaul traces pastilla-like recipes to 13th-century cookbooks cooking which bird?

Cinnamon, almonds, saffron, onion and eggs, cooked in a pot and then finished in the oven.

In preserved lemons, which part is most valued?

Lemons ferment in salt brine for weeks or months; the rind ends up mildly tart and intensely lemony.

Argan oil comes from a tree native to Morocco and which neighbouring country?

It is dipped with bread at breakfast or drizzled on couscous, and sold abroad for cosmetics.

Amlou, the breakfast spread, combines argan oil and honey with which toasted nut?

In Shilha cooking argan oil plays the role olive oil has elsewhere in the Maghreb.

Chermoula is a marinade traditionally used on what?

Garlic, cumin, coriander, oil and lemon; it is often compared to chimichurri.

Rfissa is traditionally served to which people, because of its fenugreek?

Fenugreek is held to help women recover from childbirth; the dish descends from the Arab tharid.

Rfissa is chicken and lentils served over which shredded flatbread?

It did not appear in Moroccan cookbooks until the 1990s, being a rural dish the Fessi elite ignored.

Tanjia, the urn-cooked stew, was traditionally slow-cooked overnight in the ashes of what?

Lamb shank, preserved lemon, cumin, garlic and saffron go into a parchment-sealed jar.

Méchoui is a whole lamb or sheep cooked how?

The cavity is stitched up with ras el hanout inside and the spit turned slowly beside, not over, the coals.

Méchoui cooking time is reckoned at roughly how long per kilogram?

The meat is brushed with butter or oil as it cooks so the outside turns crisp and amber.

Khlea, sun-dried meat preserved in fat, keeps at room temperature for up to how long?

Strips are marinated in garlic, coriander and cumin, dried, cooked and submerged in fat.

Zaalouk is a cooked salad of tomatoes and which grilled vegetable?

Paula Wolfert called it one of the best of all cooked Moroccan salads.

Taktouka, typical of Taza and Fes, is a salad of tomatoes and which smoked vegetable?

Moroccan meals open with a run of such hot and cold salads before the tagine.

The salad bakoula, or khoubiza, is made from the braised leaves of which plant?

Spinach or arugula can stand in, dressed with parsley, coriander, lemon, oil and olives.

The crescent pastry kaab el ghzal translates as what?

It is stuffed with nut paste and topped with sugar; fresh fruit, not pastry, usually ends a meal.

Chebakia, the Ramadan pastry, is fried dough coated in honey and shaped like what?

It is made in big batches at the start of the month and sprinkled with sesame.

Sellou, also called sfouf, is a Ramadan sweet built on a base of what?

Butter, honey, sesame and nuts are worked into it.

Everyday Moroccan bread, khobz, is principally made from what?

Bakeries are everywhere; bread doubles as the utensil at a traditional meal.

Until the mid-20th century, which grain was an important staple, especially in the south?

Rice and wheat have since taken over.

What is preserved, aged Moroccan butter called?

Zebda is the fresh kind; olive oil is now replacing both as the cooking fat.

Which meat is the most commonly eaten in Morocco, usually in a tagine?

Plums, boiled eggs and lemon often go in alongside saffron, cumin, cinnamon and ginger.

Moroccan saffron is famously grown around which town?

Oranges and lemons come from Fes, mint and olives from elsewhere; all are exported.

Mint and olives are home-grown specialities of which Moroccan city?

Fes, founded by the Idrissids in 789, became the gateway for spices from the east.

The Idrissids founded Fes, the city that later drew eastern spices, in which year?

Cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, paprika and saffron all became kitchen staples.

Twelfth-century steamers for the semolina staple were found at Igiliz, in which valley?

Even older steamer-like vessels turn up in Numidian graves in Algeria.

Charles Perry dates the semolina staple to between the Zirid dynasty and which caliphate?

That brackets its birth among the Berbers between the 11th and 13th centuries.

In which year did the semolina staple join UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list?

Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania filed the bid together.

Morocco is the world's largest exporter of which fish?

The country has over 3,000 km of coastline; the same fish went into Roman garum at Lixus.

In the Roman period, Lixus and Cotta had factories producing which fermented product?

The fish sauce was made from the same sardines the coast still lands today.

Which creature is a common street food, served in its broth and eaten with a toothpick?

Beboush, a spiced snail soup, is the sit-down version.

Ma'quda, a cheap snack loved by students in Fes, is a fritter of what?

Street food has long been a Moroccan tradition, nowhere more than Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakesh.

The cheap street sandwich khanz u-bnīn translates as what?

Bocadillos, a Spanish loanword, arrived at northern snack bars in the 1980s.

Neighbourhood dairy shops selling juices, smoothies and pancakes are called what?

They also sell harcha and local sandwiches.

Which Marrakesh square of food stalls and storytellers got UNESCO recognition in 2001?

Concern for the square inspired UNESCO's whole 'Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage' idea.

Fatéma Hal, an 'ambassador of Moroccan cuisine' per Le Figaro, opened which Paris restaurant?

TV chef Choumicha and royal chef Al-Amīn al-Hajj Mustafa an-Nakīr also spread the cuisine abroad.

Besides Morocco and India, preserved lemon also featured in which 18th-century cuisine?

The pickled pulp even works in a Bloody Mary.

A typical Moroccan lunch begins with what?

The tagine or dwaz follows, then for formal meals a lamb or chicken dish or couscous.