strange food in Morocco?

Hello,
will be in Morocco this friday for 10 days. I was wondering what kind of strange food there is to eat out there since I like to taste everything new. So, what was the strangest thing you eat in Morocco, where in Morocco, and was it good or not?
Thanks
Alex

Pigeon pie was really good. Harissa was incredibly hot, but excellent on couscous. Sheep's heads looked tasty, but my friend was too squeamish to approach the stand. :-(

In Fes, try the snails (the best guy being on Derb el Houra just off the Talaa Sghira to the left). If the snails are really too much, just get a bowl of the "buloud" or the tasty broth the snails are cooked in.

In the Medina in Rabat there's often a bloke with a cardboard box of hedgehogs. Being veggie, I've not tried one myself, but they are supposed to be good for the digestive system. You can see them in cages in the 'magic market' in Marrakech too.

I don't think you'd find them on any menu. You'd have to cook it yourself.

Never saw any hedgehogs there, but saw quite a few chameleons. Pets, I suppose, not food...

Weird things to eat in Morocco, hmm...

People really eat the WHOLE sheep (or cow). Brains, eyeballs, etc can all be found, especially in Marrakech.

In Essaouira, a friend always tells me about eel tajine - they literally curl the eel inside the tajine and cook it.

Hedgehogs, yes, and you can eat horse in the south.

B'stila is a sweet and savory pie made with pigeon, but you'd never know it - tastes like chicken. Still, it's a Fez specialty and quite delicious.

Snails are also very popular and can be found nearly everywhere on the side of the road! And in Djemaa al Fna, of course.

Twelve day old unrefridgeratored mutton (twice) at N'kob, slaughtered for Eid. I didn't expect to survive. No, the weirdest food is that home-made bread studded with small stones... No, hang on, it's glasses of petit lait with couscous after Friday prayers. It's such a pointless combination. No, no, sorry, mint tea is the one. That should have been obvious. No! Omlette! Cooked on a low light in large amounts of dirty oil. Nothing could be further from the original intention. No, no, no. Madame Ed Daoudi's home-made coffee. It lacked any coffee at all. The sad thing is I got to like it.

the sprite mixed with mint flavoring in tefrout. Camel kabobs with argon oil. bstilla with pigeon (sweet chicken taste) is always good. I saw a few of these gerbal mole things being offered drew the line at that. did have a seafood bastilla in Mogadir really enjoyed it. The cactus buds are interesting good flavor to many seeds

That is a good list. And a southern list, at that. Gerbal mole, Ward? Do you mean the ground squirrels? You are very funny. And cactus buds? Is that prickly pear? They are v nice but the prickles are a menace. Anybody ever try the arbutus fruit in the paper cones in Fes? Delicate flavour. Do people think they're lychees? I had squid tagine in Taghazoute. Quite disgusting. I don't know how I got through it.

I always enjoy the way the snail sellers in Fes spend most of their time picking the snails off the edge of the basket and dropping them back in. But, eat them? Forget it.

And where else in the world could you find an old guy selling FOUR different types of mint off a mat in the street? (Fes al Andalous).

One of the nicest dishes in Morocco are eggs poached in tomato sauce with unleavened bread for lunch. Only ever had it in the south -Souk Ifrane, Tafraoute, Tazzarine. Also unsalted Taroudannt butter for breakfast. Almost pure white. Somewhere in flavour between butter and British cream cheese.

I remember hiking in the desert one day and someone trying to tempt me with dates and milk. They almost succeeded. It sounded like the Old Testament Cookbook. As a result I now have Algerian dates and cheese sandwiches for lunch...

Thanks guys,
I'm looking forward to try the pigeon pie ;)
Lots of nice stories there.
See ya all
Alex

I had the cow's foot with chickpeas, full of gelatin. It's a favorite there. My favorite kebabs in the whole world are boulfaf - very fresh lamb liver coated in spices, covered with the sheep's caul and barbequed. Yum! The weirdest thing I had probably was a tagine of braided lamb intestines. It was quite a production which required lots of cleaning but it turned out very well. Dafina, the Moroccan Jewish Sabbath meal is also interesting. Most of these would not be found in food stalls but at family meals.

My husband LOVES boulfaf! You can get it at the butcher near our house, already spiced and brochette-ready!

Another reason not to visit Meknes, then.

I had the worst food I've ever had in my like while in Meknes. (all of the other food was fabulous in Morocco, BTW) It was a kind of pickled lemon, which had a horrible ammonia smell, something reminiscent of a toiet bowl cleaner smell. Does anyone know the name for that?

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<hr>Hedgehogs, yes, and you can eat horse in the south.<hr></blockquote>
Living in the south, I have never heared of people eating horse!! do you know any specefic place where people eat horse?

Lemon preserves are used all over Morocco. Tasty with green olives and chicken in a tagine. Don't remember there being an ammonia smell though.

Another treat is spiced air-dried lamb meat preserved in fat, or khlii. When they get to the bottom of the jar there is just tiny bits of meat with these great spices and used to make the fried bread called raif bi khlii. Yum.

I only had it that one time, and I did a fair bit of travel around the country. This was definitely beyond fermentation! The tagines were excellent, though...

What on earth do you all have against Meknes? Have any of you actually spent more than a few days there?

I hate preserved lemons too, actually - they just gross me out on principle.

Khili is another one that grosses me out - we have a tub of it in our cupboard that just sits there. What really freaks me out is that it doesn't require refrigeration!

I have nothing against Meknes, but I did find the town a bit underwhelming. Was planning on spending 3 days there, cut it short to 2. The mosque was amazing, as was the sprawling market. The crappy lemon had no bearing on my friend & I deciding to cut our trip short in Meknes...

I meant to say mausoleum, not mosque.

Re Meknes, we are teasing. But I have to say, I found it underwhelming, too. Nice medersa and carpet museum and the beautiful ochre houses in the medina must be unique for Morocco.

Most of the foods yall call strange, are not foreign to me, my family of origin is from southern USA and pigeon, cows feet, intestines et cetera are not so unusual, also snails are yummy esp in France, but good in Morocco too.

I havent had camel, couldnt find in in Morocco when I was there Mar 07 - cooked that is. Also, I never liked liver until I went to Morocco. By the way, Hero2003s mom is a fantastic cook!