Excitement is in the Air

Here it is, almost 3am, and I have the largest, busiest 48-hours ahead of me. I can't sleep. My mind is racing on all that needs to get done, for the 4th time. I am a man of lists. I believe in writing everything out so I don't forget a thing. And I wrote that list out yesterday and have looked at it a few times. I can't stop playing over in my mind the next 2 days. It's going to be fun and exciting, yet very exhausting.

I have a group of 14 college students coming in from the University of Wisconsin to stay at the house for 2 nights and take 2 cooking classes on Wednesday. Tomorrow is the day of shopping, last-minute straightening, and little to-dos. They then arrive around 5pm to get settled. If I were part of this group, I would love to do what they are about to do:

*Horse-drawn carriage around town
*Dinner at a fabulous restaurant overlooking part of the city
*Learning how to make Chicken Tajine and Harira (traditional tomato soup)
*1/2-day trek out to Volubilis (Roman ruins from 2000 years ago)
*Hang out with a bunch of friends on the roof of the house overlooking the city
*Breakfast at a cafe that serves incredible juice

All the little details are almost done. It's just mustering up the energy to see them in and run 2 cooking classes on Wed. Each group of 7 will cook lunch/dinner for the other group that travels out to Volubilis.

In the midst of it all, hope to try and take a pic or two that I can post. Already have the pose in my head, just need to execute it.

Prepping for a Class

The open-air market is such a fun place to be. Getting jostled by the masses, bargaining for vegetables, trying not to step on the hungry cats. It's such an adventure to daily get your groceries. Wanted to give you a glimpse into the shopping routine right before a cooking class begins.

Before I ever even think about entering into the chaos, I need to take some time at home or in my car to write out my list. Once I am surrounded by the noise, my brain doesn't think in an orderly fashion, but more about survival. So first is the ever-important LIST.

My first and main goal is to get them working on the CHICKEN (if that's what's on the menu.) I head over to the chicken stand and pick out my nice, plump 2 kilogram chicken that's lively running all over the place, and then quickly walk away. I choose not to watch as they do what they do to it in order for me to take it home.

Little tip: If you ever go to an open-air market in the hopes of purchasing some meat, chicken or fish, and you have the choice between some with flies on it or some right next to it without flies, TAKE THE STUFF WITH FLIES. I know it sounds crazy, but that is much fresher than the other stuff. If the flies wouldn't eat it, then neither should you. But make sure to wash it real well before cooking it.

As they are prepping the chicken, I then head back a couple of stalls to my main VEGETABLE guy. (There are over 30 vegetable-vendors in this specific market, and I chose this guy a long time ago cuz he seems very honest and genuine.) I take a look at his onions/tomatoes/bell peppers/eggplants/ etc. I am always looking for the freshest ingredients for our customers to cook with. It's hard to believe that I pay 55 cents for over 2 pounds of onions and less than a dollar for that same amount of tomatoes.

Next comes the freshest of MINT, CILANTRO & PARSLEY. These greens make the class smell so good and the tea taste heavenly. I could not do without these things. Then I head over to my little corner store to pick out my apricots, garlic, olives, walnuts, ginger, etc. This is what I call my MISC. section of shopping.

Finally, it's back over to the chicken guy to pick up my purchase. I am so glad that I don't have to chase a chicken around my backyard and do all that preparation myself. I am not a violent guy whatsoever and am thankful that there are other people to do that dirty work in my stead.

Oh...I almost forgot about going by the bakery to get some of those very tasty COOKIES that are a necessity at the beginning of every single class. You cannot consume the tea at the beginning without adding more sugar to the equation in the form of sweets. Ain't nothing like getting the party started off on the right foot.

Busier & Busier

Now that the rainy season is over and tourists are packing their bags to come this way, the business just keeps getting more clients. The last 2 weeks were by far the busiest we've seen since we started. During that time, we held 6 different cooking classes. Yea, we've had a good number of classes before in a short amount of time. What makes these different are the number of people in each class. We had a couple of classes with 2 or 3 people, but we also had 3 classes with 6 or more people (one of those being the previously mentioned class of 13).

At the same time, as a side note, we held the 14th Annual St. Patty's Day Fajita Party in which we served over 80 folks some great Fajitas. What an excellent party! We had so much fun consuming Mexican food and celebrating the Irish! We asked everyone what they would change or enforce in regards to driving laws! I personally would allow driving on the sidewalks, primarily because most nationals walk in the streets. Often I carefully pass scores of people and glance over to see an 8" wide sidewalk completely empty. If I were there, I would be home by now!

The Youngest, yet the Biggest

There is something about teaching the next generation. It's very enjoyable and rewarding. I say this because yesterday we had our youngest and largest class to date. Two families in our city brought their children to the cooking school to take advantage of a local holiday and no school. All told, there were 5 adults and 9 kids present (not including staff). One of the kids was only a few months old, so he technically didn't count as a client. But the other kids that took part were between the ages of 3 to 16 (some of the younger ones ate the cookies and drank the tea, but they took part.)
First and foremost, not a single one of them burned, cut or maimed themselves. That was probably my biggest concern as 14 people all started piling into my place that already had 4 folks waiting. On top of that, Nisrine did an amazing job handling all the noise and chaos that comes with that many people, regardless of age.


On to the class. We chose a dish that would be very hands-on and enjoyable. And it's one of my wife's personal favorites: Bourmash and Miliwi. This specific dish is similar to Chicken Tajine, but it has a very special spice in it called "Ras Al-Hanut." This is a 40-blend spice that lights up the air. Another special about Bourmash is that it is served over the Miliwi (a bread-like pastry with flour and semolina).

As you can see in some of the pictures, every one of the folks got their hands dirty as they had to roll out the dough. We partnered them up on stations since the most we can accommodate at once is 8.

And then we trekked up the winding stairs to our new Frosh sitting area covered by the new tent. It was such a glorious and beautiful day as everyone of them consumed their grub and enjoyed the view of the city.

Final Renovations

We have finally gotten to our final project on the house: making a sitting area on the roof for people to enjoy the weather/scenery while eating a fabulous lunch that they prepared. It's also an ideal place to smoke a cigar, if that is something that you enjoy doing.

So this past weekend was spent tearing up all the ugly colored cement and replacing it with traditional roof tile. Then repainting the walls on the roof to cover up all the splattered cement particles. That part of the project is done and I had the wonderful opportunity of lifting around 65 buckets full of tile 3 floors up to the roof. That was my upper body workout for the week.

The final part left of the final renovation project is having my tent made and sitting area prepared. This should take a few more days, but by the end of next week, I will have a roof "living room" that I can be very proud of. The next thing I need to find is a personal waiter to bring the coffee and tea.

As soon as that gets done, I will paste some more pictures. Then you will definitely want to come over just for the view.

More Recent Guests

As you know, I enjoy people. I love hearing their stories and getting a better idea on their backgrounds. I like to laugh and tell of some of my own experiences. At the same time, I am very introverted and get worn out by the end of each class. Often I come home exhausted to a confused wife. "How are you so tired? Nisrine did all the teaching and Adil washed all the dishes. What did you do? Walk some food up to the roof?" Those extroverts will never understand how much energy it takes for people like us to talk.

But what's really funny is that I love my job. I love meeting all these new people. I hope I always have a job that is directly related to people. Even though I have to muster all my energy before each and every class, I wouldn't change a thing.

At 5:00AM, I will try and remember some of our more recent clients.

** Riad Reviews - We have some friends living in a neighboring city that run a business called "Riad Reviews." This web-based profession allows them to gather reviews from guests at riads all over Morocco and post them on Riad's individual sites. If you are interested in coming this way and are looking for Riads Fes or maybe Riads in Marrakech take a look at their site to hear what other folks have had to say: RiadReviews.com

** First-time Bastilla makers - We had our first bastilla making party a couple of weeks ago with a repeat customer. His girlfriend was visiting and they came for a class. Nisrine was itching to make this dish, so we got after it. If you have never eaten bastilla in your life, add that to your "Bucket List."

** Pumpkin Patch in downtown L.A. - One lady just visited us who owns a Pumpkin Patch and Christmas Tree lot in the middle of Los Angeles. I was so fascinated with that idea that it was hard to focus on Moroccan culture and history. Obviously her visit came in February and not in November!

** Basketball Coaches - Pictured are 5 basketball coaches from North Carolina that were interested in taking a cooking class. They did an amazing job preparing Couscous with Chicken while not making Nisrine feel like the shortest person in the world.

There you have some of my more recent clients. Everyone has a story. And I love getting to know people and learning from them some of the things that they have learned in their lives.