what if we rediscovered authentic tastes, full of color, passion,
of pure taste,
with style but also desire and sharing as well
for me, for her,
for him
and with heart
says Authentic flavors to discover.
akia,
the kitchen of your heart.
what if we rediscovered authentic tastes, full of color, passion,
of pure taste,
with style but also desire and sharing as well
for me, for her,
for him
and with heart
says Authentic flavors to discover.
akia,
the kitchen of your heart.
n this episode.
o
oday we're flying from Paris to Morocco to begin
ur adventures in the Red City of Marrakesh.
his is the first time I've been on the African continent
nd I was happy to mark Morocco as my first country.
t's been a dream destination of mine for many years.
ow, I've always been so fascinated by the architecture,
ntricate mosaics and of course, the cuisine.
done a little research on what to expect in Morocco.
o I knew there would be a bit of a culture shock, but I wasn't expecting this.
ep. That's a swarm of angry taxi drivers.
o when Jonathan and I arrived at the airport,
e were quickly ushered into one of the cars.
hat we didn't know at the time was that he already had a passenger in the front seat.
o as we were leaving,
here was absolute chaos when all the other taxi drivers
ere understandably pissed that he had taken two clients.
s I said, not quite the shock I was expecting,
ut we ended up making it safely to Riad
lecia where we were greeted with traditional Moroccan mint tea and sweets.
onathan.
ow.
re you already digging
ur
oneymoon nuts.
h, yeah.
his is our honeymoon, by the way,
hich is why they had set up the sweetest surprise for us cut.
his rad is so beautiful and you'll see more of it in the room tour.
n the next episode,
ur day ended at
quare where you can't film anything without being hassled for a tip.
ou're all cut up. Let's get into day one.
e decided to introduce ourselves to the city with a tour.
o my name is Yusuf. I was born and raised up inside the old Medina of Marrakesh
nd I'm half, half, half
nd half Arab.
s you know, as I said earlier, the Buba are the native inhabitants of Morocco.
hile the Arabs are the ones who came from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Syria.
o they cross the Middle East
nd the Rich North African. I'm a father of three kids,
wo daughters and one son. So today I'm going to show you,
ou know the maze of the,
he streets, the alleyways, the dead ends.
t's a very exotic place and we invite you to come to see it
ith your eyes. Ok.
ousef was so kind and knowledgeable.
would highly recommend booking a tour with him for your next trip to Marrakesh.
is information will be linked in the description box below.
hanks to his knowledge,
e got to these gardens early and you'll see exactly why that's important later
ere in the mall
ardens. Also known as the
ardens.
nd these were bought by
acques
all when he came to visit Marrakesh
nd fell absolutely in love with this place.
o he took plants from all over the world, planted them here.
ut the problem was it is so expensive to maintain and being a painter,
our art work is often not worth much until you're
ead.
o
hat happened is he ran out of money, divorced, his wife, moved back to Paris
nd got into a bad accident.
o these gardens fell into complete disrepair because
o one could take care of them.
o I
tarted negotiating for these gardens in 1966.
t's not until 1980 that they bought this place. Yves,
aint Laurent
oved these gardens so much actually
hat he wanted his ashes to be spread when he died.
nd that's exactly what happened in 2008 when Yves,
aint Laurent's ashes were spread around the garden.
his Electric Blue house is now home to
e
ear,
hich showcases over 600 artifacts from Morocco's indigenous people.
he Berbers, the shade of blue that the house is painted in is called Blue Mall
amed after
acques Mall
imself and has even been patented.
t is made from a precious stone called La la
hich can be ground to a powder and used as a pigment.
ickets haven't got
ith
hange.
e
ause I'm waiting,
hat's wrong baby,
ut we have to go to the next place. So
n recent years,
his garden has become incredibly popular and now ranks as one of
orocco's most visited tourist attractions with around 900,000 visitors a year.
emember what I said about the early bird catches the worm,
long line right there.
e arrived a little after nine AM and walked right inside.
ut by the time we left around 10 30 this was the line.
o if you don't wanna deal with the crowd or waiting the line,
highly recommend arriving within the first hour that the garden is open.
ur
ext stop is Bahia
alace which means brilliance in Arabic.
t was built between 18 66 and 18 76 and features over 150 ornately decorated rooms
n every palace.
here are four layers to a room, cedarwood,
hen plaster tile and marble on the floor.
he cedarwood ceilings are painted with natural pigments
range from hena yellow, from saffron green,
rom wild mint blue from indigo flowers and purple from
acaranda flowers.
ll of the plaster you see is carved by
and and typically consists of Arabic phrases or poems.
nd by the way, all the noble families during the old time took it as a rule
o keep the whole place and the whole palace very simple from outside,
ut very beautiful and very orated from inside.
nd this was done on purpose
ecause
ou know, so that the poor would not hold grudge against the rich.
n fact,
he Vizi would only choose naturally blind
usicians to perform at the palace because they
ould not be able to reveal the opulence and wealth to the outside world.
his courtyard was the mistresses section.
t's large because the grand vizier loved women so
uch that he had four wives and 24 mistresses,
ll of their rooms face his grand courtyard.
nd on the other side is an entrance to a beautiful garden.
o just imagine how much water do we need to keep those gardens green all the time.
o during the old time,
orocco used a system of aqueducts
o push the water from the high Atlas mountains to the city,
elying on gravity
o chisel that fountain over there
akes a lot of time and we value anything that is hand made.
nd that's why we try to teach
he work of the hands like the work of tiles chiseling the marble cheese,
imp the plaster so that this kind of work would not die out.
ur guide Yusuf was saying that one kg of sugar was treated for one kg of marble.
nd as you can see, there's lots of marble on the.
o
wonder how much sugar is here?
e exported a lot of sugar
o eat late to have marble in return. But we use this sugar
n the Moroccan
ea.
hat's what was so addicted
o sugar.
he stained glass windows were one of my favorite parts of the Baja
alace
hen the sun shines through, it leaves rainbows on the walls.
o we were joking with, you said that the owner of this palace had 24 wives.
hink one is already too much
roblem.
ne is enough, one is enough. One is enough enough enough.
ne of the first things I noticed about Marrakesh
s the contrast between the peace and calm of the inside of the buildings
nd the chaos and noise outside.
he second was how friendly and close knit the whole community is.
s we walk through the old Medina,
ou'll notice use of our guy greeting everyone as we pass.
ee,
he donkeys are equipped with the diapers to catch
he pool and to keep the city clean.
he poop is Cooper.
ur first stop in the old Medina is the community oven.
ould like to show you here a very, very, you know, beautiful rustic
rimitive place where time is so frozen.
o here we have what is called Far.
ar
eans the community of
community or
lace where
he locals around this place, bring the dough
o be cooked in that fireplace. I want you to squat down
nd have a look how big the fireplace is.
t's so big and so huge that the guy has some puddles
n the right to flip the bread or to take the bread out of the fireplace.
his place also is used to roast the peanuts, almonds and what not.
nd the afternoon, it can be used like a place to cook the Moroccan pastry.
o when I was a little boy,
ne of the chores I did was to take the dough to the community of every day.
o we don't want those places to die out with time.
nd that's why, you know, we contribute with what we can
o leave them doing this kind of job. So every single neighborhood has
ne mosque,
ne
s the best where we wash our bodies. One community often like this
ne community, you know
fountain
nd a small market for vegetables and fruit.
o those places you know, make people here very close to each other.
verybody knows everybody inside the old medina,
verybody talks to everybody inside the old medina and you
annot imagine how much talking we do every day.
e can spend the whole day long talking. Do you know why
e have a lot of time?
ome people have watches.
ome people have time.
o normally people splash the water on the floor
o settle down the dust because in Marrakech, we have a lot of dust.
he souk is a tornado of smells. At times.
ou could easily tell where you were just by the smell
rom the leather to the spices, carpets and blacksmith areas.
he pungent smells were always changing.
o the whole sok is divided into section as well.
he spice market, the carpet market,
he blacksmith area.
o the leather market and in some places like the places we saw earlier,
t's all mixed together.
ut in other areas,
t's divided into sections like this because the overlapping bricks are red
ecause they have a lot of steel and iron.
nd that's why Marrakech is called the Red City.
e took this time with Yusuf to really familiarize ourselves with
he maze of the souk and how to navigate it.
n a later episode,
onathan and I will try to tackle it all on our own and buy some things along the way.
his is,
e use Noga in it, sesame. You know, honey, sugar, flour, salt.
t's very, very tasty and very sweet, very sweet.
ormally, it's very popular during Ramadan time,
e break the fasting with something sweet.
o it's very, very famous.
his is like
he
f the Moroccan pastry. This one,
Joseph
as been so kind to share it with us. I'm so happy. We have a local showing us around
nd getting us the most interesting prices. Obviously,
hat we call the Fatima's hand.
t's used like a token to chase away the evil eye and it brings luck to people.
o you may find that like a knock off a door
ike a piece of decoration.
f it is down like this, it brings luck if it is pointing upward,
t words up evil, see very beautiful, full of cutters.
he auction takes place in the middle of this square
fter the third time of praying,
ou know, like 4 35 you know, when people finish their praying,
hey go out and start the auction and carpets here.
o you tell me why a lot of people come here. They come just for this.
his is so magical. So
h uh uh mind blowing as the Americans say, drop dead gorgeous.
have to agree. The lantern section of the soup was my favorite.