The most important thing in life...Food.

Food.  Its so important.  Like, a daily need.  And something that I am truly passionate about.  I love to cook and try new things (at least once). So when moving to abroad I was quite hesitant about what was going to happen with my daily consumption of noms.  Like I said before, I will try anything once, but if that something is something that I am not sure about its origins then we might have a problem.  

You all know about my love affair with the Marjane (the Walmart of Rabat)...Well we have had a falling out. I think the first time I went there I was just in a state of awe.  Now when I go its always crowded and there is a certain smell that is just...putrid. That is not a good thing when you are there to purchase food.  Nuh uh.  And anyway I have found new loves and their names are La Fonda (for REALSIES!) Proxi and Nait Hamou.  These three shops have everything and anything that I would need for the kitchen and are right in a convenient little row about a half mile away from the house.  The La Fonda is a butcher with all sorts of delicious cuts of meat from just about any animal but pigs (so sad, but there is a pork store on the other side of town...we have to find it!) And to my awesome finding today, some of the lovely lads that work there speak English!  Yes! Some of the epic purchases there have been BBQ beef ribs, pastry wrapped hot dogs and my favorite lamb chops.  Everything is fresh, clean and best of all CHEAP.  And I mean dirt cheap.  We purchased over 10 lbs of meat today and it cost us about $60.  So I am happy to announce that we are out of the rut of eating chicken every night for dinner bc of La Fonda.  We have run into some things that we thought were one cut from a certain animal, but turn out to be from a different.  Veal Tbone steaks?  Delish!  (Yes Daniel, I am becoming a lover of the bebe moocows, sans Caraway seeds.)

 Next door to La Fonda is the Proxi.  Looks just like any ordinary Bodega any where in a big city in the states.  But this one is just that much better bc they carry amazing American and French products!  Oh and fresh baguettes everyday. My love of bread and cheese has become a small obsession and I think that Ry might try an intervention soon.  You can probably find all of the dry goods you would need at the Proxi and there is never a line and always a smile.  Oh and once again, they speak English!  Score!  And the Orangina is always cold.  So nice after pushing a stroller up the hill!

And then one store down is the Nait Hamou which is the produce market.  But this is the produce market of all produce markets.  It puts every road side stand and farmers market in California to shame. It seems that a lot of restaurants get their produce from this store, so that is a really good selling point.  Everything is in season, fresh and beautiful.  I technically have never been inside this magical place, but I send Ryan in with a list of what we need and he comes out with armfuls of amazing produce. The isle are small and there is always a crowd so it is not very stroller friendly. Gotta strap the kid to the Ergo and elbow my way in there soon.  They have a wonderful staff that help you with whatever you need, and they probably have some of the strangest fruits and veggies I have ever seen.  Maybe I will be brave enough to ask what some of them are how to cook with them sometime soon.  Oh, and its cheap.  Like cheaper than dirt.  We purchased potatoes, zucchini, strawberries, mushrooms, lettuce, and apples and it was about $10.  Ten, Dollars.  The only sad point of the Nait Hamou is that I have not found anyone that speaks English.  Meh.  I guess when I am on my own I will just point and grunt and smile!

Eating tangerines after lunch, that were bought on
the street for about a dollar and cleaned a prepped for us by the wait staff.
 Amazing. 

So that is my shopping trip.  Three different stores, all in a row and a work out to boot!  (Its an up hill walk to them!) Our dinner table is back to being used for hosting wonderful dinners once again in stead of fast food and take out, and that makes me one happy momma!

Speaking of fast food and take out.  It was so comforting to find a McDonalds.  A KFC.  A Burger King.  A Dominos.  And let me tell you.  These do not taste the same as they do back home. BigMacs are super strange.  They put blue cheese on pizza...like baked in.  Gaaross. Which made me really kinda sad.  But thank goodness I have kicked myself out of that rut and I am back on track to being a healthier human being. When in a unfamiliar place and you see something on the shelf that is very familiar, say a bag of Lays potato chips, it makes you happy...and then you get very very sad when those Lays do not taste anything like the Lays you know and love.  Meh.  But Moroccans, as I am sure many other cultures are, are obsessed with 'American' food.  Everywhere has burgers and fries, what they call burritos, sandwiches, milkshakes.  They will offer you ketchup and hot sauce with everything.  It makes me think about how much of an influence we have on the world and this is what we show for it??  Crap food?!!  Anyways, I am not going to get into that right now....

We have finally ventured out an have started to try the different restaurants that there are in the neighborhood.  There is just about anything and everything that you would want, except Chinese food.  But I dont think that there is any Chinese food around here.  Anyway, one of our favorite places is a chain Cafe/Restaurant named Paul.  We first tried it while in the airport in Paris, and the pastries were really good.  Then we found one right around the corner and now we are hooked.  We know that the weight staff always groans when they see us bc we do have a hard time ordering but over all everything comes out just right.  As a matter of fact today we asked for coffee with extra cream and he brought us cups full of steamed milk with a shot of espresso on the side.  Hey, that works too! My chocolate eclair was delightful, and Ryan and Knox enjoyed their treats too. Lemme tell you, you will never leave a place not stuffed to the gills with deliciousness around here.  One serving is enough to feed an army, or my hungry toddler.

Sorry about looking like a Raggamuffin.  

I am pretty proud of myslef for venturing out and about in Rabat.  Although not alone yet, I am hoping that eventually I will be confident in my Arabic/French to make it to the markets on my own and not get flustered or frustrated!  Our Saturday ritual is becoming a thing of normalcy, which is nice when you are still discombobulated about moving half way around the world.