Morocco Day 5: Gardens, doors, tanneries, and a cooking class in Fes

Our next and last day in Fes was a jam-packed one. The past couple of days had been quite cold and rainy, and this day was the start of great weather. While at the start of the day it was a bit chilly, by mid-morning it was nice and warm out, and it didn't rain for the remainder of our trip. :)

It's a lovely day to get to know Fes!

We started the day off with breakfast at our hostel. It was nothing fancy; just some bread, jams, cheese, olives, yogurt, and fresh orange juice.

Typical Moroccan breakfast

Then we ventured outside Fes el Bali to explore more of the city. Fes can roughly be divided into three parts: Fes el Bali, Fes Jdid, and the Ville Nouvelle (New City).

The green façade of Bab Boujloud

We headed out from the bab and found ourselves in Place Boujloud, the huge square right outside it. It was early in the morning and quite empty, but when we chanced upon it again later in the afternoon it was full of cars parked for the nearby souks. Boujloud was actually a fortress founded by the Almoravids in the 11th century, and below you can see some of the old fortress walls.

Place Boujloud

Leaving the old medina for the new

Less than five minutes from that arch pictured above was our first stop, Jnane Sbil Gardens. These gardens, formerly known as the Boujloud Gardens, were built during the 18th century and were once part of the Royal Palace gardens. In the 19th century, they were donated to the city by the Sultan, and is now a popular green space that is open to the public.

Shady pathways

Sbil means "for those who promenade," and its shady pathways, flora, and water fountains make it a nice and relaxing escape from the busy medina.

The gardens with the fortress walls in the background

The gardens

We strolled through the gardens and exited on the other side by Fes Jdid, the newer medina. Fes Jdid had a different feel from Fes el Bali; the streets were a bit wider, and it was less chaotic and maze-like. We passed through some souks as well as through the Mellah, or Jewish Quarter. Under the Merinids rule, the Jews were transferred here and received protection from the Sultan. They felt quite safe here as Muslims seldom entered the Mellah.

Some buildings in the Jewish quarter

Details on the arches

Right next to the Mellah was our next destination: the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace itself is closed to the public, but its famous doors which can be viewed from the outside are a supposedly impressive sight. I read online that there were seven doors, and thought that they were spread out around the perimeter of the palace.

A bit of the break right by the Palace doors

To my surprise, they were actually all right beside each other. Nonetheless, they were huge and impressive, and gorgeous to marvel at. (Take note though that you are only allowed to take pictures of the doors themselves and no other part of the palace).

The seven doors of the Royal Palace

Such beautiful and intricate designs

Golden doors

After taking pictures, we walked back to Fes el Bali, stopping by the Musee Batha which was right outside the medina walls. We heard it was nice so we headed in. The museum is housed in what was a 19th century summer palace, and in the middle is an beautiful Andalusian style water garden. It was a small museum and we finished it in about half an hour. No pictures were allowed inside, but it was basically a museum of Moroccan artefacts.

Back in the medina we had lunch at Chef Thami, a restaurant that claimed to have the best street food in Fes. The restaurant owner himself (Thami) had spoken to us the day before and we promised to come back, so we did. The food lived up to the hype, and Thami charged us the local price (not the prices printed on the menu). He even made us zaalouk (the Moroccan eggplant dish we liked) upon our request since we didn't see it on the menu. Aside from the zaalouk we had a plum tajine and some vegetable couscous.

Lunch!

After lunch we walked around the medina some more, and headed back to the workshop where we saw the leather ottomans the day before. We negotiated a good price with the owner, and ended up buying some for our mother. As we were heading back to our hostel, we saw another tannery, and decided to go for a look. A guy offered to take us there promising no fee for himself, just 20dh to pass through the tanneries.

The tannery

At this tannery there were still workers, and we got to see some of the process in action. From the hides being put in and taken out of the vats, the men collecting them to dry, the men treating the hides, and so on.

The vats where the hides are dyed

Yellow hides drying in the sun

More hides drying

Posing with the hides

After passing through the tannery, the guy continued to tour us on bringing us to one of the hills in the city where we got some great views of Fes el Bali.

View of Fes el Bali

That structure in the background are the Merenid Tombs, though we didn't get to go there

The guy then brought us back to the medina, and despite saying at the start that there was no fee, we decided to tip him 10dh at the end. He then refused the 10dh saying it was too small, and hinted at getting 50dh each. We refused, shoved 20dh instead in his hands, and walked away. (Thankfully he did not badger or follow us after). 

A bit exhausted from our mini tour, we stopped by Café Clock which had rave reviews. It had a charming interior and the mint lemonades my sisters had were refreshingly delicious, but we found it quite overpriced. I think it appeals to foreigners because it has an international take/fusion on their food and drinks. 

We then bought some snacks for our upcoming desert tour, and headed back to the hostel to see if we could go on the cooking class we had originally tried to book but couldn't seem to confirm. We finally got confirmation, and waited in our hostel until they could come pick us up. We got picked up at about 5:30, and were off. We had two men pick us up, the company owner, Faddoul, and our host, Kamal. We drove out to the Ville Nouvelle, and got to see again how huge Fes was. The Royal Palace and gardens were within walking distance from the medina, but the rest of the city seems spread out. Roads are very wide, there are lots of roundabouts, and people seem to get around either by private cars or petit taxis.

Back to the cooking class... we first headed to the market where we brought fresh vegetables and meat. Faddoul and Kamal asked us what we wanted to cook, and we decided on a lamb tajine. Unfortunately, there was no more lamb though when we got to the market, so we settled on some beef. They bought the vegetables and spices we needed, and then headed to Kamal's house where we would be preparing our dinner.

At Kamal's house, we settled in, had some mint tea, and learned a bit about Moroccan culture. Then we started to prepare our dinner with Kama's wife. She didn't speak much English, but we were able to communicate via Spanish which she spoke a bit of. She was a pro at teaching foreigners; the first thing she did was set up the ingredients so we could take a picture of them. Throughout the night, she would often pause so we could take pictures, which was also helpful for remembering the recipe later on.

The ingredients were quite simple; it's the spices and cooking time that make the dish delicious!

Chopping onions...

...and tomatoes.

Cooking a tajine is long, and done in stages. First the onions go in, then the meat is added with some spices, and the tajine is closed. Later, the vegetables are added with more spices.

There's a lot of waiting as the vegetables and meat soften. I think our hosts could tell we were quite hungry so they offered us some harira while waiting for our tajine to finish. The last step was adding the tomatoes and peppers on top, but after that, we still had to wait an hour more!

There were truly no shortcuts and it too almost two hours for the tajine to cook. In fact, we were using a mteal tajine which speeds up the cooking process a bit. Using the traditional clay pots takes much longer. The tajine finally finished cooking at around 9:30, and we dug right in!

Our finished tajine!

We ended up leaving the house at 10:10pm, and arrived back at our hostel at 10:30, a full five hours after we had left. In fairness, we were told that the class would take about 4 hours. So if you do decide to book a cooking class, make sure you start early!

The cooking class was such an amazing experience. Aside from learning how to cook a traditional Moroccan dish, we also got to visit a Moroccan home, and talk with the family on their life and culture. Our host Kamal spoke very good English and we had a good time talking with him. We also met his wife who was our teacher in the kitchen, and their cute daughter who we played with. While waiting for our food to cook we would talk, and they even showed us their wedding album, and we learned a bit about the marriage customs.

With our host Kamal, his daughter, and our tajine

Looking back, the class was reasonably priced; we paid 240dh each, and it was one of the cheapest offers we found online. This includes the ingredients and transportation, but considering that both are really cheap, they do make a lot of profit. Nevertheless, it was a great experience. If you like food and cooking, I'd definitely recommend it. If you're interested, this was the company we ended up booking with.

Also, this wasn't the tour company we took for our Sahara Desert Tour (which I'll be blogging about next), but Kamal asked me to write about his tour company, Morocco Travel Camp. I can't vouch for the actual tour, but I can vouch that Kamal is a great guy! If we hadn't already booked our Desert Tour, we would've considered going with Kamal's company. We booked our Sahara Desert Tour in advance because we were worried slots would run out as Spring Break is peak travel season in Morocco. However we later learned that there are literally dozens of tour companies around. For peace of mind and perhaps if you'd like to go with a good, reputable company, booking in advance is fine (we didn't even pay full, just a €50 deposit). But at the same time, if you want to wait until you get to Morocco, I don't think you'll have a problem finding a tour. So that's a bit of advice if you're looking to take a tour across the Sahara. Next up is our personal experience on our three day desert tour from Fes to Marrakech! :)