Ouarzazate is a gateway: to the desert, to the gorges, to the kasbahs. It is also a table where the Berber cooking of the Atlas meets that of the oases. Here is what to taste before taking the road again.
1. Clay tagine
The evening dish par excellence. In the region it is preferred with chicken, preserved lemon and olives, or with beef and vegetables from the garden. Slow cooking in clay gives the short, deep sauce you mop up with bread.
2. Seven vegetable couscous
Served on Fridays in families, every evening in a few houses. Hand rolled grain is finer and lighter than industrial couscous.
3. Pastilla
Crisp outside, soft inside, dusted with sugar and cinnamon. Traditionally with chicken, with fish further south.
4. Rfissa
A celebration dish: msemen flatbread soaked in chicken broth with lentils and fenugreek. Rare in restaurants, precious when you find it.
5. Briouates and samosas
Pastries filled with cheese, minced meat or chicken. The starter you share while waiting for the tagine.
6. Harira
The evening soup, tomato, chickpeas, lentils and coriander. Essential when the evenings turn cool.
7. Moroccan salads
Aubergine zaalouk, pepper taktouka, carrots with cumin: the mosaic served as a starter.
8. Dates from the Draa valley
The palm groves south of Ouarzazate produce renowned dates. They are served with milk at the start of a festive meal.
9. Oranges with cinnamon
The simplest and truest dessert: sliced oranges, cinnamon, orange blossom water.
10. Mint tea
Made in front of you, poured from a height for the foam. On a Tifoultoute rooftop at dusk, it sums up the region.
Where to taste all this in one evening
At La Table du Berbère, the menu is built around these dishes. Each evening you compose your own menu: a starter, a main, a dessert, with tea and water included. Everything is prepared for your table after your reservation. It is our house, we say so plainly, and it is why we opened it.
Two of these deserve a longer read: mint tea in southern Morocco and the Moroccan salads.
