April 22, 2014 Essaouira Another day, another World Heritage site.

April 22, 2014 Essaouira    Another day, another World Heritage site.

Today we left at around 8:30 am for the drive to Essaouira, also known at Mogador, which is about 250 km. (150 miles) away from Marrakech on the coast.

Along the way, we stopped in the area that is populated by the largest forest of argan trees in the world.  The tree grows a seed, like an almond, inside a husk that is inside an inner shell.  The oil of the argan seed had been taken up by the cosmetics industry as the newest miracle skin care product, good for every type of skin and joint ailment from arthritis to psoriasis to simply the best natural skin care product in the world.  We stopped at a cooperative that employs many women of the area to grind and sell the oil.   I can only report that the place was mobbed with folks paying big bucks for the skin care products produced by the cooperative.

  

The cosmetics grade clear argan oil is produced by hand grinding the raw kernels and then extracting the oil from their pulp by hand kneading and squeezing. Also, the kernels are roasted and then when the kernels are crushed (milled by hand also) and the oil yielded by hand from the pulp, a clear oil is produced that can be ingested as salad oil, like olive oil.  The residual pulp after all the oil has been extracted is fed to the animals.

 

The most unique thing about the oil is how it is harvested.  The farmers allow their goats to climb the argan trees, that look a lot like olive trees, and pick and eat the argan fruit husks.  The goats only want to eat the outer husk of the fruit and then drop the inner seeds onto the ground and the farmers pick them up and wash them.  When the seeds arrive at the processing facility they are cracked and the kernel extracted and then processed for either salad oil or cosmetic oil by grinding in a hand mill and then hand squeezing to extract the oil.

Atlas Mountains

goats eating argan husks

argan forest

Blooming argan flowers and nuts

Argan seed and nut shell

roasted argan seeds

milling toasted argan seeds

raw argan seeds

kneading roasted argan seeds to remove oil

residual paste used to feed cattle

nuts being cracked open to remove seeds

Milling cosmetic argan seeds

argan oil, honey and butter

tasting argan oil, honey and butter

overview of Essaouira with camels

The battlements at Essaouira

view from restaurant onto Game of Thrones set

Suzette's spiny lobster salad 

Bob's sardine ball tagine with olives and vegetables

a tea break at a pastry shop

the beach at Essaouira

dinner of leftovers on patio

The oils were expensive.  The cosmetic oil cost $100 for 500 ml. and the roasted oil for eating was $55 per ml. bottle and this is at the source.

Suzette bought a bottle of each and talked to the owner about ordering additional amounts of oil in the future.

I cannot help but think of Morocco in the way I do about Mexico because the clash of the old and the new is everywhere (donkey carts traveling along the side of super highways), as is the nascent capitalism that raises it head every chance it gets, especially when the traditional populace intersects with tourists, like in the medinas and restaurants we frequent.

Finally we arrived at the coast and stopped to view Essaouira from a high overview where four or five camel handlers and their camels were patiently waiting for tourists who wanted to ride a camel.  One encouraged Willy to pat the nose of his camel, but that is about as close as we got, since Suzette is highly allergic to animal hair and the dust that is associated with animal hair.

So we drove on to the town of Essaouira and parked in the central parking lot.  We first walked through the battlements to the huge fishing port, which was alive with activity; boats and trucks of all kinds and fishermen and fish brokers and restaurant porters and fish mongers all over the place.  Then we walked back to the fort and toured it.  I cannot tell you how beautiful Essaouira is.  The combination of a Euro-African trading port with a 1700’s fortress is magical.  Speaking from an economic geography standpoint, according to Wikipedia, Essaouira was originally a Phoenician trading port and then became a Portuguese/Moroccan trading port.  It was the main port for all the goods traveling along the trade routes that linked the eastern Sahara by way of Timbuktu and the Atlas Mountains to Marrakech and then Essaouira on their way to and from Europe and America.

          

After we looked at the fortifications on the south end of town, Naiore guided us to the north end of town, which were even more impressive with their armaments supply rooms built into the walls converted into shops and a large ramp and gate to protect access to the battlements on the north side of the city.  It is easier to see the town by pictures so I am going to include a bunch of pictures to give you a feel for the locale.

After viewing the north side battlements we chose a restaurant for lunch located immediately behind the northern battlements with a view of them and the sea.  We were lucky enough to get a table closest to the battlements although there was a pretty strong about fifteen m.p.h. offshore breeze that was quite chilling.  This was the most expensive restaurant to date in Morocco, but also one with the one with the best views. 

In fact we were looking down on the exact place where the Game of Thrones filmed an episode.

Suzette had a spiny lobster salad that she liked very much, except the spiny lobster is quite a small lobster.  The restaurant specializes in Italian food and Willy chose a thin crust pizza with Moroccan spices named Sahara.  I chose sardine meatball tagine, which is a specialty of Essaouira according to the menu.  It was very hardy with lots of meatballs, olives, tomatoes, and spices and was garnished with braised lemon peel; a very interesting dish, although later I paid from it or something else, because I developed diarrhea in the afternoon.  This was our most expensive meal in Morocco, but it was still less expensive than Ireland.

We had taken a bottle of white wine but left it in the car at Naoire’s suggestion, so we were happy to see that the restaurant served alcohol.  We drank five 25 cl. Bottles of Full Sail lager between us with lunch.

After lunch Naiore walked us through the medina and took us to a wonderful pastry shop where we drank mint tea and ate pastries and Noire joined us for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake (gateaux).

The pastry shop had a pastry I first encountered in Denmark, which used to be called baked potato.  The shell is marzipan and the inside is filled with either Bavarian cream, as in Denmark, or with a granular nougat filling, as these we ate in Morocco.  I guess the lack of refrigeration and the heat are issues tha make it preferable to avoid egg creams in Africa. For example, the chocolate éclair in Essaouira was filled with a thick creamy chocolate sauce instead of the traditional Bavarian cream or custard.  There were restaurants, shops, and hotels everywhere but the town retained a very Mediterranean/African flavor.

As we walked around Essaouira Suzette said she would happily return for a longer visit some time.

Then we walked a bit of the huge crescent shaped beach and Suzette picked up a few shells.  In about thirty minutes we met Naiore who had spent the time buying a large case of shrimp and a fish for his family and we drove back to Marrakech.  Naiore was kind enough to stop in his home town of Sidi Moktar to buy Willy some fresh mint and black tea, so we could make a proper Moroccan tea. 

We arrived at the apartment just as the sun was setting, so we grabbed a glass of wine and Willy made tea and I sliced up an apple and we ran to the roof and watched the sun set and then Willy and Suzette ate the leftovers from the Restaurant Clock from last night and we lit the candle and enjoyed a lovely evening listening to the calls to prayer in the old city and relaxing.  Suzette heated some argan oil and she and Willy rubbed it into all of our scalps. 

Bon Appétit