Day 26: Second Family Dinner



Sitting down in Redouan's living room after we arrived.   Hot mint tea and cookies were served at the beginning.



Andrew doing the honors of pouring the hot tea for everyone.   He is getting very good at pouring this in the Moroccan custom of very high from the top of the tea glass.

The various almond cookies were both beautiful and delicious.

This is the seafood pastillo that we were served.  It was stuffed with shrimp and various types of seafood and was very delicious.

You can tell that the group enjoyed 'digging in' and sharing this delicious meal.

It is customary to eat with your fingers and everyone did a fine job of it.  :-)

Our group about to enjoy our 3rd course of meat cooked with dates, apricots, and almonds.

Delicous!

We had a lot of fun with Redouan's daugher.

Group picture with Mohammed and Redouan's family before we left for the night.

Tuesday night, Redouan Arrach invited Rahul, Andrew, and I to his home for dinner.   Redouan is Mohammed's manager and it was another wonderful night of good company and delicious food.   In addition to his wife and two children, he also invited four other co-workers from the Ministry of Agriculture that we have worked with and it was a very fun night!

The conversation was interesting because between the group, there were some who spoke primarily Arabic, some who spoke primarily French, and some who spoke primarily English.   Some parts of the conversations required interpretation, but it is amazing how much was universal and easily understood.  We had great topics of conversation and there was a lot of laughing.     Andrew was able to teach the children some hand games to play that didn't require conversation and the kids loved playing with him.   He even did majic tricks with coins.

The dinner was another amazing one.   Similar to our lunch on Sunday, this dinner also started with hot mint tea and a plate full of delicious almond cookies.    I'm getting a bit addicted to these.  The second course was a seafood pastillo.   Pastillo is another common Moroccan food that is a stuffed pastry.   We had had chicken pastillo while in Fez and we understand that pigeon pastillo is also made.   The seafood pastillo was delicious.   It was stuffed with a combination of shrimp and fish.   You can tell from the pictures below that the group enjoyed eating this together with their hands.   This is also a common custom for eating Moroccan foods.

The third course was another delicious meat dish that was cooked with dates, apricots, and almonds.   It was served with hot bread that was used to also eat with your hands.   We had learned our lesson at Sunday's dinner to eat smaller portions because of the number of courses so we really enjoyed eating the meat as well.

Dessert was a plate full of fresh fruits that the group enjoyed cutting up and sharing with each other.   It was a wonderful and very memorable night.   I'm amazed at the kindness of our Moroccan hosts and their families.