One Week Before Morocco

Despite hopping to or from three different apartments, four different employers, and countless grocery stores and markets, my last three years have seen such an unhealthy dearth of completely pointless, privileged third-world globe-trotting. You know the kind I’m talking about. The before-you-hit-thirty-or-oh-my-god-enter-your-late-twenties global spin. Or in my case, just a diminutive version of it. I won’t be gone for very long (10 days), but in a week I’ll be headed for Marrakesh with my well-traveled pal Jordan. For no reason.

My last serious escape nearly three years ago took me to the Full moon Festival on Thailand’s Ko Phangan, where I limboed underneath a blazing log. You can’t get foolish nonsense like that by sticking around these parts. Okay, maybe you can… but you’ll have a much better excuse to partake if you’ve traveled halfway across the globe. Not that I’m planning on going berserk or anything this time. The tourist culture — mind you, not the “real” culture — is likely unparalleled in un-sobriety in Thailand. Plus, this the winter is the low season for tourism in Morocco. I’ve already signed up for a day-long cooking class! We’re going to spend two or three days in sleepy coastal Essaouria! High Atlas Mountains hike, here we come! I will not swallow fire. Repeat: I will not swallow fire. (Unless it’s just a spicy tagine dish or something like that.)

Not sure yet how — or if — blogging will work out while traveling. But you can be sure there will be a thorough report of everything I ate — out of course, this is vacation — in Morocco. Before I go, I wanted to seek out what questions you’d like to see me answer about authentic Moroccan food. What’s homestyle cooking like? What spices do I need on hand to be best prepared to make any dish? Why did they invent a tagine? What do they serve in the airplane to and from? I have my own set of puzzles; I just thought I’d buffer them with yours. And how about suggestions on what and where to eat?

I’m on a mission now, a mission to find more missions for this trip. Bring it on, please.