One of the things I’m just a tad bit wary of is eating in a location in which the tap water is not safe to drink. We once had an unbelievably bad experience the restaurant at a well-known, highly respected American chain hotel back in 1984 in Cairo. The culprit? The salad bar. Why? Because the produce was rinsed in local tap water. Three of the four of us had severe intestinal distress shortly thereafter. As we’d received the same tap water warning for Marrakech, I was a bit reluctant to eat out on the economy. Fortunately, we didn’t have to. Riad Viva supplied us nightly with an ever-changing daily set menu of traditional Moroccan food. We kept going back each and every night. But be forewarned. You must pay in advance, with cash, at least several hours beforehand, and you won’t really know what the courses are until after you are seated.
Upon entering the dining room our table awaited. The place settings rested upon an elegant tablecloth strewn with fresh rose petals. Here’s Ursula waiting to find out what Moroccan delights would soon arrive:
In Morocco… or at least here… the first course consists mostly of vegetables. These dishes contained zucchini of the left, carrots on the right, and, I believe, a vegetable “meatball” concoction in the middle:
The “stew for two” side dish was delicious. It included prunes, which I don’t usually like, but not so in this case. Unfortunately, I cannot recall the meat:
Also included in the second course was the main dish. Today’s selection was lamb:
Desert was a nice, healthy choice, as you can see here:
Unfortunately, I neglected to take my camera on the other dinners we enjoyed here, because each night offered up an entirely different selection. Probably my least favorite main was their tangine chicken dish, but even that I would gladly eat again.
Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)
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R. Doug Wicker — Author 