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Dining (mis)adventures in Casablanca and Essaouira, Morocco

Dispatches

By Todd Berman

Tue, August 12, 2008

Escargot aux espice in the medina of Casablanca

Escargot aux espice in Casablanca | Photo by Lauren Girardin

I like snails. I like them steaming hot on a cart in Casablanca. Stick a toothpick in their cute little head and yank them out of their shell. The meat is tender, like shellfish. Yum. Wash it down with a swig of the spiced broth in which they were cooked.

More than an afternoon snack, these escargots aux epices were a first taste of the exotic following weeks of frantic travel preparations in suburbia and several hours of chaotic urbanity in Casablanca.

A few days later, I was laid up sick in a hotel with my stomach tied in a knot. First I, then Lauren, succumbed to some local parasite. Instead of exploring the cool coastal town of Essaouira, Lauren and I took some downtime to heal in a riad. Rustic cannons pointed out at a raging sea would have to sit lonely while we recovered. Instead of strolling down the beach watching French kite surfers, we were inside wondering what had caused our illness.

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Ladders in Casablanca | Photo by Lauren Girardin

Perhaps it was the salade morocaine I ordered from a sidewalk cafe at 5 p.m. when all other restaurants were closed. Maybe it was the cous-cous from the lonely restaurant Le Dauphin down a dark stone street, or maybe it was the water that our disappointing Rough Guide assured us was safe to drink. It could have been any one of these or none of them. Who knows?

I bought bottled water from a man who gave me my change with a hand covered in raw meat. I carried that cash straight to our hotel and washed it thoroughly. My point is – there are many sources for germs in this place.

My escargot, served fresh and hot from the cooking vat, would not hurt me.

Don't blame it on the snails.

Photos from Casablanca

If you can't see the photo slide show above, view the photo set on Flickr.

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Bethany

Aug 12, 2008 |

Bummer! Nothing is worse than the stomach bug. Do you have any cipro? My vote of illness goes to the water, or perhaps the salad.

The slideshow is cool!

Eve	Aug 12, 2008 \|

Great pictures! Sorry you've been sick :(
Keep the pictures and posts coming!

How do you pull in your flickr slideshow to the blog, just out of curiosity? Is it a widget?

DAD	Aug 13, 2008 \|

Glad to hear you're up and around -- sorry to hear you weren't for a while -- The slide show is terrific -- Keep on enjoying !

Anonymous

Aug 14, 2008 |

Glad you won the bug battle!

My vote is with the water -- the water is Bogota is "safe" but my dad still got sick.

I don't even trust Hetch Hetchy water unless it's filtered, heh heh...

bermom

Aug 19, 2008 |

didn't your mom tell you not to eat salad in foreign countries?!
2 words to remember --cooked veggies

stay healthy

Lauren G - ephemerratic.com

Aug 27, 2008 |

Hey Eve,

The flickr slide show is some basic iframe control I found somewhere online a couple of years back.

Here's the code, where it says something in all caps simply paste your set id number or Flickr user name as appropriate. You can even change the height and width so it's as small or as big as you like, just remember to keep the aspect ratio the same.

And also, replace my {} symbols with <> so your code works!

CODE:

{iframe src=\"http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/inde x.gne?set_id=SETID\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"400\"}{/iframe}

{p}If you cannot see the photo slide show above, {a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/YOURFL ICKRNAME/sets/SETID/\" target=\"_blank\"}view the photo set{/a} on Flickr.{/p}