Around the World in 12 Dishes: Morocco

When Around the World in 12 Dishes whisked us away to Morocco this month, the girls and I decided to spend out time in the markets of Marrakech.

We watched a short video on National Geographic Kids and looked at their slideshow. We talked about all the different things you could find at the markets, such as clothing, leather, olives, tea, dried fruits & nuts, and carpets.

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I was very fortunate to have found a book at our local public library that was set in the markets of Marrakech, My Father’s Shop by Satomi Ichikawa.

In this book, Mustafa, who always admired the beautiful carpets in his father’s shop, asked his father if he could have the rug with the hole in it. His father agrees to give Mustafa the carpet only if he agrees to learn some of the foreign languages that were important to their trade. We learned, along with Mustafa, of the importance of being able to communicate with people from all over the world.

To go along with the book, we created out own rugs similar to the ones we imagined Mustafa’s father sold in his shop.

We used construction paper and our markers to create the designs on the rug. I joined along this time instead of just observing the process.

After we had our designs, we used our scissors to cut a fringe along the two short sides of our “rugs.”

By now, I’m sure you’re wondering about the food. Well, this month, we skipped the food and went for the craft instead.

While browsing recipes, I couldn’t find anything that I thought the family would like, let alone try. We love some of the individual ingredients, but when combined together, I knew I would be hard pressed to get anyone to try a bite.

Since this is supposed to be a fun project, I didn’t want to add that kind of stress to it. If you have any suggestions for a kid-friendly Moroccan meal, let me know. I’m still willing to give it a try!

Even minus the food, we still had a great experience imagining ourselves as rug sellers deep in the markets of Marrakech.

Around the World in 12 Dishes

We had started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and now are arriving in Rabat, capital of Morocco!

• March 4 – First country was the UK
• April 1 – The second country was Sweden
• May 6 – The third country was Russia
• June 3 – The fourth country was India
• July 7 – The fifth country was Japan
• August 5 – The sixth country was Australia
• September 2 – The seventh country was French Polynesia
• October 7 – The eighth country was Mexico
• November 4 – The ninth country was Brazil
• December 2 – The tenth country is Morocco!

How to join the fun!

• The only mandatory part is the dish, the rest is all up to you, we just thought it would be fun and more concrete to the kids as to why we are making a unusual dish.
• Cook a dish from Morocco: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
• Typical dishes: Tajine, Briouat, Kefta, Merguez or Ma’amoul.
• Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish 🙂
• Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
• Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]

• • Fun fact: Even though the official language is Arabic, Moroccan Arabic is so different that someone from, for example, Saudi-Arabia will hardly be able to understand.