M & M

Mallorca & Morocco, March 2013

 Captivated by food, smells, colors, tradition, culture and it's people, Morocco has always allured me. I arrived 3 years ago for the first time. I have returned twice a year ever since. A new avenue, flavor, artisan and spice blend are introduced to me each time I revisit. Last time it was red tassels and Aragan-rose oil, this time it's saffron yellow shoes and handcrafted belt buckles from Essouirra. Enchanted by it's mystic and unknown I simply can't get enough of what lays beneath the surface of this country. 

While walking through the Medina, we were welcomed into a rug shop, and not for rugs, but for lunch. Seated upon thick layers of woven rugs, we were served warm kefta, and bread from a beautiful woman in red. Ripping off chunks of bread, we use it as a natural set of tongs to grad a steaming and perfectly seasoned kefta from the center of a blue platter. We listen to stories of the old medina as silver trays of cucumber and mint salad are passed around. A picnic within a rug shop. 

We sit back, sipping mint tea and dusting the breadcrumbs off our laps. Breathing in Morocco.

*Adventures in Morocco click here* 

Ras al Hanout. Moroccan spice mixture

Cilantro and Mint

Orange blossoms sold of pages of pop magazines

Mallorca Spain.

Introduced purely by chance 6 years ago. I was set up to intern at a restaurant with an American-French chef and his Spanish wife. The internship was a disaster as the chef had slipped into a darkened existence as he watched his restaurant dream slip away. His only sense of entertainment was to torture his new intern and make it impossible for her to love this industry of food and the foreign home to her now. But he was too late, not only did I fall deeply for the magnificent island in the Balearic seas, but somehow it began to take care of me as well.

It seems like forever ago that I learned the ways of the Spanish and walked the streets of Mallorca as a newcomer. Friendships on the island have sustained years of barely frequenting the Spanish soil, but my mind and heart remained connected from afar. 

I am currently researching an opportunity to bring me back to the island yearly in the culinary world. My former "boss" from the failing French restaurant however, had to close his doors many years ago and move from the island.
While my lessons from Mallorca have been bitter and sweet, the karma has been even sweeter.

Sopresada- A spiced and cured Mallorcan delicacy 

Lechona