An Anthony Bourdain Moment in Casablanca

To the more seasoned traveler, the late Anthony Bourdain is a hero. He inspired a whole generation of us to pack our bags, get on a plane, and not eat at the hotel. When we are researching our trips to far off and exotic locations, we imagine we will be eating street food with the locals...reality tends to be a bit different.

Most of us don't have a camera crew, bodyguards, and medical professionals to look after us when things go tits-up abroad.  I for one spent literally, not figuratively, 24 hours in the lavatory of my hotel room in Ho Chi Minh City after I ate some dodgy fish.

Stories of overseas dining gone wrong are far from uncommon; but as Anthony himself said, "Good food and good eating are about risk. Every once in a while an oyster, for instance, will make you sick to your stomach. Does this mean you should stop eating oysters? No way".  Fortunately for Doina, Svetlana, and I; the risk didn't bite us in Morocco.

For our first night in Casablanca, Doina had (very intelligently) organized a walking tour for us.  I was skeptical. However, she made the absolutely correct observation that if you are going to do a walking tour, you have to do it the first night so you aren't going to places you’ve already been over the following days.  After a quick bite to eat we proceeded to the rather unfortunately named “ISIS Cafe” to meet our tour group.

Yassen, our guide, was a very charming and knowledgeable young man.  Extremely outgoing, his English was so good I assumed he’d grown up in America. He revealed he had no formal training in speaking English and learned it purely from chatting with tourists. 

His tour focused on the walled Medina and the seafront of Casablanca.  I must say, he did a bloody good job!  We even stopped by a recreation of "Rick's Cafe", the famous bar from the film "Casablanca". Yassen was so skilled, he even timed our tour to end at the Hassan II Mosque right as the dusk call to prayer rang from the minaret.  I am not a very spiritual person, but that moment in front of the mosque is one I shall never forget.

The tour was now over and Yassen was kind enough, as he was going the same direction, to offer to walk us back to our hotel.  As we had built up a bit of banter with him, he suggested we should take a stroll through the 'local' section of the Medina.  Of course we said yes.

It was pitch dark as we entered the non-tourist area of Casablanca.  The only light came from stall-front flood lamps and the open fires people were cooking on.  As well as food, everything from clothes, food, to washing machines were being sold. The atmosphere was electric.

Yassen casually asked if we would like to eat as the locals do. He then took us to a small side stall that had a tiny interior with a few benches to sit on.  Everything was being cooked out front by a lovely older woman who didn't speak a word of English.  Frankly, other than Yassen and us three Westerners, nobody there did.  

I cannot begin to tell you what we ate, as they just kept on bringing us dishes to try.  What I did know is that it was all delicious and unpretentious.  Anthony Bourdain was right: the 'peasant food' is often the best.  

I know I am sounding like an elitist, but nothing infuriates me more than when Americans go on holiday and dine in American chain restaurants. If you do that, you truly are a ‘tourist’, and I for one can think of nothing worse.  

The alternative to being a tourist is to be an 'adventurer', which is someone who goes outside of their comfort zone. To put it in a better, less cliche way: an adventurer is person who travels to experience something new, not necessarily something comfortable.  I think Anthony Bourdain was trying to tell us to be adventurers.