Fridays are for Couscous

Image courtesy of Wikipedia. I forgot to take a photo of mine, but
it looked like this without the chickpeas.

So, if there is anything that has been drilled into my head since getting to Rabat it is that food is a way of life. You get tea at cafes with friends. Food vendors line the souks. And “cooli” is one of the few words very well understood at home.

Since moving into my host family’s house I have yet to feel hungry. I was greeted with delicious pastries. When my host mother took me into the market she stopped at a guy selling something like a doughnut and gave it to me, she even got me a date to try when she stopped at a stand to buy spices. Delicious fruits are available anytime. Whenever my little 3-year old brother goes to eat something one of my host parents brings me out something too. And today was couscous Friday.

When I got home from school my mother was in the kitchen cooking. She invited me in to show me how to do the final touches. Got to make sure you have the right amount of couscous with vegetables, meat and sauce.

I brought out the large clay pan of couscous to the table and we sat around the table to eat it. I still am not 100% sure what vegetables were in it, but whatever they were, were delicious.

When I was done stuffing my face with the delicious couscous my brother continued to say “cooli, cooli” which means eat in Darija (Moroccan Arabic). We were warned during orientation that this would be the norm when eating with our families. There is always too much food at every meal.

After a little while I decided to meet my friends for ice cream. Our teacher has basically told us we need to go to the best ice cream shop 1,000 times this week, so we decided to try it, I concur, the peanut M&M ice cream was totally worth the 10 Dhs, which is only actually about $1 USD.

When I got home around 7 there was bread, coffee and tea waiting for me. We then had a small dinner around 10:15.

And I thought my mom overcooked at home. Got to say I’m glad its restricted to holidays. However, couscous is the best thing ever. Fridays might just be my favorite day this semester.