Marrakech: Le Salama

Amongst the flutes of the snake charmers and the drums of the dancing monkeys lies the famous souks of Marrackech. The Medina has restaurants on every corner offering you touristic menus which for foodies like us is the biggest no no especially when you are visiting a country like Morocco. Hidden on the side streets just outside the souks we found the perfect place to dine, with a juxtaposition of styles from modern, Casablanca colonial and historic Morocco and a plethora of good looking Moroccan hosts and hostesses it was a complete contrast to what was happening in the chaos of the souks. Le Salama.

Le Salama was our first eye opening experience of how wrong we were about the country. It was both modern and cool and most importantly hygienic. Such a sexy place to dine with every corner being lit by huge Moroccan lanterns and the novel table settings with Moroccan hats for guest to play with. How fun it was.

The menu was a classic menu full of tagines as you would have expected and assortments of pastries as starters. We visited twice and on both occasions I had the same dish as I had fallen in love with it. Honey and Almond Chicken Tagine. I’m salivating at the thought of it. The chicken was crispy on the outside with a sweet stick layer of honey, not too sweet, the meat flaky off the bone as you touched it. The couscous was the most fluffiest and tastiest couscous I have ever had, nothing like the bland stuff you get at home. Elena clearly experimented with each with visit through the selection of meats that were offered from keftas tagines to lamb shanks. You can really taste the time that goes into these slow cooked dishes, fast food this is clearly not, yet you don’t mind because each spice is so well balanced and cooked through. Hug food as I like to call it.

After dinner we decided to the roof top bar which had a stunning 360 view of Morocco. We were in ore of how much Le Salama had made the start of our holiday magical and it just kept getting better. We appreciated the cool breeze coming in through the windows as we pondered over which cocktails to choose, the 2 for 1 offer put us in a sticky situation. One thing we came to realise through our visit was that the alcohol content in drinks throughout Morocco is very weak so be prepared to shell out quite a lot if you are hoping to feel anything close to a buzz.