A short one for the weekend...

TEACHER:
Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?

SIMON:
No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.

This made me smile! My mam too was a great cook. I really believe that's what made become a chef. She used to cook my favourite dish, Lamb Tagine, when I went back home from boarding school or Uni.

Was your mother a good cook?

What was the best dish she cooked for you?

Tagines...

...are getting very popular!



The name, Tagine comes from the terracotta slow cooking vessel used in most of North Africa, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
Before we got a gas hob, my mother did all her cooking on a charcoal burner, which meant that she had to start preparing food very early in the morning.

When I was about 12 or 13, she began sending me to do the daily shopping before going to school. The freshest of meats, fish or vegetables!
By the time we all came back from school at midday, our delicious lunch was ready and waiting.

Nowadays, at Krimo's we prepare our Lamb Tagine in a large stew pan but serve it in the traditional Terracotta dish.




Most of our Terracotta tagines came not all the way from North Africa but from Sedgefield of all places.
I gave Bill Todd of Sedgefield Pottery, a drawing and he happily reproduced dozens of them for us over the years.

Though he really enjoyed making the tagines, due to new commitments, Bill is no longer able to create those beautiful dishes. We have since sourced other firms supplying genuine Moroccan tagines, but being the eternal romantic, I will honestly miss the marriage of Northern artistic ingenuity and North African culinary theatre.

Portofinos of the World...

Last year a couple of our customers went to Marrakesh and found a Portofino Restaurant. They brought me back a photo.

Karen and I went there for a few days in November and guess what? We found it!
I took this photo to prove it.
I nearly went in and boasted about our own Portofino but my shyness (!) held me back.






You may have heard of or even experienced Jemaa El Fna, a massive square in Marrakesh, which at dusk, is transformed into a giant outdoor restaurant with stalls selling all sorts of foods.














People from all over the world sit next to one another on rickety wooden benches or wobbly plastic chairs to sample Moroccan delicacies such as Tagines, Pastilla, skewered meats, fresh fruit juices, etc...
It is an experience not to be missed!















As reported in a previous post, bringing back a photo of another Portofino is worth a bottle of wine to the bearer.