traveling and eating with friends from around the world. from UAE Maldives India South Africa Malaysia and Morocco of course. Excellent experience.
The tagine dates back to Harun al-Rashid who was a ruler of the Early Muslim conquests. The earliest writings about the concept of cooking in a tajine appear in the famous One Thousand and One Nights, an Arabic-language story collection from the ninth century. It is also mentioned during the Abbasid Caliphate (which stretched from the Middle East to North Africa and al-Andalus during the ninth century. The dish would have been already famous amongst the nomadic Bedouin people of the Arabian Peninsula, who added dried fruits like dates, apricots and plums to give it its unique taste. Tagine is now often eaten with french fries, either on the top or on the side.
Today, the cooking-pot and its traditional broth is primarily prepared in the Middle East and North Africa. In North Africa it is called a Tajine, while in the Middle East it is called a maraq (broth) or a qidra (cooking pot). There are different ways to prepare the tajine. In the original qidra style saman (clarified butter) is used to lubricate the surface and a puree of chopped onion is added for flavour and aroma. For muqawlli-style cooking, the ingredients are placed in olive oil to enrich the flavours.
Maghrebi mint tea, also known as Moroccan mint tea, is a green tea prepared with spearmint leaves and sugar, traditional to the Greater Maghreb region (the northwest African countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania). It has since spread throughout North Africa, parts of the Sahel, France and the Arab world. It is most closely associated with Morocco and in Spanish is known simply as "Moorish tea", té moruno. A similar drink is prepared in Spain but is typically served chilled as iced tea in the summer, instead of hot year-round. As a combination of imported ingredients (tea from China and originally imported sugar) and a local ingredient (fresh mint), it is an early example of globalization in cuisine.
