Nawarma

Despite staying in the medina the whole day, we saw different worlds. Went out in the afternoon to wander the souk and ended up in an expensive bar -- Cafe Arabe -- drinking mojitos on a roof terrace and feeling a bit too much like Mick Jagger in the 1970s. Then back into the souk where we went in search of the perfect Moroccan pouf. Wil had memories of a 2-toned one his granddad had, while I had a more modern one in mind. But we did agree on two things: 1) green should be the main color and 2) no camels. So we wandered around until we saw shops with many choices, but no one had our color. After a lot of looking (and a few disappointed salesmen), we found a good compromise -- a 2-tone, dark green with tooled tan leather one, good sized, and with a nice seller. He wanted 650, I wanted to pay 400. I'm sure we still paid over the odds, but I'm happy with 400 for our pouf -- especially since that's what we had just paid for 4 mojitos with tip at Cafe Arabe...

So eventually we wandered back to the riad, attracting extra attention because we now had a shopping bag. Dropped off the pouf, checked the maps, and headed out to dinner at Nawarma. We didn't quite know what to expect, and I wasn't even sure we were headed in the right direction. But then Wil spotted the sign and an "official greeter" led us in.

What a place! Beautiful and dark, and very stylish. Black-clad servers seated us at a table near a burbling fountain, while a DJ spun a very strange set of 70's-style samba covers of hits including "Ladies Night", "We Will Rock You", "Roxanne", and yes, "Y.M.C.A." -- which was amazingly (and coincidentally, I assume...) mashed up with the 10:00 call to prayer. Then a cover of Billy Joel's "I Love You Just The Way You Are",l which reminded both of us of a bit we'd heard where a woman deconstructed some of the lyrics, saving her special scorn for the line "I don't want clever conversation; I don't wanna work that hard." Oh, okay Billy.

But back to Nawarma -- it was a Moroccan/Thai fusion place, so Wil had another go at veggie couscous, while I tried the green curry. And another round of mojitos.

The food came quickly and was beautifully presented. The couscous came with 2 sauces, which made it exponentially better than the version we had yesterday. My green curry was flavorful, spicy, and filling.

The bill? More than our poufr, more than our night's lodging. 605. But still worth it for the ambiance and delicious food. Besides, we decided we deserved a splurge...