Pastille de Pigeon

Last night Lily and I booked a table at a fancy restaurant named La Foundouk. It was a very hip place with Asian lounge music and cool decor. The food was really nice and so I decided to try my first Pastille de Pigeon (pigeon pie). This is a very typical dish in Morocco and a favorite among locals. Originally I thought it was a different kind of bird from the ones that overrun the squares in Europe, but it is in fact the same pigeon. As you can see in the picture it was about 6 inches diameter and is more of a flaky pastry than a pot pie. The crust was so thin and wonderful, and was topped with sweet crushed almonds. Inside was a mix of shredded pigeon meat, crushed almonds, sugar/honey and some egg. It was very delicious and sweet, almost like a dessert. The pigeon meat very dark and a little tough (which is probably why they shred it up), but the taste was typical of poultry.


In addition to the pie, we were served a nice mix of small snacks including olives, cheese crisps, almonds and peanuts. Not sure how they roasted the peanuts, but they were some of the best I've tasted. Lily ordered a vegetable tagine (also known as Berber tagine since Berbers historically could not afford meat often) which had a strong olive taste. We also sampled the harira Moroccan soup. This was more than enough food, so we skipped dessert and wandered home through the mostly empty streets.


I'll end this post now as the third Adhan (call to prayer) begins to fill the air over loudspeakers on top of the mosques. This happens 5 times per day and is a summon to the Muslims to pray. It is quite a strange thing to hear the first time but you get used to it. The prayer is not recorded (live each time) and there is a different person praying at each mosque so the prayers seem to overlap in the air.