In today's episode, we continue our wandering through the medina of Marrakech, as Azdean visits artisanal workshops, souks and a particularly delectable seafood restaurant.
Picture yourself in a bustling wool and cotton workshop, the air thick with stories of craftsmanship as we learn how natural colors like indigo, orange, and even black breathe life into the fabric. You'll almost feel the soft touch of cactus silk while we dig into the secrets of these age-old crafts, by chatting with passionate shop owners.
Spinning wheels and looms give way to chisels and saws as we pop into a wood shop, where they make intricate wood carvings for all kinds of useful and decorative items. You'll hear the craftsman talk about his preparation methods and the different types of wood he uses, and we get our microphones right in there as he's chipping, sawing and sanding his next creation.
At this point, we're ready for a meal, and fortunately one of Destination Morocco's valued partners is just a few minutes' walk from the medina. Azdean and Sam visit the remarkable seafood restaurant, le Patron de la Mer, where fresh seafood arrives daily by truck from the Atlantic coast, hundreds of kilometres away. The focus is on Mediterranean cuisine, and the decor and entertainment are a blend of European and Moroccan influences.
Azdean chats with the delightful manager, Kenza, who generously shares her experiences and takes us on an audio tour of the restaurant. You'll practically taste the seafood, feel the warmth of the hospitality, and be swept up in the rhythm of life in Marrakech.
From wool shawls to wood carvings to seafood tastings, imagine yourself on location with us at Destination Morocco podcast, exploring the fabulous medina of Marrakech.
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Welcome to the Destination Morocco podcast, the show that takes you away to the beautiful country of Morocco. I am your host, Azdean Elmoustaquim. In each episode, we explore Moroccan culture, history, attractions and activities real and practical information coming from experienced travelers and native Moroccans like myself. And now let's go exploring. Welcome back to Destination Morocco podcast. It is a pleasure to have you here. In our last couple of episodes we have toured the highlights of Marrakech, from the palaces south of the Medina to the madrasa and majeure gardens on the north side. Today, we give you a sample of the types of artisans, crafts people and even restaurants that you can find within the Medina and close to it. During my visit to Marrakech in those first few days upon arrival in Morocco back in June, I was really busy exploring some of the sites and shops that our clients can visit once they get to Marrakech themselves. We want to find for you reliable, quality merchants that produce genuine, authentic, local goods guaranteed to be of good quality. A couple of shop owners were willing to be interviewed on the podcast, speaking in English, and we captured them explaining the background and the process of what they do. Our first stop was at a wool and cotton workshop, where the fabric is dyed with the fabulous colors blue, indigo, orange, yellow and even black all natural, of course, to then be sent on for making blankets, carpets, drapes, desert turbines and more. In fact, they even use silk from cactus for an extra soft touch. Our host, Simu Ahmed, goes over the process of where the color comes from and how they heat the wool and other fabrics with dye in very hot water. To allow the dye to permeate throughout, it then needs to be spun, dried, bagged and shipped, as typically the final product themselves are created elsewhere Items. Black soap is used to exfoliate the fabric, similar to a Moroccan Hammam treatment. It is a fascinating process. As you listen, you will picture everything from the colors right down to the finished product. We then move to a wood craft shop where they make intricate wood carvings for all kinds of useful and decorative items. You will hear the craftsman talk about the type of wood he uses and we get our microphones right there as he is chipping, sewing and sanding his new creation. Have you ever seen those magic trick boxes, maybe inlaid with gems or mother of pearl, covered in detailed carvings and impossible to open? There might even be a rattle coming from inside some sort of toy or puzzle. There's always a trick of some kind squeezing the corners, sliding a hidden compartment and when you figure it out it's really satisfying. Here they make a lot of those magic boxes, as well as coasters, picture frames, dominoes, chess pieces and the gammon boards. There's something that looks like a holder for business cards. You'll be surprised to discover what it's actually intended for. By this point we're actually getting hungry and looking for a meal. One of our outstanding partners in Marrakech is Patron de la Mer restaurant. It is part of Deux Ciels Luxury Hotel and Spa. Or it's called Two Skies Complex. Ideally located in the heart of the city, surrounded by exclusive Hivernage and the legendary Gueliz. An urban oasis with a chic and refined interior, art deco style with a master touch of local craft work designed exclusively for the hotel Deux Ciels, will surprise you with its own originality, embedded in the smallest details, while providing you with a comfortable and luxurious experience. The hotel is strategically located, a short walk away from the mythical Jamalfna Square and the cultural tourist attractions, near the famous Mohammed V Boulevard and in front of the Royal Tennis Club. We went over for dinner at Le Patron de la Mer and chatted with Miss Kinza, one of the managers. The restaurant is recognized as one of the best seafood restaurants in Marrakech. The unique way to find the sea. In Marrakech. Guests can choose their fish from a market type display inside the restaurant a wide, fresh daily from a nearby fish port and decide how they like it to be prepared either raw, baked in salt or grilled, when, I have to tell you, when we scheduled to have a podcast with Miss Kinza. I mean, the hospitality was just incredible. The staff was amazing, the management was very gracious and extremely helpful. They went above and beyond to accommodate us and we were there, I would say, for probably a minimum of four hours and the atmosphere was just incredible. The food, my goodness, I mean the paella was just incredible. It was very delicious and also we had a chance to celebrate Abdul's birthday at Le Patron. So they really really took excellent care of us and we're very grateful. We worked with them for a while and we absolutely recommend them If you're going to be staying in Marrakech, or at least dining in Marrakech. They have so many options. They'll go above and beyond to cater to your needs. So I highly recommend them. Are you ready? Let's go discover the souks of Marrakech.
WOOL SHOP:Because here we die in the woods and the silk in the cotton. All color is by order because all artisans in Marrakech when you buy the wood and the silk from my boss, you bring it here. Then we order some day three colors, some day four colors, some day one color and this is the color. I will give you an explanation. For example, the yellow color is corkoma. Like orange, is orange henna. The black one is from the town of Mascara. The green one is the plant of the mint. We dry, then after we put it like a powder. This is nila, this is for blue and this is indigo, and also we have a red. One is from the flower of coclico. Wait me, I will show you something, just a minute, okay.
AZDEAN:We are here at the Dyers Market, sorry, and we're getting this is the blue and the good marjorie color.
WOOL SHOP:This is the expensive pigment. All these pigments are little cheaper, but the expensive pigment is this one. Okay, I see, I will show you. Come here, we'll give you an explanation inside Okay. This is sheep wool. This is the sheep wool. This is the sheep wool Natural color Natural color. And this is the cotton. This is the cotton and this is the silk Silk. This is the silk from Cactus, from Agave.
WOOD SHOP:Agave cactus Agave cactus.
WOOL SHOP:The difficulty. This material is too. Material is the same temperate, but the wool, the wool when you want to make the wool we come morning time, you open the gas because you have the fire from down. I see Then you put the water, then we wait until the temperate comes in and then the temperature is 120 degrees and then we start to put the pigment after you put the wool. Then the wool stays 40 minutes inside 40 minutes. And then we wait for the water to dry. But between 5 minutes, 5 minutes, we need to mix it. I see To fix it the color when you fix it the color, we add the wool and put it in the machine.
AZDEAN:Okay To get dry, so this one has okay.
WOOL SHOP:This one is finished now.
AZDEAN:You see, it's a little warm. Yeah, yeah.
KENZA, le PATRON:Oh it is, it is, but the color never out. Yes, yes it stays.
WOOL SHOP:Okay, After the machine when you spin it you take it out of the roof one day to day, okay, some day to day half, when you dry, we pack it and we send it to factory. Or blanket, everything by wall is deep. It's not your head, but the silk the silk in the bottom is difficult to temperate Okay.
AZDEAN:Give me just one second. So basically I'm going to retract.
WOOL SHOP:Yeah.
AZDEAN:So we do the wool, we warm the water 120 degrees and we put it for 15 minutes. Then we spin it and stir it a little bit, and after that we put it in the spinning wheel in the machine and then it gets dry and it stays really, really hot afterwards and then after that we just hang it on the outside and dry it for how many, two days Some day to day, some day, one day half. One day and a half, because you know, in Marrakesh it's really sunny most of the time and it's hot, so it helps. And then what happens is all this wool that is hanging now goes to the factory.
KENZA, le PATRON:Yeah, we pack it and we send it to the factory.
AZDEAN:And then women in the factory they can make whatever they want to make out of it, like you showed me Like carpet. This is the final product.
WOOL SHOP:Carpet, also the blanket. Yeah, this is all wool. Oh, wow, this is really nice. This is all wool, oh, no features. You see One pages. So no stitches. Yeah, no, no, no stitches, no stitches. This one, we put it, we work it by black salt. I see you have black salt.
AZDEAN:Yeah, black salt. This is really interesting. Also, we have a traditional shower.
WOOL SHOP:We use it in the beach.
KENZA, le PATRON:Oh, this is so soft, we use it in the hamam. Yes, yes, yes, this is mix. This is wool in the cotton. This is wool in the cotton. Okay, that's it.
WOOL SHOP:We have also other styles like this this is olive cotton. Oh, I see, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a difference. Yes, yes, yes.
AZDEAN:You're right, you're right.
WOOL SHOP:And we have this turban. This is the blue in Diego, oh yeah.
AZDEAN:This is the blue.
WOOL SHOP:We use it in the Sahara, in the Sahara.
AZDEAN:So this is what the this is expensive pigment.
WOOL SHOP:I show you in the old style, yeah, earlier. You see it, bro. Yeah, this is. We make it like turban. Yes, yes, you take the sift of the sand and of the air, yes, and then you go to the local tourist. You wake up early for o'clock morning to go to see the sun.
AZDEAN:When you're up, yes, yeah, the sunrise. The sun rise Is the obligation to take the turban. Yeah, of course, like tuarik. Yes, yes, and this is really nice. Yeah, it's very beautiful.
WOOL SHOP:We have past minas. This is past minas car.
AZDEAN:Okay, so these are all scars. Yeah, this is amazing, because everything that I see is pretty much kind of handmade.
WOOL SHOP:Yeah, because you know, here is the cooperative.
AZDEAN:Cooperative. Okay, it's not seen the shop. Yes, yes, I understand, I got it.
WOOL SHOP:But here is natural. Maybe in the square we find something like that, but not the reward.
AZDEAN:But here we make original things, but the question that I have is how can people tell the difference between something that it's natural and it's real versus something that it's not and it's fake?
WOOL SHOP:Yeah, but you know the people when you're coming. When you touch something, we feel it.
AZDEAN:Oh, you do, but the tourists have no idea of the difference.
WOOL SHOP:No, some tourists have no idea. But me in this place, always I give good explanation to tourists.
KENZA, le PATRON:Because, the people. Yeah, how can you find?
WOOL SHOP:something good, how? If you want to buy something original, how we know, yeah, no, but the shop is not the same.
KENZA, le PATRON:And the people is not the same. The people is not the same.
WOOL SHOP:And you're welcome here in Marrakesh, my brother.
AZDEAN:Thank you, thank you so much. This concludes our visit today. Thank you so much, really, really appreciate it.
WOOL SHOP:You're welcome, brother. Nice to meet you, marrakesh.
AZDEAN:From learning about the dyes and the colors we shift to explore wood carvings. Lemon wood, cedar wood, mahogany and more All feature at wood artisan shops such as this. You will find out how long it takes to craft even just a small box, something that makes a useful and memorable gift for your journey that you could also tuck into your backpack for a trip back home. I loved the vibrant sounds and energy of this visit. It was oozing with activities and creativity. Welcome back. We just made another stop in a beautiful, beautiful wooden shop in the heart of the Medina, marrakech, and we have a guy with us. So he's going to explain to us everything that we need to know about the road, which is good, the making of the craftsmanship and everything. Thank you, thank you. Can you share a little bit of information about you, about your shop, what you do, what you sell?
WOOD SHOP:It looks beautiful. I just want to make pieces for chests. I see Just pieces. I make this one for kabab. Stick kabab, that's nice. Look. I make this one piece of wood. I make it ring in size. This one. I make this for honey.
KENZA, le PATRON:Honey stick, that's lemon, lemon wood.
WOOD SHOP:I'll show you the wood.
AZDEAN:The noise that you hear is actually making something out of lemon wood. It looks more ring. This small ring just got separated from the rest of the wood. This one piece of wood.
WOOD SHOP:That looks pretty interesting. This one piece of wood, this one for necklace.
AZDEAN:It's done in less than five minutes. Necklace Wow.
WOOD SHOP:Thank you.
AZDEAN:So what are the products?
WOOD SHOP:that you do when you sell. I make it this one, the magic box. Oh, the magic box, that's a tricky one.
KENZA, le PATRON:This one open like this One piece one, two, three, four in the middle Secret box.
AZDEAN:Oh wow, that's very tricky, it's wood sappers, so you have to push the two opposite corners, then you push it out. I have a small one.
WOOD SHOP:I have big one. Welcome to my shop.
AZDEAN:This is for my house.
WOOD SHOP:This is your personal collection. This one, I make it costos or glass Costos. Oh nice, this one piece of wood. One piece of wood, I make it. This for picture Picture frames. This one for what? For TV control. I make it chess pieces. I make it something like this chess oh, that's a big one. It's all magic. Nice, I make it pieces inside A slimmer cedar wood.
AZDEAN:How much time does it take to make something like this One day?
WOOD SHOP:Two boxes, one dice so this is boxes, not pieces. Oh, boxes.
AZDEAN:Half a day, so it takes you two days to make this box.
WOOD SHOP:And it's two different pieces.
AZDEAN:Yes, oh, I see.
WOOD SHOP:Lemony mahogany.
AZDEAN:Make it big chess.
WOOD SHOP:This one for mother-pup, mother-pup. These are really nice shapes. This one is olive wood.
AZDEAN:This is really, really interesting, thank you. A lot of options for a lot of people who are interested in shopping this one for smell, for my house, yes, it gives you the smell.
KENZA, le PATRON:Cedar wood.
AZDEAN:Cedar wood. If people want to come and shop with you how can they find you? Inshallah, can we have your information, just in case? Yes, ma'a, this has been fun and I really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time. With the rooftop terrace, swimming pools, live music and tapas bar. Le Patron de la Mer has lots of options and varieties. It is a beautiful restaurant and a hotel. The rooftop looks out over the neighboring gardens, the nearby Medina and the Kutubi mosque in the distance. Miss Kinza Wood City is one of many multilingual staff speaking 5 or 6 languages, which is amazing, really, to witness. When you come to Marrakech and looking for a special meal, le Patron de la Mer is your home. Findmeercom itinerary. Good afternoon, good evening. Welcome back to another episode of Destination Morocco podcast. In today's episode we have an amazing guest. She has an amazing story to tell. Her name is Kenza. Kenza, welcome to our podcast. We're very glad to have you here with us today. If you would please introduce yourself to our audience and tell us a little bit about yourself, a little bit about the hotel, the restaurants that you have here. It's beautiful.
KENZA, le PATRON:First of all, thank you for your visit. Welcome in our hotel de ciel to Skye, to Skye yes. And the Patron de la Mer restaurant. So I'm Kenza, I'm the self-executive here. I study hotel management, then professional license of tourism, then my master degree of culture, heritage and sustainable tourism, and during my studies I have worked here as hostess in the beginning. During that time, I worked in events.
WOOD SHOP:Events.
KENZA, le PATRON:I see yes in freelance as a project manager and now I come back here to work as self-executive. As I said, this is our restaurant, specialized in Mediterranean food and especially seafood. The restaurant with the two terraces. This terrace is covered, we can use it for the groups. The other terrace is open with swimming pool.
AZDEAN:And that's in the sixth floor.
KENZA, le PATRON:No, that's another terrace in the sixth floor it's named Lola Skye in which you can have your aperitif tapas, and you can also have your lunch or dinner.
WOOL SHOP:Oh, wow.
KENZA, le PATRON:You can also swim there, because we have another pool. Our restaurant can welcome 300 people at the same time. We have. For animation we have singer and pianist, musicians.
AZDEAN:Yeah, for entertainment. When do you have those cans All day.
KENZA, le PATRON:Every day? Yes, every day. It starts at 8pm.
AZDEAN:So what type of music do they have? Do you have specific music for every day, or is it the same music or week?
KENZA, le PATRON:Same music or week because we have style for our restaurant. It's Mediterranean style.
AZDEAN:Oh, I see.
KENZA, le PATRON:Yeah, we have a singer with musicians.
AZDEAN:I see. Now I want to talk a little bit about the hours, the opening hours. I know you said they had this one here on the first level and then you have another one in the upper level on the sixth floor. Sixth floor, yes. And what are the opening hours? Let's say I'm staying here at the hotel. I want to have breakfast. Do they serve breakfast? Can I have breakfast here or only upstairs, or in both, for this restaurant and also for the one in the rooftop?
KENZA, le PATRON:So for the client that stay in the hotel, they can have breakfast where they want.
AZDEAN:I see.
KENZA, le PATRON:We serve it in the restaurant, like as I was saying. Buffet style you can take it where you want here, or in the other terrace but for the sky is also possible, but it's possible free they can bring you your menu Exactly.
WOOL SHOP:Oh wow. Okay, that's incredible. Yeah, it's possible.
KENZA, le PATRON:It starts from 7am to 10 and a half, we can add 13 minutes.
AZDEAN:Okay, this is a beautiful, beautiful place. The hotel is incredible.
KENZA, le PATRON:Thank you.
AZDEAN:The restaurant the name. Why Patron? I know Patron, what it means in French, but also if you can explain that to the audience.
KENZA, le PATRON:Maybe to prove to the client that we are the best restaurant of seafood here.
AZDEAN:Yes, Patron means the boss, patron means the best, patron means really good, it means many, many things. But also Patron means certain type of tequila, which is one of the best tequilas as well, so it's beautiful. So I know you said seafood, I love seafood, we all do love seafood. And what makes Le Patron very different and unique from the other places?
KENZA, le PATRON:The quality we have like a rival of the day. We have always new places that we drink from different cities, like from Daqla, from Sawera, oh wow, okay, you know, in Marrakech, to find seafood that is really fresh, it is extremely challenging.
AZDEAN:So by you serving it on a daily basis that it's fresh from the market within Daqla for a lot of people who don't know, it's a far, far city in the south and it's really far, but it's beautiful. The seafood in Daqla it's extremely, really good quality, and in Sawera, which is known to a lot of people as the windy city, which has a variety of food and seafood as well. So this is really, really impressive. We have ordered some dishes and I'm looking at them and I'm having a really, really hard time not touching anything. It looks incredible. It looks amazing. So can you tell us what's your favorite dish at Le Patron?
KENZA, le PATRON:My favorite dish is paella.
AZDEAN:Oh, my god, it's my favorite dish. I think it's ours as well. I mean, it's incredible. So give us a little bit of background, if you would please, and also give us a little bit of history when was it built and everything that has gone through up to today.
KENZA, le PATRON:Our hotel. It opened seven years ago oh wow, yes. And, as you see, it's still fresh and everything is new, that's right. And we are always working to keep it in the same level.
AZDEAN:The hotel from the outside looks beautiful. From the inside it's even better. I see diverse clientele coming in and out. We do send our clients to you when we have a chance and I love it. The feedback that we get is amazing. The atmosphere, the hospitality it's second to my man. We appreciate everything you do for our guests and our clients and also we appreciate you sitting with us giving us your valuable time and know you're busy managing the place. So what else you want to share with us, please?
KENZA, le PATRON:I would like to invite our listeners to see our hotel, which is near to everything Like Jalat Naiz of here. We are in the center no-transcript.
AZDEAN:The location is incredible. It's close to everything really. So we definitely are enjoying seeing food tonight. For sure Anybody want to jump in. It's one of the best hotels because, as she said, it's close to everything here in Marrakech. It's located in the heart of the new town, which is called Geliz, which is one of the amazing areas in Marrakech. The other question that I have for you, please? I know you have a master's degree in hospitality and to do that you have to speak many languages. Would you please share with the audience how many languages you speak?
KENZA, le PATRON:Okay, so Arabic of course, of course. French, English, Turkish and a bit of Korean.
AZDEAN:Oh, my goodness. Just a bit, just a bit. So that's about five, six languages, which is really, really impressive. So for a lot of people who don't know you know to be in the hospitality industry, a lot of people, just like Lekhenda, they speak minimum of four pharlane. That's impressive, what you did not count the slang, the derigel language. So that's six or seven languages. More power to you, that's very, very impressive.
KENZA, le PATRON:A place to welcome you in our place.
AZDEAN:It's your place too, thank you, thank you so much.
KENZA, le PATRON:You are welcome and thank you for this interview, and for sharing our restaurant and our hotel with your listeners. Thank you so much.
AZDEAN:Thank you, it's been a pleasure and we'll share as much as we can in terms of pictures, in terms of videos. Thank you so much. This concludes with Lekhenda. Today, with Hotel Dussel, two Skies. Come and stay here. Lunch for dinner. One day, one week.
KENZA, le PATRON:One week.
AZDEAN:They would definitely take care of you, and I personally have seen the hospitality and I'm very happy with it. Thank you so much.
KENZA, le PATRON:You're welcome. You're welcome.
AZDEAN:I'm back home now in Houston, although my trip certainly made me feel like I have two homes and I really do and this time truly was the most difficult for me to say goodbye. It was hard. We were on the road for 40 days, my trip was 50 days, so you can just imagine the amount of content we have created, especially for you, our listeners, and I'm very grateful for everybody who was involved, whether it was the south of Morocco tour, the north of Morocco tour and then Marrakech, because we are based in Marrakech. We gave Marrakech, I would say, about six or seven days and we still could not really cover everything we needed to. It was wonderful to see family and friends again in Morocco and to have the chance to document it for you, our listeners. We're very grateful for you. We are excited to announce our first live Q&A session coming up on Wednesday, September 13th at 9 am Pacific time, 12 noon Eastern time, and we're going to have those meetings on the second Wednesday of every month, so stay tuned for that. Please register. It will be an overview of how to approach planning on itinerary to Morocco, how much time you should allow and what you can fit into the time that you are planning on coming to Morocco, how much time you should allow and what you can fit into the time that you have. It is always a tricky balance between seeing a lot of sites and having enough quality time at each one, but building custom itineraries to Morocco is something we are experts on here at Destination Morocco. I will be going over some of the factors that help us decide where to go and what to include. So if you're curious about how to travel around Morocco or have any other questions at all, please join us for this live event. You can sign up by visiting our website, destinationsmorocco. com, that's destinations with an S, morroco dot com and register. It's going to be on the homepage and add it to your calendar. I can't wait to see you there and chat about Morocco. Our next episode is going to be on September 1st. We'll feature more of the highlights of our trip this summer to Morocco the things I observed about travel in 2023 and what to expect for 2024, how much has changed in the past few years. What is travel like post COVID? What kind of prices and costs are there now? What are the crowds like? What was the pacing like for our tour? We kept moving quite a bit, but also we made sure to have enough time in places like Fés and Chefchaou en. This kind of first-hand knowledge is huge help for us in building itineraries for our clients. So we'll be going over those details in the next episode. Plus, we'll be digging into Fès over the next month with a lot of on-location recordings there: travel audio that will take you along with us inspiring your own Moroccan adventure. My God, Fès never disappoints. We were there for four days and I tell you it was just. It's really not enough. There's so much to see in doing Fès, but I understand certain itineraries, you can do just one, maybe two days, but I loved everything about Fés. Thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for being loyal to Destination Morocco podcast. Have a wonderful day.
