Owners of a small restaurant in Fes, Morocco

There were many highlights on our tour of Morocco. One of them was finding delightful little shops or hidden away restaurants. During our stay in Fes we found this delightful little family restaurant right next door to the hotel where we were staying. We could have dined in style in the hotel restaurant but this eatery had so much more character.

It wasn’t huge; it had enough seating for about 6 to 8 people; there were no more chairs, and the dining room was hardly a room at all. The cooking and counter took up half the room, and some equipment had to flow out onto the footpath. Most of the customers were people passing by, grabbing a bite to eat on their way to work or back home. The establishment was run by the lady shown in the photo above, assisted by her young daughter.

The mother could only understand a few words of English but the daughter spoke it fluently. We engaged her in conversation and found out she was working her way through university, studying to be a teacher. My wife, daughter and I are all teachers, so we found this very encouraging. My guess is that not many Moroccan girls are teachers, and few go to university. Women in the professions are most definitely in the minority in this country, but this is changing.

We were very pleased to support this family and their tiny restaurant on several occasions during our stay.

And the food was delicious.