Abi Aston in Morocco

Today, I decided to brave the local market to buy some meat.  So far, I have chickened out of buying meat  because I fear being misunderstood and paying extortionate amounts for something I haven’t asked for.  I was feeling more confident today for some reason.

Anyway, I strolled into the chaotic market with my Tesco’s hessein bag and tried to appear as relaxed as the locals.  There are very narrow aisles between the tables (not even 2m apart) and pieces of tarpaulin hang above the market to keep it cool.  It was particularly awkward to walk through today for a few reasons – parts of the tarpaulin were hanging very low so I often had to bend over and feel my way through to the other side, lots of people kept stopping to buy things (really!) or were walking very slowly, and at least twice a motorbike was being ridden through in the opposite direction.   Very precarious.

We needed lamb for something we’re making tomorrow.  I had all the other ingredients so I headed over to the meat section.  And as so often happens in my life, could I remember the word I needed in Derija?  No.  Could I remember it in French?  No.  Did anyone speak English?  No.  So, I started trying to act out what I was after at one of the market stands.  I was saying ‘no’ when I said ‘boeuff’, ‘no’ when I said ‘poulet’ and ‘yes’ when I imitated a sheep.  I made lots of ‘baa’ noises and even did a ‘curly hair’ sign on my head.  Some children nearby were laughing with glee and the poor market seller found it very confusing, but amusing.  I giggled hysterically/nervously as you can imagine.

After this experience, I have concluded that sheep probably don’t ‘baa’ in Morocco.  They must make some other noise.  I’ve already found out that dogs don’t ‘woof,’ here, they ‘worr.’  I should have known that sheep wouldn’t ‘baa.’

I must learn animal noises.  Why didn’t I think of that before?

I came home with some meat.  I still don’t know what it is.  We’ll find out tomorrow if it’s lamb or not.

Our first lamb tagine. But someone else bought the lamb for us!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.