Diana is a current student on the NSLI-Y Summer Arabic program in Rabat, Morocco.
During Eid, I spent the majority of the day with my host family visiting relatives. In the morning, I woke up to a leisure breakfast filled with round pancake-like bread foods everyone would spread Laughing Cow cheese, honey or a jam over them. There were also traditional Moroccan almond sweets, mint tea and croissants.
After being stuffed from breakfast, my host mom and I made lunch together. It was a traditional cooked chicken with steamed angel hair pasta, topped with sugar, cinnamon, almonds and raisins. The chicken was seasoned with ginger, cumin, turmeric, parsley, and cilantro. The top image displays the pasta we ate. Traditionally, Moroccan families all eat from one plate. Lunch was supposed to be a mix between sweet and salty.
Following lunch, my family went to visit my host mom's sister. Everyone greeted each other with kisses on the cheek (similar to the French). While we were there, mint tea, fried pastries, almond cookies, and pancake-like breads lathered in honey were offered. More sweets were continually offered and put on my plate than I could count. They were all very delicious, the sweet tang of the mint tea complemented all of the pastries. I was very full from visiting the house in the afternoon, and knew I wouldn't be able to eat dinner by this point in the day.
We then proceeded to visit a second relative's house with a similar meal of mint tea, steamed pasta, and almond cookies. We parted ways with the other family around 8pm, driving back to our home. After a day with four separate meals, my mom offered me dinner. That would have been my fifth meal of the day, but I was filled to the brim with exquisite foods. It was very interesting to see the relaxed culture of Moroccans, living life to enjoy food and time with family.