Thanks for the encouragement
, but I must admit, there are no pictures coming. We'd remember after the meal and swear to do it next time, and eventually there were no more next times. BUT there's always October! Besides, that gives me time to actually figure out HOW to post pictures
Dinner - Restaurant Marrakesh
We had a reservation for 6:30, but having hung around France and Morocco for the better part of an hour already, we just decided to go ahead and see if we could get it about half an hour early. They told us no problem, and took us into the restaurant (right side, for those who have been). The hostess led us straight in...and stopped. Right by the stairs. And looked around in confusion. Apparently all the peeking through the screen they had done had been of no use as people had magically appeared at the table she had wanted us to sit at. So we stood. And stood. It was probably only about 30 seconds, but very awkward. Finally a waiter came and said something to her, they he actually took the menus from her and seated us at a table we had walked right past.
We sat at our little-itty-bitty table for two that was about two inches from the table on my left, and debated our options. I don't eat lamb, so that really cut down on the menu. All I really wanted were beef brewat rolls and chicken bastilla. The lunch menu has the Sultan's Sampler, which includes those, couscous with veggies, and a skewer of beef or chicken. It's perfect, but not on the dinner menu. I was aware of this, but had decided to ignore the fault in my planning. Well, time to pay for it
Me: Combination Appetizer Sampler - this is meant for two people
so it came with two chicken bastillas (which are one circle cut in half), two beef brewat rolls, and a portion of the Jasmina Salad.
Mom: Shish Kebab, which is basically a beef skewer, and came with rice.
Both: Mint Iced Tea
Our server brought us our very yummy multigrain bread with butter and our drinks. Warning - the tea is very much unsweetened, but a shot or two of readily available Splenda solved that for this pair of southern residents. He also brought my food, which I had specifically mentioned to be my main course. Feeling rather generous, and let's just say it, rather happy
after the slushies, I decided the kitchen probably had no way to know it was to be served
with the entree on the order instead of before.
Mom, also feeling
very generous, told me to go ahead and eat, but we let it sit in the middle of the table and enjoyed our surroundings. Translation - we checked out everyone else's food around us. The table on my left (the ones almost in our laps) exited without dessert. We never saw what they had (empty plates when we arrived), but apparently waited a while for a check. The table on my right still had dinner remains - this was a four top, and the three people there had apparently devoured an entire dinosaur based on the bones we saw. Thousands of years from now archaeologists are going to excavate Epcot and find that a mass extinction had ocurred on the spot of the Moroccan pavilion. They did not have dessert either, and left the carcasses for the busboys to clean up.
They finally delivered the shish kebabs, so we got down to the business of eating, which for me first meant removing all of the cucumber from my salad. The salad was quite tasty, with some kind of citrus-y vinaigrette dressing and (not enough) goat cheese. I handed over half a bastilla and half a brewat roll, and received a piece of beef in return. It was very good--tender and no pink visible, so I agreed to receive a second piece, which my mother promptly dumped on my plate in the middle of my salad.
Now let's take a time out.
A few of you restaurant board regulars may remember a thread a month or so ago that wandered off topic, and a few of us started a support group. You see, we don't like our food to touch. As a child I ate off a divided food storage plate to keep my vegetables from mixing. Corn, thou shalt not socialize with yonder peas...and so on. I have no problem with food that is
meant to be touching, such as the ingredients of lasagna, but two separate dishes must have a clearly delineated neutral zone. OK, we now return to our regularly scheduled review.
As I rushed to rescue my mother's precious meat, I very cleverly caused it to come back to life. It jumped right off my plate, slapping me in the chest for daring to try to eat it, and hopped on to the floor to run away. Sigh... My mother, being the sometimes patient and generous woman she is, and very used to the hazards of eating with me, very carefully placed a new piece of meat on my plate, nowhere near my salad. I ashamedly ate it and we moved on with our meal.
We both decided the beef brewat rolls were better than the chicken bastilla that night, which was a little dry. Her rice was very good - and we are rice snobs. She orders it everywhere it's on the menu, and usually eats every grain in honor of her poor mother (buddha rest her soul, who had to feed twelve children) but will never fail to complain about how awful it is. To emphasize, rice does not enter her house unless it is new crop, long grain, jasmine from Thailand, preferably Three Ladies brand in a 25lb bag. So when I say the rice was good, believe me. It tasted kind of nutty and buttery. Yum.
We cleaned our plates and settled in as the musicians came out. Ah, back to the real entertainment - people watching. We had new neighbors on each side, an older couple on my left and a family with two daughters on my right. Apparently these people were all on the dining plan, and ordering dinner took much conversation, calculating, and phone calls to headquarters for the latest troop movements. Finally, their appetizers arrived and we were pleased to see food we had not been introduced to before.
The couple ordered a seafood bastilla and a beef brewat rolls. I had seen pictures of the seafood bastilla, but to see it in real life was very interesting. The poor couple was rather confused. The woman, who we'll call Martha in honor of her hair-do, seemed to think they'd delivered dessert to her. "It's some kind of pastry...is that sugar?" And his response, "I think mine's pastry, too. I wonder what's in it?" Ahem, did you guys read your menu?
Dear reader, let me assure you that I didn't intend to eavesdrop. OK, OK, I did, but I wasn't obvious about it since he was literally four inches from my elbow. When we asked us for the sweetener box, I then realized that our tables had previously been a table, no -s-, and at some point had been pulled apart. Hence the extremely close quarters.
The man, who we'll call George in honor of his wife's hair-do, finally decided there was some kind of fish inside. Really?!?! I'd never have guessed. Meanwhile, the family on my right decided to play musical chairs, greatly confusing the server who brought their appetizers. Mom had the salad. Daughter #1, who was a Disney adult, had the harira soup. This is off limits for me since it contains lamb, but did look tasty. Daugher #2 and Dad, being on the far side and much more interested in the belly dancer than their appetizers, hid their food from my prying eyes.
I also noticed servers serving some big bowls full of mysterious meat, rather stew-like in appearance. I've decided this must be the Roasted Lamb Meshoui, but that is and unconfirmed assumption. And I still don't know what animal the piles of future fossils were from. They didn't look like chicken bones, which is the only thing I
know is served on the bone on the menu. Those pots of stew must include bones.
I didn't see anyone have dessert, and we skipped it in favor of a snack! later. We remembered our DDE card here, and got out of Africa. As I stood to leave I nearly turned my ankle as I stepped on...wait for it...the piece of meat that tried to run away. Apparently Mickey's magic had worn off and it didn't escape too far. The bathroom was as nice as ever, I discovered when I retreated to try to rescue my shirt with a shout stick from the shish kebab incident.
Overall, the food was as good as expected, and the service rather slow but friendly.
Total: $47
I'll be back later to finish out the day. It's taking longer for me to review than it did to actually eat!
But alas, I recovered to eat again.
We got one of each, a Grand Marnier (orange) and the lemon. In our opinion, you couldn't taste the "adultness" in the lemon one, making it far more dangerous. Mom preferred the orange, but they were both very tasty and a perfect afternoon refresher. They have several little outdoor tables right there that overlook the lagoon. We just picked one and relaxed... 
They always taste better at Disney World!
when I heard they'd opened the tea stand here because I loved their green tea plum wine cooler during the Food & Wine Festival, and they had a frozen greet tea plum wine drink on the menu. So I all but skipped up to the window and showed my ID (again) to obtain one strangely orange colored drink derived from one that is yellowy-green and another that is beigey-yellow. 
I finally hit the dessert case and found mom in line. She said she was going to get the chicken, chili, and garlic noodle bowl. Well...I was now intending to share whatever she got and didn't really want soup, so I very casually asked her if she'd noticed the thai chicken. 
Can't wait to read more...
I think I was a member! When is the first meeting?
