Day 3: Oyamel Redux and Marrakesh Palace Dinner

By Greg B. Day three was mostly full of science, once again something I wont go into detail about here. The morning and afternoons were spent in the poster sessions, learning about various thalamocortical projections and looking at some decision making, fMRI human studies. However, there was time for some good food, and we took every opportunity we could find.
For lunch, we decided that it would be best to go back to Oyamel, since we had a larger group. There was Gabi and I, now accompanied by Mihyun, Mike, Kim, Valentina and Christina. We decided to order several plates, share a lot of food, and go from there. Kim had to leave soon, so her order was rushed out, while we did end up waiting a very long time (I would say, too long… possibly 30 minutes after all the other dishes came out) for Valentina’s enchilada.

One of the features of this restaurant are their fried grasshopper tacos. They really are an interesting dish. Nutty, ‘earth’, crunchy and a bit salt, these really were not anything surprising to the palate. It was slightly unnerving to see so many of them on a taco (there had to be 40-50 small grasshoppers filling the taco), but they were also delicious, with some avocado and some lime. We tried the red snapper ceviche, a nicely cooked piece of fish over a bed of onions, the baby pig confit tacos were delicious as before, I had a fish taco which was made from Wahoo, and was nicely cooked, tender and flavorful. Three of us ordered the black bean soup and enjoyed it just as much as the previous day, there was a tongue taco which was delicious and a mushroom taco as well. Going with a larger group was nice because we got the opportunity to see a lot of different dishes and share them, which is how I would recommend this restaurant in the future to people.

Tongue, two Grasshopper, and a Fish taco

For dinner, we decided to head to a Moroccan restaurant we had seen near Dupont circle. Marrakesh Palace was the name (2147 P street, NW Washington DC, 20037). The restaurant features some family style meals, smaller dishes for appetizers, and belly dancing. Having never been to this style restaurant before, we all took the plunge (we all being my labmates and myself).The waiter was a very friendly man named Adam, who was always willing to accommodate us and provide information regarding anything we asked. Walking into the restaurant, there was a smell of incense, which was not overpowering at all and was quite subtle and nice. We settled on a Beaujolais – village, since this was among the two girl’s favorite styles of wine they know of ($36 bottle). It’s a nice style of wine, which really changed it’s profile throughout the meal as we sampled different styles of food. It has a mild acidity, is a little sweet, and had a nice full bodied texture to it. A basket of warm Moroccan bread was served to us, along with a pepper and multi-species olive mixture. The bread was delicious and interesting, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and the olive mixture was hardly oily but slightly spicy, a spice given to it by the few slices of a pepper that were clearly marinaded with the olives beforehand.

For the appetizers (Mezze), we ordered Lamb Sausage, Anchovies, and a traditional Moroccan soup.

• Lamb Sausage – Great! Slightly spicy, but the spice is minimized when you eat it with the sauce that comes with the sausage. It’s not try and not too salty, but is a real nice lamb flavor without overdoing it.
• Anchovies – very lemony and nice. Comes served on a bed of lettuce, onion and tomato. The anchovies with the tomato really mellow the fishy flavor and highlight the salt and lemon. Quite nice dish of anchovies actually, and I think the local fish connousieur (My Portuguese friend) also enjoyed this a lot.
• Soup Harira – Very nice as well. Has rice and chick peas, and a really different flavor to it than I have ever tasted before. It’s not savory and not sweet, but really hit an interesting note that up to now was unknown to me!

For the main entree, we split two large entrees between the three of us. Knowing that we were eating Moroccan food, we opted to make sure we had at least one more lamb dish.

• Chicken Couscous – Deliciously cooked couscous, excellent texture. About ½ an entire chicken was served over a bed of this couscous. The chicken was well cooked, but not dry. It smelled sweet, and had a spice that wasn’t spicy, but was very pleasant. It permeated my nose, even after eating. I still didn’t know what this smell was, but I enjoyed it! Adam came back and asked us if we wanted any hot sauce, so of course I said yes (I love adding heat to dishes), and he brought us a bowl of sauce. Man was it spicy! But it was also very nice, it was somehow between the intensity of wasabi and the long lasting effects of habanero… a short/medium length but very hot flavor. It was nice, and even went well with the wine, oddly enough.
• Braised lamb - This was another great entrée. Great texture, tender enough to cut with a single fork, moist and fully flavored with the mystery spice. Finally, I learned what this spice was: saffron! I have never encountered it in such a large quantity whereby I could distinguish it from any other flavors, but this really was pungent and yet extremely pleasant. I can see why this is one of the world’s most expensive spices. The flavor was most defined in the perfectly cooked potatoes served with the braised lamb, which held their shape, but melted in your mouth once you ate then. The same can be said for the carrots and the zucchini served with this dish. A great dish, one that is making me hungry again, 20 hrs later as I write this!

For desert, we chose to get a few Moroccan cookies, which were slightly sweet and a little nutty. This went well with the mint tea we also got, neither of which were very sweet or overly sweet, but were just sweet enough to be enjoyable and refreshing after a meal that really filled us up. At this time, it was 8pm and the belly dancing had begun. A woman named “Layla” was dancing around the restaurant, in what I can only describe as one of the most sexy dances I have ever seen. She danced part of the time with a sword balanced on her head (amazing) and other times with a purple silk scarf-like item (beautiful). While this was not the highlight of the food part of the meal, it certainly was a major highlight of the restaurant, and will absolutely be back to places in the future that feature belly dancing. For those who are a bit on the conservative side, I do have to say that there is nothing risqué about belly dancing, it is very beautiful and really something difficult to look away from and enchanting, I recommend this venue to see it to everyone.

And this concluded my third day in DC. It was a great night, and I left the Moroccan Palace stuffed with food and very pleased with the new flavors and experiences I saw. This is a must-see restaurant in DC, and I suggest you all check it out!