Aliza Green

Glossy black olives in hand-woven raffia basket, Fes medina

Olives, anyone? How many can we eat? And where do we put the pits?

What’s your memory of this glorious trip: is it the comfy bus in which only 5 people stayed in the same seats throughout; is it the power, wifi, nuts and water or is it the wonderful Mohammed who drove us for (how many?) kilometers, even during the

Multicolored olives for sale in the Fes medina

rain and sleet in the High Atlas mountains where some of us were terrified. But I bet it’s the extraordinary tour guide, Chacha, who spoke (at least) 5 languages, knew all about the history and geography, the architecture and the food, the people and the politics of this gorgeous country and kept us moving, interested and learning.

How about the great hotels we stayed in, including some with fewer amenities than we’re used to (e.g., hot water). Everywhere we managed thanks to our great leader, Aliza (AKA Aziza), who in her calm and professional tour-creator persona was able to deal with it all, including a melt-down, a foot injury, and unusual sleeping arrangements. Where else have you seen the tree-climbing goats, baby camels? When did you experience a longer-than-expected night-time camel ride followed by a cooking fire in the desert and sleeping in a “luxurious” tent?

There’s more: solar panels, modern architecture, ancient souks and medinas, hijabs everywhere but only 5 covered faces. ancient synagogues and cemeteries. Roman ruins, amazing on-the-water mosque, cooking lessons, spices, body scrubs and massage.

Click on the link for an article in Bottom Line Personal to learn A Chef’s Strategy for Buying Seafood at the Supermarket.

And, if you want to know more, my two books, Field Guide to Seafood (Quirk Books) and The Fishmonger’s Apprentice are packed with information. 

  Field Guide to Seafood is compact enough to carry with you when you shop. In fact, many supermarket seafood managers use the book as a handy reference.

Fishmonger’s Apprentice focuses on step-by-step photo techniques interspersed with interviews of industry professionals around the world who are working in every aspect of this complex field. 

Please consider joining me, culinary explorer and chef/author Aliza Green, on this exclusive tour of Israel: land of contrasts, land of plenty, land of history. 

Experience the best of Israel, where creative and exciting culinary fermentation combines Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrachi Jewish, Arab, Druze, and Maronite traditions, ingredients, and techniques.  Tour Israel from the Galilee and Safad to the Negev, from the Mediterranean Coast to Jerusalem. 

Visit markets fragrant with spices like Carmel in Tel Aviv and Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem. Experience the creations of Israeli chefs and bakers at top restaurants and small, local favorites and taste fine Israeli wines. Learn how farmers make the desert bloom in places like Shirat Hamidbar Farm. Enjoy lunch at the famed eponymous fish restaurant in ancient Akko, Uri Buri. 

Taste everything from Moroccan couscous to Yemenite jachnun bread, Ashkenazi kugel to Middle Eastern mezze and Tunisian shakshouka, now a national dish in Israel.

Savor an array of fresh and aged goat cheeses at Kornmehl Farm, where tradition and innovation work together in a fine balance. 

And, of course, visit the must-see sites like the Kotel (the Western Wall of the ancient Jewish Temple), the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, the Dead Sea, and Masada. Free time in Jerusalem to visit sites such as Yad Vashem. 

This twelve-day tour from February 10 to 21, 2019 is limited to 15 guests, traveling by private van, with accommodations in 4 and 5 star hotels.

Please send a message to ChefAlizaGreen@gmaiil.com for more information on this exciting tour and I will send back the detailed itinerary with pricing and deposit information.

Morocco has been on my culinary radar ever since I first ate couscous in the Paris Jewish neighborhood of the Marais at age 12–it was a revelation. In years since, I had the opportunity to work with several Moroccan and Tunisian chefs, who inspired me to finally plan a trip there. Researching my two books on spices (Field Guide to Herbs & Spices and The Magic of Spice Blends), I became convinced that I needed to make that trip. And, I am very happy to say that my culinary/cultural tour with 13 guests was a delight for all, though not without its challenges–road to the Sahara closed due to snow (!), very slow-going to cross the Tichka Pass over the snow covered peaks of the High Atlas Mountains to Fez, and sleeping bundled up in every piece of clothing I owned including hat and gloves in a tent in the bitter cold of the Sahara night, which was nonetheless a high point of the trip for all.

Steaming chickpeas slow-cooked with gelatin-rich calves feet–one of the most delicious dishes of the entire trip at Dar Naji Restaurant in Rabat.

Vegetable tajine with preserved lemons and violet olives

Assorted almond cookies at Cafe Maure, Rabat

Fresh pink garlic Fes medina

Fresh cardoons, stalks of a plant closely related to the artichoke, were in season as were small, tender fresh green fava beans in the smell plastic bags on the side of the photo.

Donkeys work hard in the Fes medina

Fragrant herbs for royal tea, Fes medina

Chicken B’Stilla, a complex dish fit for celebrations, at Palais Amani, Fes medina,

Selection of spices for Ras el Hanout, rooftop of La Sagesse, Marrakech

Traditional stone mill for crushing argan nuts

Basket laden with spices, herbs, dyes, and other specialties at La Sagesse, Marrakech

Lamb and vegetable tajine t’faya at Le Jardin, Marrakech

Newly picked breakfast radishes and craquelines at Domaine Val d’Argan organic winery

Learning to make Moroccan breads at Chez Pierre in the Dades Gorge

I am happy to announce that since my first tour sold out, I am organizing a second Morocco Culinary & Cultural Tour starting February 13, 2018 for a 11-night tour filled with culinary delights, cooking classes, market tours, tastings, and visits to farms. We’ll learn to make an array of the small Moroccan salads such as the ones shown above, whether eggplant, carrot, artichoke, zucchini or fava beans. We’ll enjoy wonderful flavor-packed food based on seasonal vegetables, local olive oil and rare argan oil, purple, green, black and violet olives, fresh local seafood, and a deft hand with herbs and spices. For this small-group tour (maximum 10 guests), we’ll be staying in riads (traditional inn with inner courtyard based on Andalusian style) and will even have one night in the desert where we’ll stay in a luxury camp and bake bread in hot sand fueled by an open fire.

Tour highlights include: Tasting tour of Fes (the Moroccan spelling of Fez, Spice Workshop with Master Blender, an Exploration of Moroccan-Jewish Cooking, and cooking classes in the Atlas Mountains, a visit to the spectacular Dades Valley where we’ll stay at the justly-famed Chez Pierre, Marrakesh, and Fes.

Beginning in Rabat, the historic, Atlantic Coastal capital of Morocco, we’ll travel next to the Imperial City of Fes. Next we travel south into the Sahara Desert, and then onto the Dades Valley. We continue to Marrakesh, the beautiful ochre city and then on to the charming, windy fishing village of Essaouira before heading to Casablanca for a final night before departing Morocco.

We’ll be drinking pots full of Moroccan mint tea made with nana mint (spearmint), traditionally poured from a great height to cool the boiling hot tea.

Only two spaces left!

Here are some images from the heritage-rich riads and hotels where we will be staying:

Window at Maison Arabe, Marrakesh

Restaurant at Chez Pierre, Dades Valley

Poolside dining at Maison Arabe, Marrakesh

Court with pool, Palais Amani, Fes

Click on this link to get to the itinerary for the tour (I’ll upload a new file with the correct dates in the next few days but the itinerary will be the same as shown here with the tour starting February 20th): Itinerary for February Morocco Culinary Tour

Click on this link to get to the Payments page for pricing information: Aliza Green Morocco Cooking Tour Feb 18 Pricing

Any questions, please send a message to ChefAlizaGreen@gmail.com.

Just back from my fabulous, dizzying culinary tour in incredible India! Eleven guests plus myself and my trusty assistant traveled from Delhi (madly busy, loved Old Delhi and its spice markets-shown here–and flower markets) to Jaipur (the pink city with a fabulous outdoor cooking class at the gorgeous Raj Mahal Palace Hotel), Agra (absolutely perfect weather for our early morning visit to the Taj Mahal), Lucknow (a sophisticated city with complex cuisine not often visited by Americans), and back to Delhi.
Whether by bus, tuk-tuk, taxi, auto-rickshaw, train, and even an elephant ride up to the Amber Fort in Jaipur, we made our way, doing food walks in the bustling crazily-crowded narrow streets of the old parts of Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, and Lucknow, tasting a myriad of vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods, learning new recipes, culture and history, and having the opportunity to speak to knowledgeable locals.

We happened upon this procession of women honoring a local fertility god while visiting the 8th Century Stepwell. All were dressed in the same brilliant yellow-orange and carrying earthenware water pots on their heads filled with coconuts and bananas as offerings. 

Along with irresistibly beautiful hand-woven silk and pashmina shawls dyed with natural materials such as eggplant, tomato, saffron, and turmeric, I brought back the best saffron in the world, from Kashmir–deep red threads potently fragrant, rare white poppy seeds (known there as “opium seeds”) used to make creamy korma sauce, big fat deep green freshly harvested cardamom pods, and hard-to-find hand-pounded silver leaf used to decorate pastries. Show above are two masala dabas (spice containers) each filled with colorful, fresh spices used for our first cooking class at the charming Saffron Palate in Delhi–a charming rooftop kitchen overlooking bustling Delhi.

Have you been dreaming about a trip to Morocco? I know that I have since I love cooking Moroccan-inspired food from slender lamb cigari; fish, vegetable and meat tajines; and baked fish in chermoula to chicken b’stilla with cinnamon and almonds; m’hancha (the serpent)–pistachio, almond and rosewater filled coiled fillo pastry; and slow-cooked lamb shoulder with homemade ras el hanout and preserved lemons. I will be leading a small group culinary & cultural tour to Morocco departing January 3, 2018–just one year away! Eight to 12 guests will join me for a 9 night tour with an optional 3 night extension. Highlights include a tasting tour of Fes, a spice blending workshop with a master, an exploration of Moroccan-Jewish cuisine, bread-making in the Sahara and overnight in a luxury tent camp, a cooking class in the breathtaking Dades Valley, and a rejuvenating hammam (Turkish bath/spa) session in Marrakech. Cut and paste the Google Slides document below for detailed information:
AlizaGreen Morocco Culinary Tour

And, here is a link to the payments page

AGMoroccoCookingTour-Reservation

Please send a message to me if you have any questions and let me know if you’re interested even if you’re not ready to make a commitment.

Happy travels!
Aliza

   If you love travel, spices, and exciting food experiences, please consider joining me, Aliza Green, author of 15 cookbooks including my newest, The Magic of Spice Blends, in an exclusive small group (maximum 12 guests) on this culinary and cultural tour of Northern India. Lots of market tours, cooking classes and unique meals with local experts on this journey departing January 29th and returning February 11, 2017. India Culinary & Cultural Journey with Aliza

We’ll be flying in and out of Delhi with several days each in the fabulously beautiful cities of Jaipur, Agra, and Lucknow before our return to Delhi. This 12-night journey is being organized by Kipling Travels, our local highly experienced travel professionals in India. We will also have a local escort traveling with us throughout. We have chosen all 5-star hotels with character and high ratings on Trip Advisor. Delhi: The Imperial, Jaipur: Tree of Life, Agra:Trident, Lucknow: Vivanta By Taj. Travel will be by our private air-conditioned mini van with one train ride and one internal flight from Lucknow back to Delhi.

At least some of the group will be leaving from Newark on United’s direct flight to Delhi and I will be hiring a driver and van to drive the group up from the Philadelphia area.

The price (not including international airfare but including all in-country travel) is $4,450 per person, double occupancy with an $800 supplement for a single room.

If you’re interested and would like a detailed itinerary, please send a message with your email address to chefalizagreen@gmail.com and I’ll get in touch within a day or two.