Moroccan Sultan's Feast at Marakesh in Parsippany

If you feel like splurging, head to Marakesh Restaurant on Route 46 East in Parsippany.  For around $45 (including tip), you can enjoy a seven course "Sultan's Feast."  We started with you're regular cracker lettuce salad. It was drenched in some sort of house salad that was simply too flavorful for this cracker. The Man and I figured it's one of the courses they make money on - it costs little.

The ewww beginning, happily, was not an indicator of the rest of the meal!  The next course consisted of delicious pita wedges served with a platter of black olives in olive oil, fresh cucumbers in a vinagrette with artichokes and grilled red peppers, humus, and roasted eggplant puree. Lord have mercy! Delicious!  Reminded me of the breakfasts included in my hotels in Turkey. YUM!

The next step in this "feast" was the plate of "Moroccan Cigars." They were essentially really fresh egg roll skins stuffed with ground meat, dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. I actually enjoyed the sweet aspect of this dish. Would I order these a la carte? Probably not.

The main dish was next. Lamb tagine. Surprisingly, not served in the traditional clay tagine dish. None the less, the stew that Morocco is famous for. What an intricate blend of spices! Simply delicious. Complex, layered flavors. The tagine was served with rice and couscous. I didn't care for either of theme. They were both simply too sweet for my taste.  The Man loved them.

The final course was dessert. Another course they make money on. We had traditional mint tea. I enjoyed this. It was hilarious when the waiter said "Would you like tea?" and The Man said "Yes," the waiter shoved a tray in our faces and said "Take it!"  He didn't really say that, he commanded it. Next came the platter of dessert. It was a platter, meaning the dish used for serving, but it was a fried dough wedge - think frozen philo dough from an American grocery store, single layer - that had condensed milk and chocolate sugar drizzled over it. There was also a small pile of fresh fruit on the platter. Not horrible, but not exactly amazing or show stopping.

What was show stopping was the belly dancer. I'm always amazed when I see belly dancers. They have such complete control of their muscles.  Fun to watch were the three little girls under the age of 8 gazing at the belly dancer in complete awe. I could hear the conversation on the car ride home "Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a dancer..."