Maruja and Merendin

Thanks to Xoussef, I now have a desktop-image of a Maruja chocolate-bar and a Merendin-cake!
Mmmm, Moroccan sweets!!

Thanks! Me so happy now!

Moroccan products I really miss

Sometimes, somehow I get this craving for Moroccan food/products.
I think that my parents implanted me with this chip that activates my cravings once every month or so.

So in order to relieve myself a bit from these cravings, I decided to share it with you.
OK, most of the following products aren’t exactly Moroccan products, as in manufactured and owned by Moroccan companies.
But they are being sold everywhere in Morocco and are part of my MSFD (Moroccan-Summer Food Diet)

First is Sidi Ali! It could’ve been easy Sidi Harazem, I really don’t taste the difference. But the logo of Sidi Ali is aesthetically more pleasing.

And then we have Kiri!
Mmmm. Kiri is/was the most convenient beach-food! (if it didn’t melt in our bags that is)
And somehow, it was also the main food product if you were sick. Kiri, Sidi Ali and chorba (soup), for a healthy living.

Another favorite beachfood was bocadillo. (we always stayed in Tetouan or Cabo Negro, hence the spanish products)
Especially the ones where they chucked everything in. Chicken, fries, peppers, sardines, olives, lemon, all in 1 sandwich! And sometimes it had a little bit of sand in it!

Oh and Tide! Ok you can’t actually eat this and you can buy it practically everywhere (except most European countries) but the Tide-commercials were Morocco at its best! They were so cheesy and if we were bored we used to make our own Tide-commercials
And they used Tide for doing the dishes, laundry, cleaning the windows, washing their hands and even their hair!(in rural areas that is)

And of this one I couldn’t find any pictures on the net. But it’s a big chocolate bar called Maruja (I think it was Spanish). It was wrapped in red paper and Maruja was wriiten in white golden borders. It was filled with nuts and sooo delicious!

Cola Cao! The chocolate drink. Oh that was so unhealthy yet so delicious and addictive. (just grab a spoon and start eating the powder)

So thats it for now. Water and bread is waiting for me on the kitchen table

Book: Where’s Bin Laden?

Where’s Bin Laden?

Well this one isn’t actually a proper book but an illustrated book/comic book.
If you like “Where’s Waldo” you’ll like this one (you have to!)

A mission of 30 pages. Find Bin Laden, CIA-agents, terrorists etc. in the illustrated pages and complete your mission.
Don’t try to complete your mission when you’re having a hangover though, you’ll get nauseous.

$9.95 at Amazon.

Viagra in the Arab world

Hehehe

And the story behind it

(via Adsoftheworld.com)

Anyone fancy a fez?

This Flickr-pool is so funny!

233 photos of people wearing fezzes(?). How cool is that?! Ok not that cool, but it certainly is funny.
I need to go and buy one.

(via Boingboing)

Order some Moroccan-made hot t-shirts

Well they aren’t really made in Morocco but one of the designers is a Moroccan-Dutch girl.
She designed a couple of shirts with another Dutch designer, the shirts are being sold at their e-shop Collectionarab

But the shirts are hot. They all have an Arabic-print design on them with tacky words like “Peace” and “Music”. But they really look nice! Especially the one with “Peace” in Arabic and a fighter-jet printed on it.
The shirts cost €29.95

(h/t Houtlust)

(ps. do expect a longer post this week. I’ve been too busy lately to write a long post. But now I have more time)

Holiday to virtual Morocco

No need paying big bucks to board an airplane to Morocco.
Just install Secondlife and visit Casablanca/Morocco.

Secondlife, a virtual world, is addictive. So beware.
Virtual Morocco was build by students from the Johnson-Wales University and the Moroccan ministry of tourism.

Here are some impressions, can you spot the differences between virtual and real?

Karl Marx for Dummies

This is really funny

(h/t Onemanbandwidth)

Discover the sounds from China

This is is so cool!
A soundboard with different sounds form China . From women inmates in Bejing to a Goddess ceremony in Meizhou island.
Just click on the map.

Listen & enjoy! I know I did:P

I have been tagged!

Myrtus tagged me today (or was it yesterday?), to tell 5 anecdotes about myself.

Since this is one of my first posts, I thought it would be a good introduction.
So here we go

Anecdote number 1:

Mmmm, let me think. This could be embarassing you know. Anyhow.
I have these strange dreams, the only dreams I can remember actually.
I keep on dreaming that I’m having a nose-job. It sounds really weird I know but I think there is an explanation.
I was always very insecure about my nose. Its big and its there. Since my 18th I always wanted to have a nosejob. I honestly believed that having a nosejob would improve my life and my career *ahum*
I actually went to a clinic and talked about it. The face-molestor was ofcourse very excited and almost convinced me that I should have an operation. I kind of played along.
But when I went back home I realized that having a nosejob wasnt something for me.
I kind of saw it as losing, being a loser. You dont run away from your problems and you dont run away from your insecurities. You just have to cope with them.
Et voila, I still have my precious, big nose.

Anecdote 2:

I voted conservative once. Yes, I know I should be ashamed of myself. Bad BO, bad BO!
Conservative, as in Dutch conservative. That means VVD. The so-called liberals. They are pro-euthanasia, pro-gaymarriage etc. But very conservative on immigration issues and that kind of caca.
I was convinced that they were the party that I should support. Maybe it had something to do with my identity-crisis. I kind of believed back then that I was more Dutch than arab(moroccan). And that I should support them since they were anti radical islam.
But after the elections I found out that I’m not Dutch nor Moroccan. I’m just me. I’m everything. And I’m a true liberal not a VVD-liberal.
So I was very lucky when the government fell (again), and I finally voted for a party that was representing most of my beliefs.

Anecdote 3:

Oeh this one is kind of nasty. I have tricked men into meeting me in Casablanca. Hehehe.
Well I was on a holiday there and I needed some fun.
So I went out, to the local bars and clubs and went hunting. And I thought it would be fun if I made dates with them, all on the same time. And boy were they cute! But I didnt feel like dating them cuz its always the same story with a lot of moroccan guys (not all of them ofcourse).
When they find out that you’re from algaridj (foreign country) they’ll harass you for adresses where they can “stay for a holiday”. Yeah sure.
So I had 5 dates after almaghrib (a prayer time) at the Twin Center. I didnt bother to even check if they were there. I was to busy binge-drinking on the beach.
And I think that they didnt show up anyhow or showed up Moroccan time. (which means that they were 3 hours late)
So no harm done I hope. I just need to do this from time to time. I know very wrong, but kind of fun.

Anecdote 4:

Sometimes I can be very, very prejudiced. I think we all are a bit.
And it is kind of scary. I mean its based on shit. Right?
It is actually very wrong and ignorant when I walk down a street and check my pockets everytime I group of ethnic youngsters walk by. I mean, I’m an ethnic youngster myself! How weird can it get!?
A while ago I read a column in a British newspaper where the columnist described the exact same situation.
He declared that he turned into a suburbian, middle class guy. And that that explains why he is so prejudiced from time to time.
I kind of understand that. But I dont want to be a suburbia boy. I’m not ready for hell yet.

Anecdote 5:

I once stole books from a bookshop. And I didnt get caught. How cool is that?!
Stealing is a “sin” and its bad. But I want to try everything once (hence my drug-experimenting)
I never stole a candy or a cookie when I was still a kid. I knew that my mother would go nuts and call the whole family to complain and worry that I would end up a gangster or something like that. So stealing was a big no-no.
But this time I had to do it. But it were good books, so I got something out of it. I stole Caesar’s Gallic Wars and a Naguib Mahfouz book.
I still have them but I cant look at them. I read them though, but everytime I look at them I slap myself for stealing.
Silly me.

Now I know I should tag 5 other people. But I dont know who. So give me time to think ( in normal english that means: I’m never gonna tag anyone)