Morocco Day 3: Rabat to Fes

Warned about people getting on the train at Meknes. Sure enough, some guy gets on and I'm immediately suspicious. He enters out cabin, say hi, says something to the woman next to us. He asks her a question then several minutes later she gets her baggage and leaves. Strange, since we just left the station. He starts to chat with us. Tells us he had his heart broken by a girl in Ca. That he teaches Arabic at the ALIF language school, where he met said girl. Asks us where we are staying (we tell him). Tells us not to hire any guides, official or otherwise, but also that he can hook is up with a driver to Meknes/moulay Idriss/Volunilis for 300 dh less than the riad would charge us. Asks us if we want to join him for a drink at a restaurant he recommended. Wary, we say we'll think about it. When we arrive at Fes, he says bye and leaves without further offer of meeting up. Did he sense our skepticism?  Was he genuine?  Was he a hustler?  I guess we'll never know. We don't like this feeling of immediately being suspicious of people. We want to be open and meet new people, but it is hard to figure out right now. We are too fresh.

Morocco Day 2: Rabat

Checked into Riad Kalaa last night. They had our room set up for our Honeymoon:

This first full day in Rabat has been a learning experience.  Petit (blue) taxis, as in most places, you should always demand they use the meter.  The tram is quite convenient: one fare regardless of distance. Clean and modern trains.

It's hard to trust people here, as we never know if they are being helpful or trying to get money out of us (or both).  So far, our only experience has been a faux guide in Sale.  He supposedly helped us out with directions, then  when we followed his directions, he whistled at us saying we were going the wrong way and then led us where we were going, saying he was going that way anyway. After he started telling us a bunch of trivia, I got suspicious.  Cut him off a little late, but at least we smartened up after our morning hustle that we insisted on only giving him 15 Dirham rather than the 100 dh he was asking (keep in mind, the train from Casablanca to Rabat cost us 125 dh each).

Visited the Medersa (Koranic school). Intricate tile, wood, and ceramic work. The study rooms look like prison cells in Cambodia.  Before heading back across the river to Rabat, we ate Tajine at a touristy looking place which was actually pretty good.  In Rabat's Central Market, we strolled past the various meat and produce stalls. The most interesting was a couple of animal carcasses hanging. We couldn't tell what they were, but now think they were camel.

Dinner was at Le Petit Beau, a Lonely Planet 2011 top pick. I thought it was ok. Not much better than the little touristy place in Sale. We were not able to try the couscous, as they were sold out. Which brings me to another thought: we keep coming across things that are closed, like the mausoleum: we went during prayer time, so we would've had to wait until after to see it.

Oh, Senna at Riad Kalaa referred us to a great website:
http://www.espace-morocco.co.uk/

We are finding it has many of the same riads you'd find on Trip Advisor or Booking.com for less. We just booked a place in Marrakech for half off!

Morocco Day 1

Arrived in Casablanca after ~18 hrs of travel time, including getting to SFO.  Arrival was smooth and it was easy to find a train to Rabat. Most people in the airport spoke some English, and many people in people in general speak it as well, so it was easy to figure out how to get to Rabat. The taxi driver didn't  speak much, but he got us where we needed to go. Explored the Medina a bit at night, but didn't want to get lost in the dark, so we pretty much just stayed to the main streets. Had my first street food: a pita like sandwich made of hollowed out bread stuffed with ground beef, cheese, paprika, and hot sauce. Sort of your Mexican hit dog cart slash hamburger joint in one.

Fondant Covered Cheesecake??!

The next time a friend asks you to make her a wedding cheesecake, covered with rolled fondant, don't fret.  It can be done, and I'm going to tell you how I did it.  You have probably performed countless internet searches (I assume that's how you ended up here); received contradicting information (yes, you can cover a cheesecake in fondant; no you can't; don't refrigerate or freeze fondant; yes you can).  Well, in my experience, YES you can not only cover a cheesecake in fondant, you can also freeze it.

The problem with freezing or refrigerating fondant is once you remove it from the cold, water vapor in the air starts to condense on the surface (think of an ice cold beverage and the condensation that forms on the glass).  Since fondant is mostly sugar and other water-soluble ingredients, the condensation that forms starts to dissolve the fondant and creates that sticky surface you've read about.  Eventually, it will just start to disintegrate like this:

The picture above is of a cheesecake I froze, then thawed at room temperature for several hours.  The fondant did not begin disintegration until 1.5 to 2 hours later, but you can see what a mess it becomes.  The left side of the picture is where we cut into it to taste.

After this disaster (expected), I decided to test whether using a fan would help.  I covered a ramekin with fondant then put it in the refrigerator for 3 hours.  I removed the "cake" and just fanned it by hand.  This worked surprisingly well to keep the fondant dry.  I then put the "cake" into the freezer overnight, defrosted in the refrigerator for 4 hours, then put at room temperature in a brown paper shopping bag.  I aimed an electric fan at the "cake" (I put it in the bag so it would get air circulation on all sides) and let it warm to room temp over the course of 2 hours or so.  Voila!  The fondant was nice and dry; no disintegration.

My next debate was: am I really going to try this on my friend's wedding cake?  I wasn't that crazy, but almost.  Here's what I did.  Baked the 3 cheesecake layers.  Let them cool to room temp.  Spread a layer of swiss meringue buttercream to smooth out the rough spots and level the top and sides.  Note: occassionally put in the refrigerator to harden the buttercream; this will help you get a really smooth surface.  Roll out the fondant and cover the cakes.  Immediately put them in boxes and put in the freezer.  I kept them frozen for one week.  The reason I froze them is the drive to the wedding site was four hours long and involved curvy mountain roads.  I packed the cakes in a cooler with dry ice (~2-3 pounds?) and transported them to the wedding site the morning of the ceremony.  Once at the site, I removed half of the dry ice and we left to check-in to our hotel.  Just before the ceremony, I removed the remaining dry ice to allow the cakes to slowly warm up (as if in a refrigerator).  About 2.5 to 3 hours later, my fiance and I went in to assemble the final cake.  We removed the cakes, one at a time, from the cooler, and immediately placed them between two box fans running on high speed (you can just see the fans in the pictures below).  I could see the fondant glistening, but no actual droplets formed.  To my surprise, the fondant was actually drying out, enough to touch without feeling sticky.  We were able to bring it out to the reception tent and display it for an hour without problem.  The top layer was cut-able, and the middle layer was just barely still frozen inside (I did not get a chance to try the bottom layer).  I suspect the cake would have survived several hours following this procedure. 

 Assembled tiers.  Cake stand is on a turntable to make decoration easier.

 Cake topper on and adding flowers.

 Final product.

 Me and the final cake.

Safely delivered to the reception area.

Top Chef prices increased

Just noticed that iTunes is now charging $23.99 for the season. I wonder how high it will go. Seems like in most cases, the older a product is, the cheaper it gets. Not so with iTunes. I guess in the tv subscription case, it is like the drug model. Give a free sample to get them hooked, then charge exorbitant prices later.

Censored by Apple!

Since I still don't subscribe to cable, and I had a $15 iTunes gift certificate, I decided to finally try out the iTunes "Season Pass" subscription model for the latest season of Top Chef (Season 7). To my disappointment (and maybe I should have done more upfront research before buying), I found out that even as a paid subscriber, I do not gain same-day access to episodes. I, like everyone else, have to wait until the next day. Maybe it's not Apple's fault. Maybe it is entirely Bravo's fault. But either way, I'm upset. If I'm paying, shouldn't I get added benefits, relative to non-paying customers? I mean, that's how it works when you subscribe to cable. You pay (indirectly to Bravo) and you get it live, or DVR it and watch whenever you want. One might argue that I'm more valuable than a cable subscriber, since Apple has more personalized data on me than the cable company would.

I could subscribe to Comcast for $29.99/mth on a promotion (though when I look now, it is $39.99/mth) and get way more content. If I work the numbers on the Top Chef Season Pass, it is ~$20 for 16 episodes (based on Season 6). Assuming that is one episode a week, it'd be 4 months worth of programming, so $5 per month. I guess the question becomes, would I get 6X-8X more programming or value from a cable subscription? In my case, probably not, as I don't watch that much tv anymore.

So, why the title of my post? I tried to leave a review on the Top Chef Season 7 iTunes page, basically saying what I did above (but more emotional and more of a rant). So far, my review has not appeared. Granted, my review was more a critique of iTunes than of the show. And there is a disclaimer that the review is subject to editorial review by Apple. But hey, it's not like I was using profanity or saying anything inappropriate. In hindsight, after cooling down for 5 days and now writing this blog post, I realize that for my particular case, it is probably better to do the season pass. It's just hard to justify early in the season because I can watch for free (legally) on Hulu right now. I know later on, Bravo will stop offering free episodes and then I'd have to either resort to illegal downloads, paying (either cable subscription or iTunes), or waiting until the season comes out on DVD.

Just planted (and removed) my first tree

I finally got my free fruit tree from the Albany City Share; a bare root nectarine. They also had bing and ranier cherries as well as some peaches, but I didn't want to get greedy. So, I just grabbed a nectarine tree. I thought it might be harder to chop down the existing tree (both physically and emotionally), but with the time pressure of limited light, I just got to it and it was quite easy to do the entire process. Now I wait until Sept. Guess I should go test my soil soon, if I'm gonna.

Find more photos like this on Hyperlocavore - A free yard sharing community