Where to stay

Barceló Casablanca 139 Boulevard d’Anfa, 00 212 522 208 000, barcelo.com. Contemporary city centre hotel, both stylish and convenient, that is close to most must-see spots. Doubles from £120 per night with breakfast.

Club Val D’Anfa Corner of Boulevard de l’Ocean Atlantique and Boulevard de la Corniche, 00 212 522 797 070 Another great beachfront hotel, with a new refurbished wing, Val D’Anfa has all the right amenities for individuals and families. It is a great location to escape from the hustle and bustle of downtown Casablanca. Doubles from £70 per night with breakfast.

JM Suites Hotel 161 Corner of Boulevard Rachidi and Avenue Moulay Hassan I, 00 212 222 260 666, jmsuiteshotel.com. A new boutique hotel in town which is close to Cathédrale du Sacre Coeur and Parc de la Ligue Arabe. It is also well located for Place Mohammed V and the Hassan II Mosque. Doubles from £220 per night with breakfast.

Riad Salam Boulevard de la Corniche Aïn Diab, 00 212 522 391 313. A good value, three-star hotel whose unique selling point is the location, with great sea views. Doubles from £70 per night with breakfast.

Travel Information

Currency is the Moroccan Dirham (£1 = 13.5 MAD) Casablanca is one hour behind GMT. The climate is pleasant all year-round with average daily temperatures of 10-12°C in winter and 25-27°C in the summer. Morocco is at its best in Spring (March to May) when the country is lush and green or September to November when the heat of the summer, and tourist numbers, have eased.

Getting there;

Royal Air Maroc 020 7307 5800, royalairmaroc.com The national carrier airline for Morocco flies directly from Heathrow to Casablanca twice a day.

Iberia 0870 609 0500, iberia.com The Spanish airline provides regular daily flights from Heathrow to Madrid, with an onward daily connection to Casablanca.

Resources;

Visit Morocco 020 7437 0073; visitmorocco.com The national tourism board of Morocco provides all you need to know on accommodation and transportation, as well as information on authentic and unusual activities.

Casablanca Tourist Information Office 95 Boulevard Mohammed V, Casablanca Visit here for brochures and maps, and suggested itineraries for sightseeing in the city and surrounding areas.

Further reading

Flavours of Morocco: Delicious Recipes from North Africa by Ghillie Basan (Ryland Peters & Small, £19.99) is a real feast for the senses.

The Caliph’s House: A Year In Casablanca by Tahir Shah (Bantam Books, £8.99) describes the adventures of relocating to an unfamiliar country and imparts a deeper understanding of the Arab culture.

Where to eat

All prices quoted are for dinner per person for two courses (excluding drinks)

A Ma Bretagne Boulevard de l’Océan Atlantique, 00 212 522 397 979. One of the oldest French restaurants in Casablanca, with fantastic panoramic views over the city and the Atlantic. £20

Basmane Hôtel Club Val d’Anfa, Corner of Boulevard de l’Océan Atlantique and Boulevard de la Corniche, 00 212 522 797 070. Basmane has a fine reputation developed over 20 years for innovative, well-executed Moroccan cuisine. £20

Café M Hôtel Hyatt Regency, Place des Nations Unies, 00 212 522 431 278. Located in the Hyatt Regency, in Casablanca’s financial district, Café M serves fusion cuisine in a calm setting. £25

La Sqala Boulevard des Almohades, 00 212 522 260 960. Set in a renovated historic site opposite the port, La Sqala serves refined Moroccan cuisine in Moorish-inspired environs. £15

Le Pilotis Boulevard de la Corniche, 00 212 522 798 427 Moorish-Spanish cuisine with a seafood-heavy menu. £30

Restaurant du Port Port de Casablanca, 00 212 522 318 561 Perhaps Casablanca’s best-known and oldest fish restaurant, locals flock here every night of the week. £15

Rick’s Café Boulevard Sour Jdid, 00 212 522 274 207, rickscafe.ma. International cuisine and some Moroccan dishes, served up in a restored riad. £25

Snack Jura Rue de Jura, 00 212 522 259 696. A typical Moroccan fast food experience. Try the grilled Merguez sausages, tomato and onion salsa sandwich. Snacks from £2.

Café La Presse Boulevard Brahim Roudani, 00 212 522 250 543. One of the oldest drinking holes in the city, a fascinating relic from French colonial Casablanca days. £10

Doukan 350 Old York Road, London SW18 1SS, 020 8870 8280, doukan.co.uk. Try these recipes and other authentic Moroccan cuisine at Abdesslem Khalil’s London restaurant, Doukan, which was nominated ‘best local restaurant’ by Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word.

Food Glossary

Argan oil

Made from the kernels of the argan tree, which grows widely in Morocco. This oil has a mild, nutty taste.

Brik

Crisp, paper-thin pastry used throughout North Africa.

Cardoons

Artichoke thistle whose buds can be eaten.

Charmoula

Typical fish marinade, consisting of cumin, paprika, fresh coriander, garlic and lemon juice.

Ftour

Breakfast of msemen pancake (see below) or other traditional Moroccan breads and mint tea

Harissa

Chilli, lemon and garlic paste blended with olive oil.

Khlii

Traditional marinated, sun-drief beef.

Msemen

Flat pancake made with wheat and semolina flour and water, and eaten at breakfast.

Food and Travel Review

Casablanca: the white house. The name could not be more ill-matched: this multi-coloured, multi-faceted and multi-cultural metropolis is anything but a monotone. Over the years many nationalities have made Casablanca their home: Spanish, Italians, Indians, the French (of course), and even Moro-Vietnamese – the descendents of Vietnamese mothers and Moroccan fathers who were soldiers for the French in Indochina.

And so into Casablanca’s cultural melting pot they poured their customs, languages and faiths, creating the vibrant, tolerant and forward-thinking city that one sees today. It’s a place where mosques, churches and synagogues sit respectfully side by side, everyone speaks at least two languages (French and Arabic) and accents and dialects from all over Morocco can be heard. Meanwhile, stores selling traditional djellaba robes nudge up to those of the global fashion houses.

Such diversity extends to Casablanca’s cuisine, where French patisseries have long been part of the cityscape, Spanish-influenced seafood restaurants are always packed, and local appreciation for the traditional Moroccan tagine is as strong as ever.

Like my fellow Cazawi – natives of Casablanca – I have a love-hate relationship with this city: its crowded roads, traffic jams, the constant blaring of car horns and ever-growing constructions are all overwhelming and can easily mask the true beauty of Caza, as we fondly refer to her. Built by the French in 1900s, Casablanca was a grand innovative project intended to assert the French colonial authority. Laid out to plans made from aerial views, the city developed into an Art Deco marvel, with its stretched, palm-lined avenues, cinema theatres, magnificent stucco buildings with intricate façades, wrought-iron decorations and luxurious lobbies. And while many of the buildings have lost their sparkle, they still ooze with the memories of Casablanca’s grand past.

Boulevard Mohammed V, the French colonial heart, is home to two iconic buildings: Hotel Lincoln and Marché Central. Once a majestic lodging, the Hotel Lincoln, with its elaborate Franco-Moorish design, is languishing in such a state of disrepair that it is currently cordoned off, awaiting a decision on its fate. The Marché opposite has fared rather better: originally built in the 1920s to cater for the burgeoning French community, it is still thriving and remains the place to source the city’s best produce.

An early morning visit – sustained by a msemen (Moroccan pancake) laced with melted butter and honey and a strong cappuccino-like café cassé from the tiny Inzitar coffee shop – is a must. The market awakens as streams of pick-up trucks deposit crates of tomatoes, shiny green peppers, pumpkins and giant bunches of fresh parsley, coriander and cardoons, followed by fresh fish and seafood such as king prawns, lobsters, monkfish, red mullet and sea bass. At lunchtime the market and neighbouring streets morph into an open-air fish restaurant, busy with local workers disappearing in and out of the smoke from the charcoal braziers. Breathe in the inviting aromas and order yourself a freshly grilled fillet with cumin and lemon, served with roughly chopped tomato, cucumber and red onion salad, dressed with vinegar and olive oil, and accompanied by spicy harissa dip.

Casablanca’s top chefs enter the throng each day to buy their produce here; one such is Casablancan television chef Choumicha, who through her daily and weekly shows, has become the symbol of Moroccan cuisine. We meet to shop for a seafood lunch that Choumicha is preparing; she’s cooking sardine meatballs in a spicy cumin and tomato sauce – such coastal dishes are prominent in Casablancan cuisine. As we survey the colourful displays, I ask Choumicha how she selects the freshest fish. ‘When it seduces me,’ she replies with a laugh. Her answer reminds me of Moroccans’ love affair with food. Choumicha explains that Casablancan food – already a blend of many cultures – is constantly evolving, and while there is a strong demand for traditional Moroccan food (‘The typical French cafés now all serve Moroccan ftour breakfast of msemen pancakes, Moroccan breads and mint tea alongside the usual croissants’), the city’s dining scene has changed with a number of exciting fusion restaurants led by a new breed of talented Moroccan chefs.

One such is Nadi Louahbi of Café M, one of the most avantgarde restaurants in the city, located within the Hyatt Regency. Café M has an identity and spirit of its own; nothing here has been left to chance. The large, wood-panelled room with large arabesque paintings and a 1920s feel, sets the scene for a masterclass in fusion cuisine, where traditional Moroccan ingredients and cooking methods are perfectly blended with those from all over the world. An appetiser of white-blue cheese and toasted pine nuts comes topped with argan oil. It is served with crisp Moroccan bread rolls and followed by langoustine and wild mint wrapped in brik pastry on a bed of slow-cooked tomato and cumin seed chutney.

A short stroll from Boulevard Mohammed V is the port, a major commercial and fishing hub, where weary trawlers return from the Atlantic to unload, and where the appropriately named Restaurant du Port is full virtually every night. The owner comes from a family of fishermen and still sends his boats to sea; the fish here could not be fresher. ‘Most of our customers are locals who know what they want and demand only the best – the majority have been coming for years,’ he explains, as he serves up fiery piri-piri prawns, fresh seafood platters, slow-cooked tagines and paella that are testament to the diversity of the city’s cuisine.

Close by, enclosed within its solid rampart is the old medina, a cluster of small dwellings set in a labyrinth of tiny streets with the evocative charm of days gone by. The families who have lived here for generations are proud to be called ‘wlad la medina’ – born and raised in the medina. Life here may be modest and old-fashioned, but it is also energetic. There are endless small shops supplying fresh meat, groceries, spices and kitchen utensils, and a never-ending commotion of merchants luring you into a good deal.

Tucked away here is Moorish-style Café Sqala, where the fine surroundings in an Andalucían-inspired garden are matched by the quality of the food. You know that, because it’s packed with locals. An avalanche of Moroccan appetisers is delivered to the table: aubergine and cumin purée; fresh broad beans in tomato and green olive sauce; spicy marinated carrots – all fresh and flavoursome. The heady aromas of the vermicelli marinated in charmoula – a blend of garlic, cumin, paprika and lemon – and roasted, red pepper-stuffed sea bass that followed, were the very essence of nostalgic home cooking.

The medina holds another hidden treasure: Rick’s Café, so named after the one in that movie and great place for cocktails or dinner. Although the film was not shot in Casablanca, once you enter Rick’s Café, you are transported to a version of the 1942 set, with crisp white walls and an Arabic colonnade stretching up to a central skylight. Waiters dressed in smart black waistcoats and fez provide a neat contrast to the street style outside.

Casablanca is a city of contrasts. For every crumbling colonial gem there is an equally crumbly concrete eyesore. But there are modern treasures, too. A short distance away is the third-largest mosque in the world, completed in 1993 and named after Hassan II, the late monarch. This mesmerising and colossal edifice is built sitting partly on land, partly on sea; and its beauty is testament to the survival of ancient Moroccan crafts. The multi-coloured, handcut tiles, elaborate metal-work and convoluted plaster and marble constructions are mind-blowing. At night, the mosque is floodlit and a laser beam aimed at Masjid al-Haram in Mecca can be seen from its 210m minaret, the highest in the world.

More serene than the medina, Quartier Habous, or nouvelle medina, was built by the French in the 1930s and is the home of the king’s official Casablanca palace. Here you’ll find the Quaa olive market, made up of row upon row of drums filled with the delicious green, purple and black fruits grown in the Fès and Marrakech regions. A bewildering array of marinades are also made on site by the devoted traders who chop their way through piles of fresh coriander, parsley, thyme, garlic and lemons to create their fragrant herby, lemony or fiery blends. You will also discover heaps of fresh, bright red harissa radiating a heady citrus-spice aroma, and a range of Moroccan extra virgin olive oils.

Follow the scent of sweet almonds, honey and orange blossom, through the wooden doorway and down the yellow-tiled hall of one of the traditional houses, towards a wonderful display of scrumptious Moroccan sweets. Here, members of the Bennis family are maestros of creations such as corn de gazelle, a pastry-covered marzipan sweet in the shape of a half-moon; the honeyed almond briouatte – crisp, deep-fried pastries in the shape of samosas, enrobed in honey; and delicately chewy walnut macaroons. Everything is made to the same 40-year-old method in the communal baking house, known as a faran, across the street.

Artisans abound in the streets and alleyways. The Yazami family are experts in cheese-making and milk derivatives. Nearby at their urban farm shop, you will find a great range of organic farm products such as Moroccan cheeses, olive oil, argan oil and traditional Moroccan pancakes and flatbreads. The family is also renowned for their khlii, a confit of beef made by marinating strips of sundried beef (similar to biltong); the beef is heated in a frying pan and a couple of eggs are fried on top – this is a distinctive Cazawi breakfast and a real local delicacy.

No trip to Casablanca is complete without a wander along the Corniche – a long seafront hub of cafés, restaurants and beach-clubs. Buy ice cream as you enjoy the Atlantic breeze, or visit Le Pilotis restaurant, on the main stretch of the Tahiti Beach. Built like a fisherman’s lodge on a platform above the beach, the waves come crashing by its large bay windows from where there are panoramic views. Paco Siles, the manager, is Spanish-Jewish from northern Morocco and his specialty is Moorish-Spanish fish and seafood. Many Moroccan Spaniards come here to enjoy the Pata Negra cured ham delicately sliced by Paco; the paella, loaded with mussels, king prawn and even lobster, is authentic – with the added depth of flavour from Moroccan saffron.

From the Corniche, hugging the Atlantic coast, Casablanca’s long sandy beaches stretch out either side like the outer edges of a Spanish fan; it pleats unfolding at the centre to reveal the city’s many patterns and colours. It is city that embraces everyone within its land and one that cherishes diversity. In Casablanca tradition is omnipresent but modernity leads the way.