Day 255 : Oualidia and Seafood

Carmen and I woke up in the morning and decided to explore the town of Oualidia while Aziz went to work.  Oualidia is an extremely modern town, very clean and absolutely empty.  It’s located along the coast line and has a beautiful lagoon in the vicinity. 

Unfortunately it was too windy and as the wind blows, it was really chilly, that there was no way to spend anytime by the beach.

There were many modern apartments around the town of Oualidia, and I was extremely surprised that it was very empty.  Although Aziz was supposed to be working, he managed to pop out of office on a number of occasions and showed us around the area.  He mentioned that during summer, Oualidia will be absolutely packed that it will be beyond recognition.

We stopped at a local food market, where we were suppose to buy our own meats from the meat store around the corner and bring it back to the food vendor, who would marinate the meats and subsequently barbeque it.  Lunch was yummy!

We heard that there is an oyster farm nearby, so we decided to take a walk towards the direction of the farm after lunch.  We probably spent about 45mins walking there, before we found it. 

The oyster farm was really interesting.  Visitors were not supposed to be entering the tanks area, but no one seemed to stopped us, so we ventured on our own and tried to make out the various processes of how oysters were harvested and cleaned in various tanks before they can be ready to be opened for eating.

A group walked in to the farm wanting to buy some oysters, and one of the staff assisted to select the oysters and open them up.  They started getting annoyed with us when we started taking too many photos of them .

We got their cue and decided to head out of the oyster farm and made our way back to Aziz’s apartment. 

We sat down to relax and waited for Aziz to come home.  Seafood is supposed to be really good in Oualidia, and since Hissham supplies them, Aziz mentioned that Hissham will provide us with some seafood for tonight’s dinner, and we just had to pay for the raw cost.

Within hours Hissham arrived and brought a few bags of seafood – huge quantity of bamboo clams, mussels and squid.  As usual, Hissham did the cooking preparation while Carmen assisted with cleaning some of the seafood. 

And as usual whenever Hissham cooks, it seems like he will always make a mess of the kitchen, so Aziz had to clean up while preparation was under way.  As for me, I was the appointed photographer and I snapped away happily while the meal was being prepared.  It’s not everyday that a guy whips up a storm in the kitchen for the girls!

About an hour plus later, food was ready, and we were all starving from the aromatic fragrance of dinner being prepared.  Time to dig in!