Dawn and I had dinner a couple weekends ago with friends at Marrakesh, a Moroccan restaurant on Fulton Avenue. We were celebrating Dawn’s and Sisko’s birthdays and so someone decided that sitting on the floor and eating with our fingers would be fun. Did I mention they had belly dancers?

                 Click to enlargeIt’s not that I don’t enjoy Moroccan food - I’ve eaten monkey in the Amazon jungle for Pete’s sake - but my old bones don’t bend as easily as they once did, and sitting on a cushion on the floor was, shall we say, challenging, at least the getting up part and the turning around to watch the belly dancer. Did I mention that? There was a belly dancer!

Anyway, we were among friends, twelve of us altogether, so stuffing couscous and shish kabob into our mouths with our fingers was acceptable and the resulting snickering was in jest. But there was at least one in our group who couldn’t quite get into it. I won’t mention any names, but I think the idea of couscous and lamb fat under her freshly French-manicured nails and the whole “messiness” of it all may have harpooned her appetite.

                 Click to enlargeI should mention that the Casablanca Moroccan beer was good as was the floor show! Belly dancing, can you believe it? And it was a little different than I remembered from last time. I guess the establishment wants their dancers to be a little more classy - belly dancing is, after all, an art form - than they used to be, so tipping is now done in a special head-balanced tip jar rather than dollar bills being strategically tucked in the dancers’ costumes by drunken male diners. How tacky, right? They’re not strippers, after all! Was I disappointed? A little. What can I say, I’m a creature of habit.

I’ll have to do a little research to understand why they sprinkled rose water all over us after our meal. Kind of a surprise when you don’t see it coming. Maybe it’s customary in the desert to help distinguish you from the camels. Anyway, it was a delightful evening with dear friends who, no matter how messy the food may get, will always be there to wipe your chin for you. It doesn’t get any better than that.