"Doing it cheap" in Marakesh

Arriving in Marrakesh we were keen to "do things on the cheap" for a while after the rather expensive few days in London. We found a suitably cheap place to stay ($10 each) right next to the main square "Djemaa el-Fna". Next it was time to find somewhere to eat. the square held lots of promise with amazing clouds of steam and smoke and some great smells wafting from the rows and rows of food stalls. But Kelly had the Lonely planet out and had found something a little more decadent.

Casa Lalla, the home and restaurant of Michelin starred Chef Richard Neat, sounded like too good an opportunity to miss. Born in France, Richard had left Europe for a quieter life in Morocco and runs a small guesthouse and restaurant from his home deep through the winding narrow alleyways of Old Marakesh. The lonely planet said "book well in advance" but we thought we'd have a go at finding it anyway. After several detours and quite a few geographically embarrassing moments we spotted a tiny arrow pointing don and alley with the name "Casa Lalla. Winding through narrower and narrower alleys we finally came upon a large closed wooden door. "Must be closed", we thought. I knocked just to make sure and within in a minute Richard was at the door speaking to us in rapid fire French. After our poor attempts at French he changed to English and we we delighted to find he had space for us tonight! We were to return promptly at 8PM. He mentioned something about alcohol but we weren't sure what so went on our way.

After a few attempts at buying any wine failed we returned with a bottle of water at 8PM. Well the place was AMAZING. The house was an alcove from the never-ending bustle of Marakesh. It had pools and columns and a chef who was also the waiter. The food was well described in the lonely planet as "a fusion of Moroccan and Haute French cuisine" and was quite incredible. And he had a bottle of Moroccan red wine for us as well! Although costing around 10 times the price of a meal at the street stalls we both agreed it had been worth it. So our 1st day on the cheap had not been so cheap after all but we had eaten and been served by a Michelin starred chef in his own home.