Khrubezet

Every Moroccan town of any size has its souk --- an area set aside for shopping for any and all needs. Think of it as a huge, open-air Wal-Mart with booths, stalls, and tables set up for the selling of all possible wares. Okay, its not really like Wal-Mart at all because it's very crowded and noisy as everyone bustles around, the sellers compete with each other to yell out slogans and prices to attract buyers (something like "Step right up, get your long underwear for less than $5.00...Finest cotton...easy to wash!"), people haggle everywhere (because you never buy things at the first price given), and beggars call out asking for money or food and reciting prayers to prove they are worthy of a few cents. It is also full of smells, good and bad: Popcorn, toasting corn on the cob, stewed snails, spices, roasting coffee, rotting fruit, street trash, diesel fuel, etc.

 In Kenitra, this "people's marketplace" is called "Khrubezet". This name is derived from the word for bread in Arabic: khrubs. A woman who makes bread is a khrubeza. The plural --- women who make bread --- is khrubezet. So the souk or marketplace in Kénitra is named for the women who sell their homemade bread there. We went to Khrubezet on Wednesday night to look for some traditional night gowns called gandora and to buy some olives for our trip to the south of Morocco tomorrow. The gowns were of poor quality but the olives were good.

Here is a picture of one of the streets in Khrubezet. 

The picture is at night because although you can go to Khrubezet during the day, it is most lively as soon as the sun goes down and everything cools off. Khrubezet stays open until close to midnight.

Here is a 1-minute video clip taken while we were at Khrubezet.  This video oes not show any particular event, but rather, the normal goings-on in Khrubezet:

One of the best treats when you visit Khrubezet is to stop and buy some roasted corn on the cob. It is roasted over real wood out in the street. Here is a picture of a friendly vendor who prepared mine. The corn on the cob cost less than 2 dirhams (about 20 cents).