Exotic spices, flickering candle light and bold colours; east meets west at your Moroccan themed dinner party, where colours and spices are the main ingredients.
Ambience
A low table and cushions scattered on the ground spell instant Morocco. You can achieve this by sitting around your coffee table (or pushing together a couple of coffee tables, if yours isn't big enough). Buy or make festive cushions for your guests to sit on.
The colour palette should be rich and vibrant. Choose jewel tones like fuchsia, turquoise and gold, warm shades like burgundy, orange and yellow, cool shades like blues and purples or mix them all together for a colour explosion. This is one theme where you don't have to worry about colours clashing!
Cover your table with a bright cloth and use
coloured glass,
candle holders,
lanterns and
vases as centrepieces. Again, you don't have to worry too much about elements clashing – at this dinner party, more is more.
Have some sitar music playing softly in the background, turn off all the lights and eat by candlelight.
The menu
Moroccan cuisine is characterised by the use of spices and other flavourings, but is also quite diverse, due to the nations interaction with other cultures. The meal structure typically begins with hot and cold salads, followed by a meat dish and concluding with a cup of
sweet mint tea. The food is eaten with the hands and bread is taken with every course.
For a traditional Moroccan dinner menu, see
this site. For something a little less exotic, try this
menu.