Spicing Up Your Winter Travel

AN STYLE='font-size: 100%; color: #990000; font-weight: bold; '>Learn Local Cooking Traditions in Morocco
If you crave a walk on the exotic side and want to learn some ancient cooking techniques as well, "A Feast for the Senses" in Morocco might be the trip for you. It's run by food enthusiast and entrepreneur Peggy Markel, who started Culinary Adventures in 1992. Her small outfit specializes in unique journeys that promise to immerse participants in local cooking traditions. So don't expect slickly trained chefs. Instead Markel prefers local cooks who can impart techniques that have been passed through generations.

Markel's Moroccan excursion lasts about 10 days (March 19 to 28; $3,895 to $4,195 a person), and there is plenty of sightseeing in between the grinding and stewing. She tends to attract a small (no more than 10 people) but inquisitive group aged in the mid-40s and older, all bound by a love of adventure and traditional foods.

Morocco is a relatively new destination for Markel, who had been limited to cooking tours of Italy. The trip adds a range of new flavors to her palette. The northern African cuisine is known for its fragrance and spice. Cumin, preserved lemons, orange-blossom water and slow-baked foods dominate. Home base is mostly at the Jnane Tamsna, a lushly appointed boutique guesthouse with organic gardens created by an American ethnobotanist and a designer who are friends of Markel's. This 17-room, six-acre estate is smack in the middle of date palms in the heart of the Palmeraie Oasis near the city of Marrakech. There is no restaurant, but there is a resident chef, and Bajia is your teacher. By the time you leave, you will never again make couscous from a box but will have learned to roll it (do not let it clump) sensually in your fingers. Your harissa (a fiery blend of cumin, garlic and red chilis) will be spiced perfectly, and cooking up sumptuous masterpieces in a peaked clay tagine will be your new dinner-party staple.

But you don't travel across the world to stay cooped up in a kitchen all day. While the kitchen experience is germane (mornings or afternoons are centered on cooking your lunch or dinner), Markel has built in plenty of activities and road trips to round out the journey. After a few days of acclimation, there are new restaurants and teahouses in Marrakech to experience, plus gentle hikes in the Atlas Mountains, nights sleeping in the casbah and visits to the aromatherapy garden of Jalil Belkamel in the Ourika Valley. One of the most fascinating afternoons is spent in the village of Fouloust, where the argan tree, prized for its oil, is indigenous. Village women show how they crack the argan nuts in the traditional way between stones. After a lunch of grilled fish, hop on the back of a camel for a romp on a deserted beach.

This sort of roughing it will probably get you in the mood for a glass of wine or two. Wine production is on the upswing here. Much of it is based on the grapes of southern France, and they are full of simple but sunbaked fruit flavors. Markel makes sure there's plenty of opportunity for tasting.

And there is also time for yourself. Guides are available (should you want one) to ensure that you don't get lost in the suq; they can direct you to the best bargains in Moroccan tiles or fabrics. Always seeking to improve her offerings, Markel tells me that this year she is adding an optional three-day literary salon at Jnane Tamsna. New York Times writer Alan Riding will be there, as well as other authors. Bookworms who like to explore a new culture should start booking now.