Fraser Suites Tickles Taste Buds at Ramadan with Moroccan Flavour

Fraser Suites Abuja last week capitalised on the ongoing Ramadan season to offer its guests a taste of Moroccan cuisine as selected guests gathered by the pool to relish the Iftar tradition in an event that promised to leave a lasting memory on the participants, reports Olawale Ajimotokan

Fraser Suites Abuja raised the bar in the fast-breaking tradition of Ramadan by offering its guests a taste of Moroccan culinary.
The luxury apartment has since last year been enriching the guest experience with the finest dining of delicious Iftar feast after sunset.
This year was no exception as selected guests gathered by the pool side to relish the Iftar tradition of carefully prepared gourmet.
Chef Essam, with over 20-year experience and promoting Moroccan cuisine in many countries abroad, carefully curated the buffet.
The General Manager, Fraser Suites, Gonçalo Ramos, said they were taking advantage of the Ramadan to join families and share moments by the poolside.
“Iftar is a very important moment to reunite families and friends from all over the world. We invite people to celebrate our culinary, our ambience, our services. This year, especially to enhance the culinary experience, we invited a Moroccan chef, who has a lot of experience.
“We decided to bring him to Nigeria during this holy month of Ramadan because he can mix the local culinary with Moroccan culinary, bringing a traditional and amazing opportunity to discover new flavours,” Ramos, who has been in Nigeria for two years said.
The buffet composed of starters like pepper soup, harira, tagines of beef, chicken and lamb, the famous couscous of Morocco, suya, pizzas, dessert from Morocco, panna cotta from Italy and a little bit of an international kitchen from all over the world.
The buffet was served outdoor within an amazing landscape and enjoyed with the ambience of the pool.
“This place is idyllic and on the weekends we have a violinist playing music for us. And you can enjoy a Moroccan tea, mint tea after your meal or a nice coffee. You can do whatever you want. We invite you to come with your family as well. The kids have a playground area where they can play and the parents can be safe. And enjoying the talking while the kids are playing around”.
Ramos joked he felt the boutique apartment
located in the Central Business District, was a victim of its success of last year which explained why the quality of the culinary was a priority and extra efforts made to ensure the flavors were delicious.
He admitted: “We are very confident on that. And I think it’s also because it is Iftar and again environment you will find here. It’s a completely family and quiet environment. It’s ideal to spend not only the iftar but to enjoy until a little bit late. So you have time enough. But I think the success of last year brings us to the success of this year”.
He reckoned that while the maiden Iftar was a huge success, they refused to rest on their oars, which explained the decision to bring new flavors to the table, in form of the Moroccan or North African culinary which is very rich, spicy and highly tempered.
“And you can try all of them here. And we continue to improve. So we want to bring this feeling of discovery. Not only this period of Ramadan, the Feast of Sweet Abuja during the year. We will be inviting all of you to discover many, many flavors. Last year we did the Turkish festival, the Italian festival, Mexican festival. We will continue surprising the population not only from Abuja but from Nigeria as well”.
Ramos has been in Africa since 2009. He spent six years in Morocco and worked in Angola, Cape Verde as well in Uganda.
“I was a big fan of the Nigerian football in 1994. We used to have Emmanuel Amuneke playing for Sporting Lisbon, which is the team I support. And I’m very happy. This country has been surprising me every day. Not only for the beautiful property I’m lucky to manage but especially for the people I found here. For example, I was in Angola. Of course there is a past between Angola and Portugal. I never felt the same welcome like I feel here. Even in Angola with the language, you will go to a club, you will find foreigners on one side and locals on one side. I don’t like that kind of division. Everybody together. Exactly. And here it’s amazing. People here are very kind, very welcoming, very intellectual and intelligent. You can keep a conversation and everything. Very business-oriented,” Ramos said.