A Moroccan Oven That's Open to All

[JODO 2]

A Moroccan Oven That's Open to All

By JOAN NATHAN

Published: June 13, 2007

ASSILAH, Morocco

THE best way to understand this fortress town, on the Atlantic coast about 30 miles south of Tangier, is to let your eyes and your nose lead you through the narrow streets where only foot traffic is allowed. While visiting here for a few days, I sniffed my way through the warrens of the medina, built in the 14th century by Portuguese and inhabited later by Muslims and Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. Today the town's population is international, with people from Spain and France buying quaint apartments as second homes.

Morocco, at the end of the spice route in Africa, developed a fine cuisine known for its pungent spice combinations. In Assilah, as in much of the country, people eat seasonally, shop at the outdoor markets, buy live chickens to have slaughtered on the spot, feathers flying helter-skelter. (In the big cities, where health inspectors and supermarkets are taking over, this is a dying custom.) At one market I saw eggs gathered the same morning, carefully protected by strands of hay; lemons preserved in salted water; black and green olives from nearby orchards.

As everywhere else in Morocco, the home cooks make the most flavorful food. But not all of their cooking is done at home.

One morning, I happened upon a crowd of women, along with a few men and small boys, all balancing boards on their heads piled with rounds of dough. I followed them into a small stucco building where smoke poured from the chimney. Inside, a baker stood calmly underneath a portrait of the Moroccan king, Mohammed VI. He carefully placed the mounds of shaped dough on long wooden paddles and slid them into a brick oven fueled with eucalyptus branches.

From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day, customers arrive in a steady stream, pay a few dirhams — about 25 cents — and then leave. About 20 minutes later, they return to pick up their golden rounds of bread.

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