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Food & Drink Culinary Travel Of earth & ember


In the villages of Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains, life for the Amazigh people continues to revolve around food, family and the land — just as it has for millennia. Words: Farida Zeynalova


P


erched at around 1,800 metres, the village of Tikhfi st feels like another world. I’m at the home of


local farmer Hassan Ait Mbarek, along with his wife Aïcha, their three children — Khadija, Fatima and Imran — Hassan’s parents Zahra and Hussein, and my guide Hamid. Tagine, both the name of the dish


and the cone-shaped clay pot it’s cooked in, is so central to life here that Aïcha will sometimes make it twice in one day. It’s a simple combination of slow-cooked meat and vegetables, with the specifi cs shifting from region to region. Here in the High Atlas Mountains, it’s usually goat and whatever vegetables are in season. Aïcha mixes chopped garlic, red


THE FAMILY EATING TRADITIONAL COUSCOUS AT HOME IN TIKHFIST/JONATHAN STOKES


onion, coriander, parsley, home- pressed olive oil, salt, paprika and turmeric, then spreads the mixture in the tagine to caramelise. Within seconds, the air swells with spice, mingling with the hiss of the teapot bubbling away on the fi re. At 2pm, the wavering call of the muezzin drifts through the window, summoning villagers to prayer. Zahra murmurs prayers softly as she layers bottle gourd, green beans, potatoes, carrots, green pepper and the goat into the


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tagine, before leaving it to simmer for two hours. While we wait, we gather around


a low round table in the kitchen. Hassan pours green tea infused with mint, lifting the pot as high as he can to cool and aerate the water. Wearing her perpetual smile, Zahra tears off a piece of piping-hot bread, tops it with a walnut plucked from the tree in their yard and gestures for me to try it. As I do, I ask if she’s ever been tempted to move away from the village. “T e modern, easy life in the cities isn’t for me,” Zahra says, her widening eyes ringed with black eyeliner. “I want to look out my window, stretch my eyes and see land and mountains, not buildings.” T e land, after all, is their lifeline.


It’s where they tend to their 10 sheep and where, despite droughts, they grow fruit and vegetables so organic that, according to Zahra, the family never need to see a doctor. In summer, they all sit on carpets outside and talk into the early hours, often with a barbecue on the go. “People here don’t need much to be happy,” Hamid tells me. “Here, our wi-fi is conversation.” When it’s time to eat, we move


to the main dining room and sit at a table beside a large window. Aïcha sets the tagine in the centre, alongside a simple tomato and onion salad and a mound of fl atbread. Zahra lifts the lid of the tagine. Tearing bread for everyone around


“Nobody wears a watch


here, but they will always have the time”


the table, she says “Bismillah” (‘in the name of Allah’), a blessing spoken before meals. I scoop up the buttery- soft stew, which melts the moment it hits my mouth, juices dripping down my chin. When the goat follows, it’s impossibly tender — warming, rich and slightly tangy with cumin. For a few minutes, no one speaks.


I use the silence to refl ect on the resilience of the Amazigh people. Despite the myriad temptations of the modern world, they hold fast to family, community and a uniquely conscious simplicity. “Nobody wears a watch here,” says Hamid, pointing towards the entanglement of hands scooping tagine. “But they will always have the time.”


First published in the Culinary Collection by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Read the feature in full at nationalgeographic.com/travel


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