The Art of Moroccan Cuisine (Part II)

A Culture of Eating, Drinking, and Being Hospitable 

BREAD :
Bread, or khubz is sacred in Morocco. If a piece of bread from the dinner table falls on the ground, you are to pick it up and kiss it. It is also forbidden to throw away bread, so families keep their leftover bread aside to give to the poor, or to the livestock. Since very few Moroccan households have an oven, almost every neighborhood has a community oven where people take their bread dough to be baked. In the countryside, every family has its own traditional oven made of mud. At the table, instead of a fork and knife, Moroccans use a small piece of bread, their thumb and first two fingers to pick up food. You may discover that it becomes more useful than a fork at times, since you can use it to soak up the tasty sauce of the tagine while also picking pieces of meat and vegetables. Since bread plays such an important role in eating, it is always distributed evenly at meals so that no one will have to ask for a piece.