Morocco

Moroccan cooking is a fragrant meeting of Berber, Arab, Andalusian, and sub-Saharan traditions, built on slow-cooked tagines, steamed couscous, and preserved lemons. Sweet-and-savory pairings, lamb with prunes, chicken with olives, and spice blends like ras el hanout define a table where bread is the universal utensil.

Couscous is not Morocco's alone: UNESCO inscribed the knowledge and practices around it in 2020 as a shared Algerian, Mauritanian, Moroccan and Tunisian tradition. In Moroccan homes it is the Friday dish, hand-rolled from semolina and steamed three times over the broth it will be served with, carried out on one communal platter after midday prayers.

The Moroccan pantry is shaped by what the land gives: olives and olive oil, argan from the southwest, lemons packed in salt until the peel goes soft, and smen, butter preserved until it turns sharp. Barley was the everyday grain in the south well into the twentieth century before wheat took over, and bakeries turning out fresh khobz remain a fixture of every town.

Spongy "thousand-hole" semolina pancakes drenched in a warm honey-and-butter syrup.