Mechoui for me
Marrakesh, Morocco
I AM EATING lunch at a small table in the back of a tiny little restaurant located in an alley off the massive lively square, the Jemaa el-Fnaa, in Marrakesh, Morocco. To call it a restaurant is a stretch of the imagination as only one dish is served here – roasted lamb called mechoui (mesh-wee).
The restaurant oven is in the floor by the tables, 3 feet from where I sit. The oven is topped with a heavy lid that resembles a manhole cover. Periodically, the lid covering the blazing coal fire below is opened and using a hook on a long pole, baskets of fresh bread are lowered or raised. Whole lamb carcasses are placed into this oven, male lambs only, with testicles prominently displayed as the meat of the male is considered the most tender, I am told.
When the roasted lamb is ready, it is hauled up and hacked into pieces for the restaurant guests, then served on pieces of white paper used as plates. It is soft, succulent, greasy, and incredibly delicious, eaten with the fingers, the only seasoning a pinch of cumin mixed with salt provided in small ceramic bowls.
The server walks back and forth, stepping nonchalantly on the manhole lid covering the amazingly hot oven beneath his feet. When he opens the top to raise or lower baskets or another lamb, I peer into the underground oven. It is fiery red hot. I back away from the heat, my face burning.
OSHA would never, ever approve this in the USA.