First Ramadan Break-Fast

There was a palpable tension in the streets of Tangier on the evening of Saturday, 22 August. A stiff wind had lifted off the sea, filling the steep streets with jagged dust and scattered garbage in the rush hour when all the men of the city were hurdling home from work to eat the first supper of Ramadan. Shops were filled with men picking up last minute provisions: bread, fruit, sweets; honking cars clogged the streets.

As I passed into the Grand Socco I was looking to break my own private unintentional fast and was hailed in this state by the proprietor of a nondescript cafe. So I availed myself of his good Moroccan hospitality and found that I was the first eater of the fish tagine in all of Morocco, "a lucky man," as the chef, Absalam, told me. He had been preparing the fish on a grill at streetside, slowly marinading it in a broth of tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, rosemary, bay leaves and candied lemon peel. I ate with relish as the sun set and the frantic streets became empty and silent within an instant. The faint crescent of a new moon appeared behind the minaret and palms of the public square before me. Bismillah.

photography
& text by
Daniel Nelson