Baking sand bread

From left to right: Mohamed preparing the dough, Rachid our driver/guide and the son of Mohamed pouring the mint tea.

It was the most special and remarkable day of our holidays. It seems that staying 2 nights in the camp is not the usual thing and therefore we had a special program for the day there. Mohamed is the brother of Zaid (the camp manager), a Berber and still living a nomadic life. We were picked up at the camp for a 2 hours dromedary ride through the desert, towards the place where Mohamed and his family are staying. Arriving there we installed ourselves in the shadow of a giant desert tree and stayed there almost the full day.

Mohamed started to prepare lunch, including making the own bread and baking it in the sand. How does it work? Dig a hole, fill it with very fine sand, make a big fire over it, move away the hot ash, put the dough in the sand and cover it again with sand and hot ash. The result of this natural oven was absolutely stunning and delicious.

Anyway, it was fascinating to watch the dedication spent by Mohamed on preparing food, the precision and the minimum of material and water used. Probably skills mandatory to survive in this rough environment. Not that I would like to change, but to receive this glimpse of a totally different lifestyle was a incredible experience.