The art of...thoughtful feasting

It was a Moroccan tagine that taught ANNA HART to relax her ethics and eat, drink and be merry like a local.

-  ANNA HART

Every lapsed vegetarian can name the dish that vanquished them: mine is Moroccan lamb tagine. Tagine brought me back from the brink of veganism and turned me into a committed omnivore. But this is no simple tale of an adventurous and anaemia-weakened traveller succumbing to temptation in an exotic land. Certainly, tagine is one of the most seductive dishes on the planet. I’m Irish and descended from a proud stew culture, but the addition of cumin, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon and saffron – not to mention dates, apricots and figs – to braised lamb, chicken or beef strikes me as the artistry of a far superior civilization. But tagine didn’t simply tempt me, it taught me. Tagine forever changed how I eat, particularly when I travel.