One of the most compelling reasons I wanted to do my Humanities project abroad was because I was so drawn to the idea of trying Moroccan food. I do not feel even slightly weird acknowledging the fact that I am so food-oriented that I signed up to leave the continent and learn Arabic partially to eat new food. In my experience so far in this country, I have been really happy with the food – but there is something that has been very unnerving to me at restaurants:

People leave behind their bread.

For the life of me, I cannot understand how one could literally be given a basket full of bread and walk away without finishing it. There have been more times than I can count that I have been so tempted to get up and take the food left behind on tables and take it for myself so that it won’t go to waste.

Whenever we go out to restaurants, we ask for more baskets of bread, sometimes even more than once. The waiters do not know what’s coming to them when they give these American girls studying Humanities a table at their restaurant. Our first night in Tanger, we had stray dogs and cats tromping around the edge of the outdoor restaurant hoping to be fed scraps and I watched at least three tables completely ignore their complementary bread while our table absolutely destroyed three heaping basketfuls before our entrees even reached the table.

At Cafe Hafa in Tanger, I was distracted from the beautiful views of the Mediterranean and Spain by everyone around us who would order an espresso, drink half of it, and leave. Or the people who wouldn’t fully finish their omelet and let the waiter take it away however many minutes later. Or the people behind us who ordered two delicious looking crepe-like breakfast breads with some jam on top and mint teas and left without hardly touching them! Even though my back was to that table and I was facing the view, I kept turning around because I was just so completely thrown by how they ignored so much perfectly good food. (It didn’t help that we were really hungry at this point and still didn’t have our order taken or bread on the table – but still!)

Here in Morocco, the US dollar goes further than it does at home. I looked up the minimum wage in Morocco and it is roughly $300 per month. Yet complementary food and even food that is ordered and paid for seems to be so easily thrown away while I really make sure to get the most of my meals and join the clean plate club.

I could not for the life of me understand this phenomenon that recurs and recurs, and I even had to bring it up to the university students we met. They said that usually the bread that is served with a meal in restaurants isn’t the best bread they can get, so they tend to ignore it. While I can kind of follow that logic (I say kind of because really that bread that was served on our first night in Tanger was absolutely delicious, so I have a hard time imaging how bread can be so much better), I still don’t like the idea of leaving food behind. Maybe it just goes to show that Americans eat much more than we need to, but honestly I try my best to waste as little food as I can, even if it’s not the best food that I can get.

I’m not sure if it’s just a product of who I happen to be around, or if it’s just common to not finish food here, but I don’t think any amount of time living here will make me feel less compelled to finish everything that’s on the table. I could understand leaving just a little on the plate or in the bread basket to wanting to avoid being the one to take the last piece; but to leave an entire breakfast crepe and half of a mint tea or espresso? I really think the next time I see that, I will actually get up from my seat and take the untouched food for myself. In my opinion, no bread deserves to be ignored.