Nador Seafood Cooking Class - Rif Mediterranean Catch

Nador sits on the Mediterranean edge of the Rif, beside the vast Marchica lagoon, in Tarifit-speaking Berber country close to the enclave of Melilla. Its food is northern and coastal, distinct from both the Atlantic ports and the interior - a Rifian Mediterranean cuisine built on the local catch and the region's own traditions. A seafood class here explores a corner of Morocco few travellers ever cook in.

You work with the Mediterranean catch - sea bream, sardines, prawns, calamari and the shellfish of the Marchica lagoon - and learn the coriander, garlic, cumin and paprika chermoula that dresses Moroccan fish, building a fish tagine layered over tomatoes and peppers and grilling the fresh catch simply. The host explains how the lagoon and the Mediterranean shape the local table, and how Rifian cooking differs from the Atlantic and the imperial cities.

Because Nador is a working north-eastern city rather than a tourist stop, the class is personal and thoroughly local. It is a natural choice if you are travelling the Rif or the Mediterranean coast, or crossing at Melilla, and it gives a taste of a regional cuisine that rarely appears in Moroccan cooking classes. You finish by eating everything you cooked with bread, salads and mint tea.