Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown S01E06 2013 1080p WEB DL H264 AAC DDHDTV

[Music] all [Music] I've always wanted to get as far away as possible from the place that I was [Music] born far both geographically and spiritually to leave it behind I took a this beautiful world felt the on my my [Applause] shoulder found something good in this beautiful girl I felt the rain gettinger [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] tangir it's Morocco but from 1923 through 1956 it was Loosely governed by the major powers in international zone for years it seemed everything was permitted nothing was forbidden at the northern tip of Africa a short Ferry hop from Spain Tangier was a magnet for Fighters remittance men spies and artists if you were a bad boy of your time you like drugs the kind of sex that was frowned upon at home and an affordable lifestyle set against an exotic background Tangier was for you nice matis Jan William Burrows many have come this way staying a while or hanging around but no one stayed longer or became more associated with Tangier than the novelist and composer Paul BS in works like the Sheltering Sky he created a romantic vision of Tangier that persists even today a dream that has become almost Inseparable in the minds of many from [Music] reality I'm here to find that dream City the place Burrows referred to as inter [Music] [Music] Zone tajir like I said was a city of expats people with pasts people who simply didn't like where they were and craved somewhere and something else the grand sooko is the gateway to the Medina where you could find the kasba which means Fortress by the way the port of Tangier is to the East and right in the middle of it all the patis soo what Uncle Bill Burrows called the last stop the meeting place the switchboard of Tangier reasons for settling in Tangier diverge but everyone sooner or later since the beginning of memory comes to Cafe tingis Jonathan Dawson came to this city over 20 years ago as a journalist and he never left he lives a life not too distant from Burrow's fantasy cake and tea at four every day served by his manservant he may not have a gazelle but a pet rooster will do and every day he makes the rounds of the cafes seeing all the old fa ending up sooner or later here so this is the ptis this is the petty Soo yeah this Soo existed in Phoenician times existed in Roman times it existed in the Portuguese times the English were here for 22 years then the international city until 1956 and now it's completely Mor but this is a very historic Square very historic as a writer um I've noticed everybody who comes here to do an article does the same article well it's so damn boring they all do pole balls the Beat Generation and uh there are there are lots of other stories in Morocco apart from that but Everyone likes the Beats Bill bars and all that stuff and Tennessee Williams and uh they were all here yeah but that's a small part of Moroccan history that's a 15E period there was there's a life before that and a life after that you're here yeah it was inevitable Let's Pretend those guys never came what is what is what is this place well the reality is if you can read a Paul ball story and you can live it and people do come here and try and live it but they don't stay very long they smoke a bit of dope and they live in a cheap hotel and they go home with bed bugs that's a great story and a great story but I mean the attitude here is different than other parts of Morocco I think they have a higher tolerance and tradition of a bad or or or outrageous behavior they have a higher tolerance of mad people you know uh but the Moroccans essentially are very tolerant people they quite like Madness and as as well they kind of celebrate that a bit you know how Moroccan is cure it's a Moroccan city with a European Outlook you know you can stand up on the boulevard you can see Spain and jalter so you see all sorts of people passing through but it's a very Moroccan City I as I'm 62 years old I didn't know it in the international days which finished in 50 1956 but at that time I think Europeans may have outnumbered Moroccans in in the center of this city it's not the case now there are very few Europeans actually living here fulltime the notion of living a life of part of of uh being somewhere else um there are those who who who like that feeling I like that feeling um and then there are those who they may live apart they may live somewhere else but they're not entirely comfortable it's the the the the difference annoys them or is a burden it did and it frustrates them some people have to leave home to find their home I'm one of those people whereas I didn't feel at home in the country I was born at all but here I feel okay I feel very very happy here there is indeed something special about this place Burrows describe the native quarter of Tangier as a maze of sunless twisting streets filled with blind [Music] alleys its smell was particularly notable to him including a mix of hashish seared meat and sewage Tangier before anything else is essentially a port city with all the things that traditionally come with port cities it's situated at the choke point between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea the Moroccan Coast is a rich fishing ground and a lot of people make their living from the sea on Shore they use a method called sen Hall fishing where weighted Nets basically drag fish across the bottom of the sea some of that fish the good stuff anyway ends up here the de or restaurant popular or Popeyes the place has got a lot of names but locals and expats alike who've been coming here for years say it's got some of the best hajen in town Mohammad belhage the owner and head chef is from the nearby riff mountains and he sources a lot of his stuff his produce and his greens from there and he's real proud of them the back room of the place is dedicated to sorting and drying various herbs which he Blends into a secret mix he claims has all sorts of helpful and boner inspiring benefits look if every dish I've been told over the years was going to make me strong worked I'd have a permanent pup tent going on down there so I take all that with a grain of salt hi hello hi bel's son Hassan delivers the food Olive it all starts with fresh olives they're in season now and roasted walnuts some warm very good bread squishy juice this oh yeah and you get this stuff everybody gets it a pulpy puree of figs raisins strawberries drink and full of Muhammad's potent herbs and spices of course all the night 24:00 yeah yeah yeah I get it it's supposed to make me more manly you know what I'm eating let's not talk about that okay sunshine I got the luck what is a tajine anyway it's a traditional Moroccan stew that can include vegetables meat or fish tonight baby shark calamari and monkfish with fresh Mountain spinach slowly cooked over charcoal in the classic Clay Pot that gives it its name the Tajin Dome top is supposed to force the condensation back into the dish and keep it moist and tender that's delicious I think it's the like these greens and aromatics and herbs I have no idea what they are I've never had anything like CH your version of Farm to Table hi oh hi good wow what's that was good thank you and a whole turbo brushed with olive oil salt and pepper and some coriander then grilled perfectly over the coals cuddled up next to the fish tiny shark kebabs cute wow spectacular good value all of this for 20 bucks I think we did a pretty good job on Mr Fish that'll teach you it's like that guy when you know you're tripping and know goes like this to you for dessert strawberries pine nuts and honey like the whole meal it's eccentric and delicious thank you you're welcome haven't had so much fruits some nuts since Alon I told Mick I said Mick this is a bad crowd get back in the chopper but he's like well no man we can't disappoint the fans ah memories [Music] there is one particular Cafe in the heart of the casba that has drawn in foreign dignitaries rock stars Aristocrats and artists since it opened its doors in 1943 Cafe Baba sweet mint tea and a thick slow-moving Haze of smoke it smells like my dorm room 1972 evening hello hi I'm George this is George bajalia and zenb Ben jalon thank you for having me yeah playing Welcome to Cafe Baba I should say right now I have no direct knowledge or awareness of either George or zenb smoking any illegal substances nor do I have any contemporaneous recollection at this time of me doing anything untour in their presence because that would be like wrong dude some George is here on a Fullbright scholarship and zenab is an artist from robot others in the room however well don't give me that innocent look you young punks I know somebody in here smoking reefer so how stoned are people here well we can ask just ask H you know you're not getting totally ripped here no it's a functional part of daily life for a long time the rest of the country and the government didn't really like Tanger a whole lot it was CD there were these foreigners who came here and did he likes T he likes yeah it makes money he sees it as a future economic superpower as I understand he's condos boutique hotels is that good or bad for Moroccans it's uh it's work but of course experts want to keep T like they know it before I mean this Cafe is very similar to the way it was but there's a TV right there flat screen and that's why a lot of people come here they come to watch soccer games you can well imagine the American guy who's lived in in uh tenier for 30 years okay he comes in and there's a flat screen TV on the on the wall he's like what the yeah you've ruined the authenticity and integrity but the Moroccan guy at the next table he's said wait a minute wait a minute [ __ ] you have a flat screen TV at home I want one too what's wrong with that yeah there are people here who've probably never heard of PA right if you only follow that there's no progression there's no progress there's no change the thing about Cafe Baba is that just sitting here taking in the atmosphere you begin to appreciate the place it's something something different is happening here contact high whoa I'm hungry wait until the Spanish tortilla dude across the street opens for business this is abdilla he specializes in making one thing and he makes it well an omelet well it's actually more like a Spanish tortilla but like Stone deer the potatoes are boiled diced then mixed with beaten eggs and cooked in a cast iron skillet oh yeah yeah the eggs the Eggman I am me and we are you and where's my omelette dude cuz I am hungry one two 3 abdilla is just waiting for you right when you come stumbling out of Cafe Baba coincidence or not you be the judge ketchup and mayonnaise everything ketchup and mayonnaise sure why not condiment options I will be hard pressed to turn down at this precise moment moment anyway a lot of mayonnaise there a good Munch dude that's awesome I'll have 12 [Music] more in their natural reir Paul BS lived in Tangier for over 50 years and Sher nutting was part of his inner circle near the end of his life she was his friend recordkeeper of sorts and photographer you arrived when I in the' 70s but I went down to mares mhm and then in ' 86 I wrote a letter to Paul BS and said I had to meet him and take his picture and he wrote back and he said come and visit well I never left like a lot of people came here to live that dream or to live that life uh has the reality come to resemble his perception of the reality or the Tangier that I see as Paul balls and I still see it I still feel it you can still find the magic the market or souk in Tangier is one of the best in all Morocco the food stalls and vendors are still pretty impressive wander the markets long enough and you're sure to stumble across the unexpected who sure how about a lamb's head here nothing goes to waste Char bril to crispy burnt Perfection the meat is scraped off and served on a crusty lunch bread not so adventurous the grand soo's indoor market offers a variety of smoked cured and fresh meat smells good in here the stuff looks good oh oh I've heard this cheese is amazing it's good yeah um can I have one a Berber favorite fresh goat cheese wrapped in Palm leaves yeah they're beautiful aren't they that's good sh a little cheese a little flatbread the perfect Moroccan breakfast to go Something Magic about we're headed into the jabala foothills of the rift mountain range about 85 km south of Tangier to a place called Juka the village is home to the people of the all Sharif tribe which Loosely translated means the saintly people Juka is also home to one of Morocco's betterk known musicians bashier atar Jazz and rock androll musicians have traveled from all over the world to Juka to meet this guy bashier is part of a lineage of Master musicians all from this small Mountain Village famously dubbed as a 4,000-year-old rock band by William burrow Basher his son and these mus musicians maintain one of the oldest still living musical traditions on [Music] Earth we're invited for dinner it's family style of course beginning with brat like a Kea pocket hand formed envelopes of dough filled with seasoned beef baked until golden then crisped in oil oh we're good for now one more uhoh here we go the main event tajen of chicken yeah welcome Tony thank you just gorgeous first chopped onions garlic parsley and turmeric are blended with olive oil the bird is generously coated and stuffed then after simmering in a touch of olive oil and water the chicken is fried till crispy served with roasted almonds and olives paprika and ginger nice he smells the food like anywhere else in the Arab world eating with your hands always the right one is proper dining etiquette this is special spinach oh it's like wild spinach that grows in the M boa is chopped Mountain spinach garlic cilantro hot and black Peppers finished with lemon and olive [Music] oil that's delicious I heard you are the the the the greatest taste for a food in the world man I love good food this is good after dinner some fruit some mint tea and let the music [Music] begin for centuries the master musicians of Juka have been the musical choice of the royal families of Morocco excused by the country's rulers from manual labor to devote themselves to musical training [Music] their powerful style of Sufi trans music has inspired many musical Seekers including most notably perhaps Paul BS who wrote about them and recorded them and spread the word Brian Jones was here and recorded the pipes of pan at Juka with these musicians the word spread and the master musicians have ended up being featured on albums by Maciel Parker ornette Coleman in the Rolling Stones for years if you were a rock God you had to come here dig the crazy percussion and strings and pipes that took you to another place it's intricate hypnotic beautiful and if you're in the right uh frame of mind [Music] mesmerizing anyone who comes to Tangier inevitably ends up lost in the old part of the City the Medina is just what you want it to be the ancient world residing just next to and around the new one you can walk around inside the movie in your head play the boogy character you never were all against an all too willing all too genuine backdrop the ordinarily just about the last thing in the world I'd be interested in doing is antiquing but buried in the network of Twisted narrow streets of the old city is Boutique Majid owned and operated and personally curated by this man Abdel Majid R sfen hello how are you he's one interesting guy thank you coming in when he was a little kid back in the 60s Majid left his hometown of Fez and came here where he'd earn a few Durham a night emptying ashtrays at the Wild and extravagant parties being thrown here by wealthy expats he saw what these people would buy for themselves and how they decorate their homes and he started to look around for himself scoring then reselling art and antiques wow it became something of an obsession now his artifacts from Morocco and all across Northern Africa are bought by collectors from all over the world carpets antiques wood carvings jewelry and old doors wow these are incredibly beautiful tell me about that Umber Coral shelves this used to be currency this shell how old is this this is uh early 20s late 19 the umber is millions of years old how much are you selling this piece for by by weight by weight yeah it's quite heavy piece this one 4 129 G so it comes like uh 42,000 Dam so that's how much in dollar like almost 5,000 5,500 about $5,000 almost so we look at another floor oh yes follow me yeah there is a nice collection of uh things from the Sahara so you travel little bit a lot not like you oh this is uh for pounding man yes this is from theone tribe from Mali how much will this sell for do you think this around $300 really for this that's very reasonable yes I'll be buying that that's going to be an old friend also memory a memory of tangir as well Majid suggests lunch at andalo a Local's only place nearby as a Moroccan so many westerners who come to Tangier come with a romantic notion of a tenure they read about in books do people have a realistic expectation when they come here are they looking for Morocco are they looking for this fantasm no it is a fantasm it is when you get here you if you know Morocco you you feel that you in Morocco but you're not there's a lot of Mediterranean touch to this town and also the history people hear story about t that it was like when I first came in 60s everybody said to me you you came late T War right now I'm saying the same thing as these young now they come and they say wow I said what was better about those days well to see for me at that time I was young and it was the boom of hippies and uh it was uh the destination you know Cafe Baba you meet Bob Dylan you go here and the parties was going on we I miss this kind of parties people fly from everywhere to the party and they make the whole town move blue and white party white and gold party a hat party you know it's amazing and you see people com in with amazing hats like a cage with a bird extravagant hats you know it's like people put so much energy and time into these parties you know look at the oh now that looks good tomatoes brushed with local olive oil garlic and coriander liver kebabs beef liver to be exact grilled over charcoal now that looks very nice for fish a bit of sword fish and some orange ruffy that is just beautiful how do you like the Tomato oh and the swordfish is amazing yeah so how else have things changed you saw how many tourist there was today they're in a hurry if they come to the shop they even try to avoid your eye contact they Fred if I if you get my eye contact I'm going to rip you off or make you buy something that they don't want to buy I don't know I don't know they have this uh do they buy they don't even say hello they don't buy of course we call them penguin they have short hands doesn't get to the pockets I I'm just [Music] [Music] kidding when Tangier was in her Z back in the day it seemed to some I'm sure as if the expats outnumbered the locals that was never true but you certainly could live a life apart make your own world within the existing one reinvent yourself and live entirely within a universe of your own creation far from the grand Soo is a 14 acre estate owned by Christopher Gibbs a well-known dealer of antiques and longtime expat today he's having a garden party who's coming Jonathan you know Maggie Dean is from Scotland she's been living here for more than a decade GP de rishma a Frenchman who has his hands on a lot of businesses including a cafe in the kasban years living in tajir unknown Bianca Hamry an American she's been here forever led many lives I gather and occasionally translates books from mcrai to English and The Dashing and mysterious Baron de Kira gas an artist from Chile who's been living and working in the kasba since a hasty exit from Puerto Rico for reasons never fully [Music] explained on the menu bastilla a meat or often pigeon Pie as traditional Moroccan as it gets today made by Gibbs full-time Cooks J and Fama in basa the bead on this particular day is chicken which is slow cooked in broth and spices pulled or shredded and then folded into an egg mixture cooked in the reduced stock from the boil this is layered with blanched almonds powdered sugar and cinnamon and then the whole lot is then wrapped in foa Brick a crepe like dough after baking to a golden crispiness the final touches a dusting of even more cinnamon and sugar it's got a sweet Savory thing going on and it's quite tasty yeah exactly if you get nervous when you go in a room and you touch the light switch and the lights don't come on you shouldn't be in this country what what was that first moment you said you know I could live here I I I'm still quite unsure about that um now I came here first 1958 when it was quite different um everyone wore native dress yes but Islam still the throbbing motor of life here I have very tender um feelings for um Morocco and the friendliness and courtesy of the people and of the children who you know they didn't say off Grandad like we do in England they sayah I always feel welcome here I never consider that this is mine it's theirs and they've allowed me to live here in a very nice way and I feel recognition they know who I am they know who I am there is a side by side aspect to life here that's very unusual very unusual here it's mostly you can do whatever you want if you do it with good manners but it is a sort of a Station of the Cross for you know the bad boys of of culture I mean berain Rambo hi pop the stones bar and G Barrow writes about he came here to be a writer he was a junkie before he was a writer as so many of us were but I think this was a place of wanted to think of yourself as a writer you would come here and somehow you were working within a romantic tradition burrow said right up front to me a writer from when I was a little boy a writer was a guy who lounged around in a smoking jacket or a calfan smoking a Hash Pipe or an opium pipe you know beautifully anointed H fi littered with sleeping boys yes um or girls to what extent did that world exist and to what extent did was that World created by the people who showed up with that expectation since Bill departed r dear wonderful marvelous man since he's gone it's bit tame now a little bit he he he was Gentile he was a he was the very opposite of Gentile he was an outlaw for every society my husband knew him very well and was telling the yes bill and I said he said I cured him of being a drug addict I said how he said I turned him into an alcoholic who smokes hashish at this table please raise your hand is the camera on put your hands [Music] up it's my last night in tajir and I'm headed out do that blank one thank you yes most cities of the Islamic World getting a beer could be difficult not here long as you're outside the Medina nearly anything goes Tangier reverts to its libertine past here Western influences become very [Music] apparent any night of the week is a good night for young Moroccans to take to the streets of the vvo otman noer is from a generation of Moroccans far removed from the Romantic conceits of the bowls Burrows era he's invited me out for a casual snack bados Spanish style sandwiches with tuna veggies hard-cooked eggs and a healthy wad of mayo a crispy layer of french fries within the sandwich this is delicious by the way the bread here is very good you work in a magazine uh journalist yeah I'm not a journalist but I I I own an urban magazine here in Tanger to inform Moroccans we are living in a place that's pretty special it's not for any purpose that William bars or Paul BS or HRI matis all these people came to Tanger the city has something which makes it different from other you know from other cities but what about Young Artists Young Writers Young Musicians did they come here expecting this romantic Paul B's Wonderland of the 50s somewhere somewhere I'm going to say two Bohemian two Bohemian yeah because uh they thought that like you know coming and being an artist is going to be enough it's going to be enough it's not today is not enough right yeah it's pretty tough for them and most of them pack their bags right there today we have so many Investments going on here in Tanger thanks to our King investors are are here being attracted tourists are attracted but the most important part of it is that we should keep the old parts of the city in act the kasba the Medina Medina that's what's hard to to do because when you have a European purchasing power coming over here to tenure they come well like we come we embrace it other people want to come and then we all up we'll will T's unique character survive I hope so I really hope so Tangier is Morocco always was Morocco and recently the country's leadership seems to have embraced it in all its ill-reputed [Music] Glory the days of predatory poets in search of literary inspiration and young flesh are probably over for good hippie can just as easily get their bong rips in Portland OR Peoria but the good stuff the real good stuff the sounds and smells and the look of Tangier what you see and hear when you lean out the window and take it all in that's here to stay all [Music] [Music]