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Amazigh Staple · Argan-Almond Spread

Amlou

Amlou — street food from Agadir & the Souss, Morocco
Photo: Stresinski / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

It can only be made with argan oil pressed from a tree that grows wild almost nowhere else on Earth outside this stretch of southwestern Morocco.

Roasted almonds are ground down and blended with honey and argan oil until the mixture turns into a thick, nutty, peanut-butter-like paste. Vendors and women's cooperatives across the Souss sell it in jars for scooping up with warm bread.

Why it's made this way: Because the argan tree is native to this specific corner of Morocco, amlou stayed a distinctly regional specialty, traditionally hand-ground by Amazigh women's cooperatives that still process the oil the old way.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.