Mechoui

Whole lamb (or sometimes shoulder, leg, or saddle when scaled down) rubbed with cumin, coriander, paprika, garlic, and salt, sometimes ras el hanout, sometimes just the simpler spice blend that lets the meat speak: then slow-roasted over charcoal or in a sealed clay oven for hours until the skin goes lacquered and crisp and the meat falls off the bone. Eaten with bread, ground cumin and salt for dipping, and not much else. The defining North African celebration meat; the dish where the lamb itself is the centrepiece rather than a component, and the spice is in service of the protein rather than the other way around.