The Slow Destruction Of Much-Loved Masgouf, An Iraqi National Dish
The lack of clean water, sanctions and ISIS have all contributed to depleting the supply of fish that is salted, fire-roasted and shared by Iraqis of all sects and political persuasions.
ISIS suicide bombers devour it as a last supper. Iraqi exiles clamor for it. Such was Saddam Hussein's love of this fishy delicacy that it might have even betrayed his whereabouts to U.S. troops.
For centuries, Iraqis of all stripes, sects and political persuasions have gone to great lengths for masgouf, the country's de facto national dish. From the mountainous Kurdish north to the marshy, largely Shiite Arab south, Iraqis bond over this smoky, belt-busting extravagance, even when they can agree on nothing else.
Dredged from the brackish depths of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Fertile
