After the sidecar, we met our guide for a food tour for 3 hours. I’ve never been on a food tour but I was expecting little samples of food around the old city. The guide was the same one that did our walking tour and did a great job at showing us some of the traditional dishes in the city. Only issue with the tour was I can’t eat that much food.

The first stop was starting with a sfenj (donut) and mint tea. The guy frying the donuts is the owner. The shop has been passed down in the family for years. If he needs a day off or is sick, the shop is closed until he can work again. The guide mixed the tea by putting in the fresh mint and sugar. He then would pour the tea into the cups and then put it back in the pot. He did this 3 or 4 times. He said you do that to mix up everything. He also said the higher the pour, the more welcome the people are. The donut was really just fried bread. You take a piece of paper and you smash it down. I didn’t enjoy the very hot oil through the paper. There isn’t any sugar on the donut so you are pretty much eating fried bread. Also, didn’t realize how much tea we would have during the evening and it was caffeinated.

From there, we walked to the Jemaa el-Fnaa (the main square) in the old city. It was packed full of people and booths. I’m sure a lot of the square is a tourist trap and I actually didn’t take a lot of pictures because of people then asking me for money. If you take of video of the snake charmers, they will expect you to give them money. Same with the people carrying around monkeys. The people are a little more pushy in the market trying to sell you stuff. The guide had us stop at one food stand to try a potato/egg dish. It isn’t something I would have ever gone up to order on my own. It probably wasn’t my favorite dish especially since it had mayonnaise on top but was good to try it. Watching the two guys cook the food was impressive. The one guy could pick up the boiling hot potatoes with his bare hands and peel them.

From there, we then walked to another place on the square where he ordered us two different types of pancakes and harira soup which is made with lentils. One pancake was plain and the other had minced meet and onions. One of my favorite dishes of the evening was the lentil soup.

I had already had enough food to count as two meals. And not knowing what else was to come, I was a little worried. We kept telling him that we didn’t need a lot of food but he just kept taking us to more places. The next stop was for a traditional street food sandwich. I think it was a combination of sausage, chicken, meat, onion and peppers but I’m not entirely sure. The sandwich was good but we couldn’t eat it all. Highly recommend the sandwich if you are hungry.

We then walked around a little bit. He offered to stop at one of the olive stands for olives but I don’t love olives. I also turned down the snail soup. It is hard enough for me to want soup in 90 degree weather but the snail soup would have been a stretch for me to try when I was already full. He took us to the top of a cafe so we could see an overhead view of the square. You have to purchase something to drink to get in so I had to have a soft drink (which was all they served). The view was nice though and you could get good videos and pictures up there without people bothering you to pay for the picture. We sat up there and talked. He then wanted to go to dinner at 8 at another rooftop restaurant where locals eat. I was a little nervous when he said dinner since I thought everything was already dinner. We walked about 10 minutes to the next place through some very hot markets. Then we climbed some very steep stairs to the restaurant and climbed again to the rooftop.

He ordered us tangia which is the traditional Marrakech cuisine. It always consists of meat and no vegetables. It cooks in a terra cot pot for hours in the coals. We saw one of the ovens used for this and it was very interesting. The other dish was a delicious chicken with onions and potatoes. We had a starter of a bowl of lentils and dessert was a yogurt.

It finally cooled down enough during dinner to be comfortable. The wind seems to pick up in the evenings. The guide walked us back to the hotel and I was very full. I think we could have used another 10 people to help us sample all the food. But I highly recommend a food tour as it really is the best way to get to try the dishes. He did all the ordering and paying so it was very easy to enjoy.