Best Breakfast in Chefchaouen — Bissara and Bread in the Blue City

Chefchaouen's signature breakfast is bissara — a thick, warming soup of dried fava beans (or split peas) pureed smooth and finished with olive oil, cumin and a dusting of paprika, eaten with fresh bread. In the cool air of the Rif mountains, a steaming bowl of bissara is the perfect start to the day, and the town is well known for it; small stalls and cafés ladle it out cheaply in the morning, and locals swear by it. It is one of the great budget breakfasts in Morocco.

Alongside the bissara comes the Moroccan spread: msemmen and harcha griddle breads with local mountain honey, olive oil and the fresh goat cheese the Rif is known for, plus baghrir pancakes, olives, eggs and mint tea. The surrounding mountains produce excellent honey and cheese, so a Chaoueni breakfast leans on these local specialities — bread with goat cheese and honey is a simple, memorable regional plate.

The setting is half the pleasure. Cafés on and around the Plaza Uta el-Hammam, the main square beneath the kasbah and the grand mosque, serve breakfast among the town's famous blue-washed walls and lanes, with the Rif peaks rising behind. Riad and guesthouse breakfasts, often on rooftops with a view over the blue medina to the mountains, add fresh juice and the full bread spread. It is a slow, scenic way to start a day in the mountains.

To breakfast well in Chefchaouen, start with a bowl of bissara from a busy morning stall, add griddle bread with local goat cheese and honey, and take your mint tea on a blue-lit square or a rooftop with a mountain view. It is cheap, warming and quintessentially Rif.