Best Market Food in Tangier — The Grand Socco and Beyond

The Grand Socco (officially Place du 9 Avril 1912), the great square between the medina and the new town, is the traditional gateway to Tangier's market world. Around and below it spread the food markets: the covered Fondouk (market hall), fish and produce halls, and streets of stalls where Rif Mountain farmers — many of them women in the striped fouta skirts and straw hats of the Jebala region — sell fresh goat's cheese, herbs, vegetables and fruit brought down from the hills. This mountain produce, especially the fresh white cheese, is a distinctive feature of northern Moroccan markets.

Grazing the markets, you will find griddle stands making msemen and harcha, olive and spice merchants, dried-fruit and nut sellers, fresh-juice carts, and fishmongers whose catch feeds the nearby grill stalls. It is a place to assemble an impromptu meal — a wedge of Rif goat's cheese, fresh bread, olives, a handful of figs or dates in season — and to see the ingredients of Tangier's cooking before they reach the plate. The energy is highest in the morning when the farmers and the catch arrive.

Go in the morning for the freshest produce and the fullest stalls, buy small amounts of several things to taste widely, and look especially for the Jebala mountain cheese, a genuine northern speciality. Keep small change, follow the local shoppers, and use the Grand Socco as your landmark to find your way back. The markets are Tangier's larder and one of its most rewarding, least touristy food experiences.