Best Street Food in Taza — Medina Bites in the Mountain Gateway

Taza sees few tourists, so its street food is genuinely local, serving the townspeople, students and travellers passing through the Taza gap. Mornings bring sfenj (light doughnuts fried fresh in bubbling oil) and griddle breads — msemmen and harcha — eaten with honey or cheese, alongside bowls of bissara, the thick fava-bean soup finished with olive oil and cumin that is a mountain-town staple, especially welcome in the cooler upland climate.

Through the day the carts and small counters turn to savoury snacks: maakouda (spiced potato fritters) fried and tucked into bread with harissa, grilled kefta and merguez skewers over charcoal, and half-baguette sandwiches stuffed with meat, chips and salad for a filling, cheap meal. Snail (babbouche) vendors ladle out their peppery, thyme-scented broth, a warming remedy prized in the Rif foothills. Harira soup appears in the evenings and through winter.

The old medina, climbing the hillside around the Grande Mosquée and the market, is the place to graze, its stalls piled with olives, mountain honey, dried fruit, nuts and fresh bread from the surrounding countryside. This is also a gateway to the Tazekka mountains and the great Friouato cave, so the town feeds walkers and day-trippers heading out and back.

Eat where the crowd is local and the turnover fast, agree cart prices before ordering, and keep small change ready. In a town with little tourism, the street food is as authentic and fairly priced as it gets — a doughnut and tea, a bowl of soup and a maakouda sandwich make a cheap, satisfying day's eating.