A fantastic food tour of the Marrakech Medina

When we booked a trip to visit Marrakech in February, we knew that a big part of our trip would involve trying as much Moroccan food as possible - tagine, couscous, outrageous amounts of mint tea....

We ended up discovering more than we ever expected, though, thanks to a tour run by Marrakech Food Tours (www.marrakechfoodtours.com) . Not only did to try some local specialties that weren’t on our original list, but we also got to meet locals and learn about the community of Marrakech...all while eating amazing food, of course.

Our first stop was at a place specialising in underground oven-cooked sheep. They place the entire sheep on a long spit and then lower it into a hole in the ground filled with burning coals and lined with aromatic herbs and spices. It then cooks for hours down there and comes up smelling incredible. Unlike most visitors, we got to peer down into the oven before trying a sheep for ourselves...including the head. 

Tangia pots and the infamous sheep's head!

Our next few stops included fresh olive sampling, an incredible ‘berber pancake’ cooked on a griddle out in the street, and a sandwich made of minced sardine that somehow tasted exactly like pork. 

Olive tasting

We then got a really interesting insight into the social system in Marrakech when we visited an underground cavern with a huge fire burning inside it and met the man in charge of fueling this fire, which heats all the water supplied to all the hammams in the neighborhood. One man, heating all the hammams! We learned that, if people have any scrap they want to get rid of, they can simply give it to the hammam heater and he’ll burn it - so efficient! We also learned that, if you want to keep your tangia warm until lunchtime, you can ask him to bury it in the hot ashes. A tangia is a meat-based meal served in a terra-cotta pot. The moral of the story? Be good to your local hammam heater or you’ll have to eat cold tangia on top of your unwanted scrap heap. 

We also got to see bread being made for local families

Another memorable stop was at ‘mama souk’s - this local cafe frequented only by locals (and a few lucky food tourists) provides lunch to all the workers in the souks - in particular, the best couscous in Marrakech. Mama Souk certainly deserves her nickname as she is respected by everyone. We washed our couscous down with the best mint tea we’d had so far. 

We finished up at what we were reliably informed is the best sweetshop in Marrakech, and got to sample a super generous range of traditional sweets as well as traditional smoothies. Our fantastic guide also left us with a parting gift - a sachet of Moroccan spices he’d put together to remind us of our foodie adventure.

A parting gift of Moroccan spices from our guide