Best Street Food in Chefchaouen — Snacks in the Blue Medina

Street food in Chefchaouen is more modest and rustic than in the big cities, in keeping with its small mountain-town character, and that is part of its appeal. The signature cheap bite is bissara — thick fava-bean soup poured hot and finished with olive oil, cumin and paprika — ladled out on and around Plaza Uta el-Hammam, the main square, for a few dirhams. In the cool mountain air it is especially welcome, and it makes a perfect cheap breakfast or lunch.

Around the square and up the blue-washed lanes you will find griddle carts making msemmen and harcha, morning fryers turning out sfenj doughnuts, and stalls selling the region's fresh goat cheese, mountain honey, olives and produce. Sandwich counters stuff baguettes with kefta, egg or cheese, and there are snail (babbouche) carts and roasted-nut sellers. The market brings down fresh Rif produce — vegetables, herbs, fruit — from the surrounding hills.

Because Chefchaouen is compact, safe and beautiful, grazing on foot is a pleasure: you can wander the blue lanes from the square, picking up a msemmen here, a wedge of cheese there, a bowl of soup, all while photographing the famous powder-blue walls. The relaxed, laid-back mood of the town — a favourite with travellers seeking calm — extends to its unhurried street eating.

Follow the busy stalls around Plaza Uta el-Hammam, try the bissara and the local cheese-and-honey, and agree prices before ordering. Cheap, rustic and scenic, Chefchaouen street food is a gentle, local pleasure rather than a big-city spectacle.