Cheap Eats in Errachidia — Best Budget Food on the Desert Road

As a transit town between the mountains and the desert, Errachidia is geared to feeding people quickly and cheaply. The backbone is the sandwich: half-baguettes stuffed with grilled kefta, merguez, liver, or maakouda potato fritters, loaded with chips, salad and harissa for 20-40 MAD. Grill counters turn skewers over charcoal, and the smell of roasting meat marks out the busiest, freshest spots at lunch and in the evening.

Soups keep costs lower still. Harira (tomato, lentil and chickpea) and bissara (fava bean) are ladled out at small stalls for around 10-15 MAD with bread, filling and warming — welcome in a place where desert nights turn cold. Small canteens (gargotes) serve a plate of the day — tagine, lentils, beans, or kefta with egg — with bread and salad for 30-45 MAD, aimed at drivers, workers and travellers rather than tourists.

Being at the head of the date-growing Ziz valley, Errachidia offers the cheapest snack of all: dates, sold loose and abundant in the souk, eaten by the handful with bread or a glass of milk. Add bags of almonds, seasonal fruit and fresh bread from the market, and you can graze your way through the day for very little.

To eat cheaply, stick to the sandwich counters, grill shacks, soup stalls and canteens where locals and drivers eat, agree prices before ordering, and pay in small notes. In a desert crossroads town, the humble roadside plate is both the best value and the most reliable.