What Moroccan snacks and street food are there?

Morocco’s streets are a non-stop snack bar, and Marrakech’s Jemaa el-Fna at dusk is the ultimate stage — smoke rising from a hundred grills, vendors calling out, the whole square turning into an open-air food court. Start with the savoury pancakes: msemen folded around spiced onion and meat, or a square of stuffed rghaif griddled to order. Maakouda — crisp mashed-potato fritters — are dropped hot into bread with harissa for a few dirhams, the ultimate cheap, filling snack.

Then the sandwiches and skewers: kefta and merguez tucked into batbout with chopped tomato and chilli, liver kebabs from the charcoal stalls, and bowls of babbouche — small snails simmered in a peppery, aromatic broth that locals slurp from the shell with a pin, drinking the spiced liquor after. It is adventurous, warming and genuinely delicious once you commit. Roasted chickpeas, grilled corn and salted broad beans round out the grazing.

For sweet and quick energy there is sfenj, the airy ring doughnut fried fresh and sometimes threaded onto a palm string, dusted with sugar and best eaten warm on the walk home. Add fresh orange juice from the famous square carts, dried fruit and nuts from the souk — plump dates, dried figs, apricots, salted almonds — and a paper cone of olives in a dozen marinades. Nothing here costs much.

My honest tip: follow the crowds and the turnover. The busiest stall is the freshest and the safest, and where you see locals queuing you eat well. Carry small notes, point and smile, and try at least one thing that scares you a little — the snails, the liver. On our food walks I steer guests to the vendors I trust by name, so you taste the real square without the tourist mark-up or the dodgy stalls.