What's a typical food experience in the desert?

Eating in the Sahara is one of the most atmospheric food experiences Morocco offers, and it's less about culinary fireworks than about where and how you eat — though the food is genuinely good, hearty Berber home cooking made in the middle of nowhere. The ritual usually begins the moment you arrive at camp after the camel trek or 4x4 ride across the dunes: you're welcomed with the universal Moroccan gesture of hospitality, a glass of sweet mint tea and a plate of dates and nuts, watching the sun sink and set the sand on fire with colour. That first tea, dusty and tired and awed, is something travellers always remember.

Dinner is classic, generous and communal. You'll typically start with soup — harira (the tomato-lentil-chickpea staple) or a simple vegetable soup — followed by the centrepiece: a big shared tagine, slow-cooked chicken, lamb or beef with vegetables, fragrant with cumin, ginger and saffron, mopped up with fresh round Moroccan bread. Sometimes you'll be lucky enough to eat 'madfouna' (a stuffed Berber 'pizza' bread, a desert speciality) or bread baked directly in the hot sand beneath the fire, which the guides love to show off. It finishes with fresh fruit — often oranges with cinnamon — and, of course, more mint tea. Vegetarians are easily catered for; just mention it when you book.

What elevates the whole thing is the setting and the company. You eat in a communal tent or out under the open sky, by lantern and firelight, at long tables shared with fellow travellers from everywhere. After dinner the Berber camp crew almost always gather round a fire to play the drums and sing, and you're pulled in to clap, dance and drink tea late into the night before the sky takes over — and the desert sky is the real showstopper, an absolutely overwhelming blanket of stars and the Milky Way smeared across it, with zero light pollution. Dinner under that is unforgettable in the truest sense.

A few honest notes so you know what to expect. Desert camp food is wholesome and tasty but not fancy or varied — it's cooked in basic conditions far from any market, so come for the experience rather than gourmet expectations, and the luxury camps obviously do a more elaborate, beautifully presented version of all this. Portions are generous and the hospitality is heartfelt. Breakfast the next morning is simple too: bread, jam, eggs, msemen, coffee and tea as the sun comes up over the dunes. Bring any special snacks you can't do without, flag dietary needs in advance, and otherwise just surrender to one of the most magical meals you'll ever eat.