What do Moroccans eat for breakfast?

Breakfast (ftour) is one of Morocco's quiet joys — generous, carb-forward and built for lingering. The table is a parade of breads. Msemen are the flaky, buttery squares, folded and griddled in layers, that I'd happily eat by the dozen. Baghrir is the spongy 'thousand-hole' pancake that drinks up honey and butter like a sponge. Harcha is a gritty, golden semolina bread, crisp outside, that's wonderful split and filled with cheese.

Then come the toppings, and this is where it sings: raw mountain honey, butter, peppery olive oil for dipping (yes, oil straight onto warm bread — try it), apricot or fig jam, soft cheese (la vache qui rit is unironically beloved here), and amlou — that intoxicating Berber spread of ground roasted almonds, argan oil and honey that tastes like a more elegant peanut butter and which I beg every traveller to seek out. Add a few olives, maybe a boiled or fried egg, and you have a feast.

To drink, it's mint tea or coffee — and if coffee, often nous-nous, the 'half-half' of equal espresso and steamed milk that's the Moroccan flat white, ordered at every café from dawn. Fresh orange juice is everywhere and cheap. In rural and Berber homes you might also get a bowl of olive oil with bread, or even a savoury soup like bissara on a cold mountain morning.

My favourite way to do breakfast is on a riad rooftop in the medina — the call to prayer fading, the city waking below, a tray of warm msemen and a pot of mint tea catching the morning sun. Don't rush it. A long Moroccan breakfast is the best fuel for a day in the souks, and it's where I've had some of my loveliest conversations with hosts.