What is a Moroccan diffa (feast)?

If you only learn one Moroccan food word, make it diffa. A diffa is the grand ceremonial feast — the meal Morocco lays on to honour a guest, mark a wedding or religious holiday, or simply show a family at its most generous. It's not a meal so much as an event, and being invited to one is among the highest expressions of hospitality in the culture. I've been moved to silence by the sheer effort and warmth a diffa represents.

The structure is a slow, deliberate procession of courses, each shared from a single communal dish in the centre of a low round table. It traditionally opens with pastilla — the sweet-savoury almond-and-pigeon pie that signals something special is happening. Then come the tagines, often several: lamb with prunes and almonds, chicken with preserved lemon and olives, perhaps a fish course. The meat showpiece is frequently méchoui, a whole lamb roasted until it surrenders at the touch of a hand.

The sweet stretch is unmistakable: seffa, a fragrant mound of steamed vermicelli or couscous dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar and studded with almonds and dates, served savoury-sweet. Then a great couscous, towers of pastries — gazelle horns, briouats, ghriba — bowls of fresh fruit, and round after round of mint tea poured from on high. Guests are welcomed at the door with dates and milk, and bread is broken throughout.

What defines a diffa is intention: the abundance is the message. To set a table that guests cannot possibly finish is to honour them and invoke baraka, blessing. Eat with your right hand from your section of the shared dish, pace yourself, and accept that you will be urged to eat more than you thought possible. On milestone trips I can curate an authentic diffa for guests — and it is, without question, the most complete and unforgettable meal in all of Moroccan cuisine.