Where do you find the best street food in Marrakech?

Marrakech street food is one of the great cheap thrills of travel, and its epicentre is world-famous: Jemaa el-Fna square at nightfall. By day the square is a hub of performers and snake charmers; at dusk it transforms as scores of food stalls roll in, fire up their grills, string up bare bulbs, and the whole place fills with smoke, sizzle and the shouts of vendors competing for your attention. You wander the numbered stalls choosing from grilled lamb and chicken brochettes, spicy merguez sausages, kefta, bowls of steaming harira soup, fried fish, plates of cooked vegetables and lentils, and — for the brave — bowls of babbouche, the cumin-scented snail broth that's a Marrakchi institution. You sit on benches at communal tables in the thick of it. It's chaotic, it's touristy now, but it's still genuinely fun and unmistakably Marrakech.

I'll give you the honest insider angle, because the square divides people. The stalls are practised at hustling tourists — menus appear, 'free' extras land on your table, bills inflate — so pick a stall that's busy with Moroccans, confirm prices, only accept what you actually order, and you'll eat well and cheaply. The food is fine and the spectacle is the real product. For the best of the square, look for the stalls with the longest local queues and the freshest turnover, and don't miss the rows of fresh orange-juice carts (agree the price, watch it squeezed) and the dried-fruit and snack vendors around the edges.

For street food that's tastier, cheaper and more local, though, I steer travellers off the square and into the souks and surrounding neighbourhoods. Tucked in the medina lanes you'll find hole-in-the-wall stalls doing things the square doesn't: msemen (flaky griddle pancakes) and sfenj (fresh doughnuts) in the morning, sandwiches stuffed with grilled meat or kefta and chips, bowls of bessara, snail carts, and the little grill shacks where the smoke pulls you in. Areas like the lanes around the spice market, Bab Doukkala, and the more workaday quarters away from the tourist core are where the real bargains and the most authentic flavours hide.

A handful of practical pointers. Eat where there's a crowd and fast turnover — that's your freshness guarantee, especially for grilled meat. Carry small notes and coins; stalls don't do cards or change for big bills. Go genuinely hungry so you can graze across several stalls rather than filling up at one. Watch grilled and freshly fried food being cooked hot in front of you, which is both delicious and the safest bet for sensitive stomachs. And treat Jemaa el-Fna as a one-evening spectacle to tick off, then chase the better, cheaper street food in the souks for the rest of your stay. That's how I eat the city.