Food Tours · Tour

Spleen, Tangia and Butter Beans, After Dark

Five to eight dishes depending on how much you can eat, starting at 18:30 outside the Cafe de France and working through the streets where Marrakech actually eats. The menu is the reason to book this one over the others, and two items on it are the reason: tihal, which is spleen, grilled and spiced and eaten here as a matter of course; and tangia, the Marrakech dish, beef with preserved lemon and cumin sealed in a clay urn and left in the embers under a bath house. Around those: msemen, the layered pancake. Harira, the vegetarian soup that gets everyone through Ramadan. Chebakiya. Chfnj, the doughnut. Butter beans. Chicken skewers. Fresh fruit juice. Moroccan pastries. And proper mint tea, made with fresh herbs. The stops are close together, so the walking is easy, and the guide tells you what each thing is and why it matters here. Up to fifteen people, in English or Arabic, with bottled water and the tea. This tour is not for vegans or vegetarians, and the operator says so plainly. Tell them about allergies or restrictions and they will substitute what they can. During Ramadan it runs differently: instead of a pure street food route, the group is invited into a local family's home to break the fast the Moroccan way, which is a better evening than the tour it replaces.