Snacks and fast food

Snackers and budget watchers are well catered for in Morocco. Rotisserie chicken shops abound, where you can get a quarter chicken served with fries and salad for around Dh 20. Sandwiches (from Dh 10) served from rotisserie chicken shops or hole-in-the-wall establishments are also popular. These fresh crusty baguettes are stuffed with any number of fillings including tuna, chicken, brochettes and a variety of salads. This is all usually topped off with the obligatory wad of French fries stuffed into the sandwich and lashings of mayonnaise squeezed on top.

You may also see hawkers and vendors selling a variety of nuts, as well as steamed broad beans and BBQ'd corn cobs.

Drink

As a predominantly Muslim country, Morocco is mostly dry.

Alcohol is available only in restaurants, bars, supermarkets, hotels and discos. Some Moroccans enjoy a drink although it is disapproved in public places.

As a rule, do not drink tap water at all in Morocco, even in hotels, as it contains much higher levels of minerals than the water in Europe. For local people this is not a problem as their bodies are used to this and can cope, but for travellers from places such as Europe drinking the tap water will usually result in illness. Generally this is not serious, an upset stomach being the only symptom, but it is enough to spoil a day or two of your holiday.

Bottled water is widely available. Popular brands of water include Oulmes (sparkling) and Sidi Ali, Sidi Harazem and Ain Saiss DANONE (those three are still). The latter has a slightly mineral and metallic taste. Nothing with a high mineralization produced (so far?).

Any traveller will be offered mint tea, or as locals like to call it 'Moroccan whiskey', at least once a day. Even the most financially modest Moroccan is equipped with a tea pot and a few glasses. Although sometimes the offer is more of a lure into a shop than a hospitable gesture it is polite to accept. Before drinking look the host in the eye and say 'bi saha raha'. It means enjoy and relax and any local will be impressed with your language skills.

Note that a solo women may feel more comfortable having a drink or snack at a pastry shop or restaurant as cafes are traditionally for men. This doesn't apply to couples, of course.

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Based on work by ilyas, John McNeil, Denis Yurkin, David and Peter Fitzgerald, Wikitravel user(s) Texugo, The Yeti and Kkraba, Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel and others. Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0.