"A Street Food Tour" by Soukayna Alaoui
Do you have a desire to visit Morocco? Or are you already planning for it? If you are, just read this article that will help you learn about food in the Moroccan culture. I will take you on a small tour to find out what you should eat while wandering in the streets of Rabat; and the first thing you must have is only three or four dollars, and a big appetite to be able to eat what I will suggest to you. The tour will start from a famous gate in the city of Rabat called Bab Lbbiba.
Bab Lbbiba may sound or look like an ordinary Bab, but it hides behind it a lot of street food that you will love. Once you see its various colors, you will notice that there is a large number of people waiting to get what they ordered. What will also attract you is the smell emanating from every and each corner; it is one of the most important secrets of having the desire to eat street food, even if you have no desire at that moment, you will change your mind as soon as you smell the food, and with time you will be able to distinguish them despite their abundance and diversity...
As soon as you take a few steps, leaving behind the Bab Lbbiba, you will encounter the bakery seller, who specializes in preparing a range of types of bread and sweets whose preparation requires flour and other ingredients, and the first thing I want you to know is what is known in a group of cities and not only in Rabat as Khringo, or Chirro, which are small sweets from which you can have a good amount for only a quarter of a dollar, it contains various ingredients such as flour, milk, butter, and sugar. Please pay attention to the ingredients so that you do not face any health problems in case you have an allergy. You can eat Khringo or Chirro alone without the need for a drink, but if you want to take it home, Moroccan mint tea will be the best choice. When you finish paying a quarter of a dollar to the seller, do not forget to close your wallet, because you may lose it in the crowd.
Two or three steps away, you will be able to inhale a delicious smell emanating from different types of meat grilled on charcoal or prepared on a fire waiting for you to eat it - in case you are not a vegetarian, of course - in this place you will find all kinds of meat in addition to sausages, chicken parts, etc., you only have to choose what you like to be prepared for you in no time. They use onions, various types of spices and a lot of hot pepper; you get to choose which ones you want. All these ingredients and meat are placed in a piece of bread because it is one of the necessary things that Moroccans eat in most of their daily meals. After eating this fatty meal, you will have to pay one dollar, and leave to try something else.
If you are not satisfied with meat and bread yet, you can get for half a dollar a meal called Habricha, which is a mixture of minced meat, onions, garlic, spices and eggs, and these ingredients are cooked on a low heat as well, to be finally placed in bread and a lot of hot pepper and salt according to your desire. If you are a cheese lover, you can ask to add it. Many young people eat this food while they are coming back from the beach after swimming, especially in summer.
After so much meat and bread you must try something else; this time I chose for you a nice and healthy drink as well, which is cane sugar. You will find a machine for squeezing the cane, and you will be able to see the process. They put a piece of lemon with this juice, without adding any sugar. It is also very cheap, and you can get a full glass for only half a dollar.
If you are not a meat lover, I suggest that you try Ruizah or Al-Taraqad, which are pickled vegetables, especially potatoes and red beets, and you can add other vegetables such as eggplant or cauliflower. This food is characterized by its sour and pungent taste, in addition being cheap. You can get it for only a quarter of a dollar, and you can find it at the olive and olive oil shops. It is also an opportunity to try different colors and various flavors of olives at a very low price. A quarter of a dollar is enough to try one or more types.
Are you satisfied? There is more, and on your way out you will come across a lot of stalls specializing in the sale of sweets and various juices, and many people eagerly waiting for their turn in order to get a cup of cold juice with lemon or orange taste for half a dollar, and delicious sweets in various shapes and colors for less than half a dollar as well.
Thus, you have eaten to the limit of four dollars no more, and since you are a guest in Morocco, you will probably get large quantities of food because one of the distinguishing things for Moroccans is their generosity towards foreigners, I wish you a safe trip and a good appetite to try all these things that I suggested to you in this short tour and discover for yourself other things that I did not include in this article.
As a last tip: make sure that the ingredients in the food will not have a negative effect on your health and that you are not allergic to something.
Soukayna Alaoui is an Arabic teacher at Amideast Education Abroad in Morocco.
