Moroccan cuisine is one of the most layered in the world — Berber, Arab, Andalusian, Sub-Saharan and French influences stacked on top of each other, all bound together by an unmistakable spice cabinet: cumin, turmeric, paprika, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, ras el hanout. Meals are slow, communal, eaten from a shared dish with bread instead of cutlery. **Tagine** is the cornerstone — both the conical clay pot and the dish cooked in it. Classics include lamb with prunes and almonds (festive, often Friday), chicken with preserved lemons and olives (the everyday hero), beef with quince in autumn. The trick is the slow steam that traps every aromatic. **Couscous** belongs to Friday lunch — steamed three times by hand, served with seven vegetables, meat and caramelised onions ("tfaya"). Eaten in family homes after midday prayers. **Pastilla (b'stilla)** is the most ambitious dish — paper-thin warqa pastry layered with shredded pigeon (or chicken), almonds, eggs and cinnamon, dusted with icing sugar. Sweet and savoury together. Fez is its heartland. **Harira** — the lentil-chickpea-tomato soup that breaks the Ramadan fast, but is eaten year-round at sunset for 7 dirhams from street cauldrons. **Mechoui** — whole roasted lamb, cooked overnight in underground clay ovens until it pulls apart in fingers. Eaten with bread, salt and cumin at Atlas weddings. **Tangia** — Marrakesh's signature: clay urn sealed and slow-cooked for 6–8 hours in the embers of a hammam furnace. Beef or lamb with preserved lemon, saffron and cumin. Traditionally the dish of unmarried men. Bread (**khobz**) is the universal utensil — torn into pieces and used to scoop. Mint tea (**atay**) is the universal welcome — green tea, fresh mint, lots of sugar, poured from a height to form foam. Refusing it borders on offence. Three glasses are traditional: "the first bitter as life, the second strong as love, the third sweet as death." For street eats: orange juice on Jemaa el-Fnaa (5 dirhams, squeezed in front of you), grilled sardines in Essaouira straight from the port, msemen pancakes for breakfast, briouates (deep-fried meat triangles) at any souk. Cooking classes (60–120 EUR) start with shopping in the souk and end with you eating what you made — the best way to understand how the spice combinations work.