Breakfast

Almost all cafés in Morocco serve breakfast.

The most common breakfast consists of:

• Fried eggs
• Bread
• Olives
• Olive oil
• Yoghurt
• Orange juice
• Tea or coffee

It is also common to be served a slice of processed cheese. If you’re lucky, you might get amlou. Jam is sometimes included. Occasionally, a small bowl of kashi (like a turkey sausage).

The yoghurt comes in a single-serving pot and contains added sugar. I always bring my own pot of sugar-free yoghurt when I have breakfast at a café; it costs just two and a half dirhams.

The bread is round. Sometimes it’s white, sometimes wholemeal, and sometimes somewhere in between.

In Sweden, I’m used to the standard seasonings always available in restaurants being salt and pepper. In Morocco, it’s salt and cumin instead.

A standard breakfast usually costs between 20 and 25 dirhams. That gets you two fried eggs. If you only want one, it’s a bit cheaper.

Omelette

Café breakfast menus usually also offer omelettes as an alternative to fried eggs.

The tastiest omelette I’ve ever had was at a simple place in Aourir. It contained tomatoes, olives and herbs and was served in a scratched frying pan. It was also very cheap. I’ve tried omelettes at a few places in The Rif, but haven’t found any as good as this one.

In central Nador, I used to eat omelettes at a slightly more expensive place; they were fine but not as good. Twice I’ve tried omelettes at even pricier places in the Hal Al-Matar area outside Nador. One time the omelette was totally bland; it tasted mostly of flour. The other time I ordered an omelette with potatoes and vegetables from the menu, but there were no potatoes. I remember the omelette being okay but not more than that.

Simple breakfast

Breakfast with eggs is standard. But there are also simpler options. For example, msemem or baghrir with oil and honey. Or just coffee and a croissant. That sort of thing can be nice as a snack when I’m reasonably full. But I don’t think they’re good enough for breakfast.