Mechoui

Mechoui is a whole lamb, rubbed with smen or butter, cumin, salt and sometimes saffron, and roasted slowly - traditionally lowered into a clay-lined pit over embers, the mouth sealed with a stone and clay, and left for several hours so the meat cooks in its own steam and comes out falling from the bone with the skin crisp. It is the dish of the feast: weddings, moussems, Eid al-Adha, and the arrival of a guest whose visit warrants a slaughter, and the sharing of it is the whole social point. It is eaten with the hands, with salt and ground cumin put on the table to dip into, and bread. The accessible version for a visitor is Mechoui Alley off the Jemaa el-Fna in Marrakech, where a row of stalls lower lambs into underground ovens each morning and sell it by weight from about midday until it runs out, which it does.

What you actually see

• A sealed pit oven - the lamb lowered onto embers and the mouth closed with clay.
• Hours of steam cooking - meat falling from the bone with crisp skin.
• Salt and cumin - put on the table to dip into, and bread; nothing else.
• Mechoui Alley - the Marrakech version, sold by weight until it runs out.

When to go

All year; midday at Mechoui Alley before it sells out. A long meal.

Honest expectations

At Mechoui Alley it sells out in the afternoon - go early. It is fatty by nature and not for everyone. Eating is with the right hand and there are no plates in the usual sense. At a private feast the animal is slaughtered for the occasion, which some visitors find difficult.

Nearby

Mechoui Alley is off the Jemaa el-Fna in Marrakech.