Msemen

Morocco and Algeria (Berber bread tradition; the national breakfast bread)

Msemen is Morocco's most beloved laminated flatbread — a square, multi-layered flatbread of semolina and fine flour dough, repeatedly folded over a generous application of smen (salted, fermented Moroccan butter) or plain butter, then pan-cooked until golden on both sides with a characteristic layered, slightly flaky interior. It is a bread of technique: the folding and the fat application create the layers, and each fold must be even and tight to produce the characteristic square shape. Msemen is consumed for breakfast with honey and argan oil or butter, at tea time with jam, or as a street food stuffed with kefta (spiced ground meat). When folded with herbs and charmoula, it becomes the stuffed variant rghaif.

The canonical breakfast: hot msemen with honey and a glass of Moroccan mint tea; smen and argan oil alongside for dipping; stuffed with kefta as a street food; torn and dipped into harira soup.