Category: North African Food

Our basic travels around Tunisia, except for the last few days in Djerba and La Marsa had come to an end. We were dropped off at the Green Palm by Ben, who would be picking us up tomorrow for a short tour of Houmt Souk and Erriadh. The Green Palm is located, along with what seems like a zillion other "all inclusive" type reports in the Zone Touristique. The objective is to keep you on the property or in the properties clutches the entire time. No outside food or drink allowed on the premises, distances between properties can be a bit of a hike……

The facilities are decent, there are "animation team" (I didn't even know what that was until we got here) events, a large pool, and the Missus started whining from the moment we arrived feeling trapped.

There's a definite lack of atmosphere at places like this…..you can tell, Club Med ain't for us. I will say, the folks here are really nice, more on that later.

So after freshening up, the first thing we did was to go for some lunch…..not in the hotel. We walked about a mile or so and stopped at a place where all the cab drivers were eating called Restaurant Aladin.

You can always count on cabbies, cops, and other civil servants to find places that are reasonably priced with decent fare. And this was not an exception. The food was simple, the lettuce was iceberg, but it was a decent meal, and very cheap.

The brik was a bit overdone, the egg too overcooked.

The merguez was quite good though……

For some reason, the Missus kept wanting more tomatoes…….

It was a decent meal that filled us up nicely.

We picked up some bottled water on the way back to the resort….not knowing at the time that outside drinks of any kind were not allowed…..what ensued when we passed by the guards was nothing short of hilarious. The guards stopped us and spoke to us first in French, then German, the Arabic……yeah, we really looked like we spoke those languages. We kept talking to them in English, which they didn't speak. Finally, they got a clue and asked us, "you…..English?" When we nodded in agreement, they pointed to a sign on the wall……the was WRITTEN IN FRENCH! What? I told them, "no francais, no francais….." By this time, even they were laughing, and they passed us through.

We also came to find out that there was no wifi reception in our rooms, so I ended up getting some "cafe express" in the massive lobby area, while checking email and even doing a short post.

Later that evening, as we were getting ready to go to the dinner buffet, I recall looking out off the terrace at the empty lots and other resorts thinking to myself, "this is going to be a pretty rough two days…."

We left Tozeur a hair after 8 in the morning, but the sun was already blazing down on us. We were headed through the Chott el Djerid, Douz, Matmata, then finally arriving in the Sahara at Ksar Ghilaine where we'd spend the night in what was called a "first class tent" in the Sahara.

The Chott el Djerid is a huge salt lake of over 7,000 kilometers and stretches into Algeria. I've heard folks saying that it's not much to see….but the Missus and I were mesmerized by the stark, seemingly endlessness of it all.

There's a causeway about 6 feet over the salt. Ben told us that before the causeway was built, you basically drove on the sand and sometimes took your chances through the water that fills the lake during the short wet season. Ben found a ramp down to the sand and drove out into the salt.

We stopped and got out to take photos….but it's really hard to capture the great, vast, wide, nothingness……

Details really stand out when you have a backdrop like this. Like the little camper parked on the salt 50 meters or so away from us. A French woman peeked out the back when we stopped, then opened the door and gave us a wave. This really isn't the place I'd like to spend a couple of days if you ask me…but the desolation must be attractive to some.

If this place looks a tad familiar, it's where Luke Skywalker contemplated the two suns in Star Wars. Yes, folks, we were on Tatooine. Actually, we visited the Tunisian city of Tataouine a bit further during the trip.

The salt can actually be peeled off in layers…and is quite salty. The little remaining water from the wet season was slowly evaporating in the lower areas leaving a red oxidized residue. All od this, combined with the fata morgana made this quite memorable.

From there we headed through Kebili and then Douz, the gateway to the Sahara. Ben stopped at the outskirtsof town at what looked like a cafe….but was a tourist stop for all things like driving ATVs to flying in an ultra lite, to riding camels. Guess which we picked?

Even though it's a very touristy thing to do, we really enjoyed riding the camels. Once you get used to the way the camel rises up and sits down and the gait, it a pretty easy and enjoyable ride. We also noticed that the camels have some very distinct personalities…they also make sounds that would probably not be real great in the general public. It was indeed much better to ride a camel than to eat one!

This was our first taste of the desert and we were just plain fascinated by the fine sand and the endless dunes.

As we drove off to lunch, Ben told us the desert around Ksar Ghilaine, the Grand Erg Oriental is totally different from here.

We stopped for lunch at a little mom and pop restaurant right outside of Douz.

These restaurants usually serve a complete meal, comprised of brik, soup, couscous, finished with mint tea….which is what we had. It was a pretty hefty meal!

As we were finishing up with our mint tea, a young man walked in with what looked like a giant rodent in his hand……after doing a double take, we realized it was something else….a fox perhaps?  I suddenly realized it was a baby Fennec Fox. I tried to take a photo, but it was too darn fast, this is the best shot I got.

After lunch we headed East……. here we saw tons of camels hanging out along the road. Those camel crossing signs were there for a reason!

There are no wild camels in Tunisia. All the camels we saw belonged to someone and seemed totally unfazed by traffic….in fact, there would be a camel lying right in the middle of the road, refusing to budge. All the cars had to go around it! I was told that one had to drive carefully during the night since camels loved the warmth of the asphalt and would sometimes sleep in the middle of the road. So how did the camels get back to their owners? We were told that camels always return to the same watering hole when in need for water…..the owners would usually find them there.

There you go…more than you ever wanted to know about camels I'm sure! Thanks for reading!

After leaving Kairouan, Ben drove us about 65 miles south to the outskirts of the town of Sbeitla. Here, seemingly in the middle of nowhere are the ruins of the Roman city of Sufetula. I've read that the Roman's ability to maximize usage and conservation of water and the soil proved perfect for growing olives. Sufetula became a prosperous Roman town. One can imagine what this town looked like in it's heyday based on ruins left…..

There's a theatre, which I read was in a poor state, but looked decently restored and preserved to me.

Sufetula's most mentioned ruins are the three temples, which are indeed very dramatic looking.

 From the left to right, the temples of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva. During the second century, these were considered among the most beautiful in the world.

After the decline of the Roman Empire, Sufetula was still doing well under Byzantine Christian rule. So well, that Gregory the Patrician, for a number of reasons, revolted against Constantinople and declared himself  "Emperor" in 646. It wasn't to last very long as the Arabs invaded and Gregory was killed in battle.

Notice anything? Much like El Djem, we were the only people visiting…… As I pressed Ben on this, I was told, "the Europeans come, they stay on all inclusives, they see ruins in Rome, so they don't think these are worth a visit. The resorts have everything for them, so they think, why leave? The one thing they do want to see is the Sahara, you'll see them there."

Right in back of the temples are the ruins of several churches. In the ruins of one of them you can see the baptismal font, like the one we saw in the Bardo Museum.

Walking down the "streets" was a surreal experience, just the sound of the wind blowing through the grass, birds, and our voices among the ruins.

Walking up the path we came to….well, what looked like an empty field.

We were told that under the soil lies an Amphitheatre. Hopefully, it'll see the light of day again….

On the way out, we checked out the Byzantine "house", which seemed like more of a fort. You had to go up stairs in order to enter.

 The place felt really cramped, no windows means that it must have been pretty dark. Small rooms, some of which looked like held livestock, in a fortress like structure, just seemed to reflect the times……fear, paranoia, a silo mentality…..a feeling of impending doom hanging over you.

Based on history, I guess the fears were well founded as the Arabs destroyed the town in 647AD.

From Sbeitla, we headed off to Tozeur, where we'd stop for the next two evenings. Along the way, we passed a number little shops lining streets. It was an interesting sight; the shops would be grilling meat out front, there'd be a sheep's pelt or two hanging out front, we even saw one where a sheep was being dispatched in front of the shop….the ultimate sign of freshness! The Missus asked Ben to stop at one of these shops….for lunch. A great idea! So driving down one of the roads, Ben picked this one as there seemed to be a good number of customers.

So, what we soon figured, the lamb pelt signifies that the lamb was killed fresh, the more pelts the better….how many lambs you went through during the day. If you enlarge the picture above, you'll see the cuts of lamb….these guys are awesome butchers, hanging from the ceiling. You walk on in, pick your cut, and how much of it you wanted. This place had been busy, only leg cuts left, but with Ben's help we got a half kilo, enough for a nice meal.

As the folks went to work on our lamb, we took a seat…..this being Tunisia, a whole baguette was soon provided.

Along with two different types of mechouia…..the type we were used to having, covered with a nice layer of olive oil.

Which was nicely flavored…this had some seasoning to it.

And a wonderful, smokey rustic version that was my favorite to date.

For me this had the complete package……onions for pungency, tomatoes for some acid, there was some spice to it. The roasted peppers added a nice smokey component. The Missus told me, "this would make a killer salsa…" Which cracked me up; we started calling it salsa from here on out. Even the harissa tasted like it had a bit more bite.

Meanwhile, the folks went about cutting our portion from the leg hanging on the ceiling.

I'd been wondering about the unique smell and flavor of items that we'd had grilled….I was told that they grill over olive wood, which imparts a unique flavor to the food.

Soon enough our lamb arrived…..

This was amazingly tender….I really had a hard time believing it was grilled leg of lamb…..juicy, tender, simply seasoned with salt. It was my favorite meal in Tunisia to date.

After the meal, Ben told us it was nice that we actually spent money supporting the local economy, not only in the resorts. I recall telling the Missus that all these places would need is for somebody "like Bourdain coming here and saying how great it really it is for it to become chic….." Of course we still hadn't met a single American during our entire trip yet!

We slept quite well in Kairouan, the previous day was pretty hectic and the La Kasbah Hotel was quite nice. As usual, we got up very early, about 5am or so. We enjoy taking early morning walks when we travel. You get to see a city waking up and also the crowds are less severe. Kairouan's medina is known as being probably the least commercial and touristy of all the larger cities in Tunisia, so I wanted to see what it was like. We asked the doorman where the medina was and he pointed to right around the corner.

The medina looks quite fortified, surrounded by walls over 30 feet high.  These walls were erected during the early part of the 18th century, though recorded history of the medina goes back to before the 8th century.

If  some of the medina looks somewhat familiar, it might be because it was used to depict Cairo in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's kinda funny, we were hitting a bunch of movie sites during this trip. One of the stories I heard was that the character "Sallah's" house was an actual house in the medina, but when they did a shot panning across the top of the city, they had residents remove over 300 television antennas for a day so they could shoot.

 There is a feeling that the medina here is rather unspoiled….the streets are rather wide, the back avenues consist of residences, I'll show you much more in a later post.

The Missus and I really enjoyed walking through here, it gave us a feel of what daily life might be like in Kairouan. As we made our way through the streets we started to see folks opening their shops and making their way to work in the morning.

It didn't take very long for us to make our way to the other end of the medina.

As we  headed back through the medina we came across this little shop doing quite a bit of business.

In the shop, a gentleman sat, legs crossed, above a large cast iron pan, that looked like a wok. He received a ball of dough from a young man with striking green eyes and hair the color of the Grand Erg Oriental. When I asked Ben about this later, I was told that it's not unusual for Berber to have even blue eyes and blond hair!

I saw the gentleman get the dough started in the hot oil, which never smoked, I confirmed later on that it was grapeseed oil, which has a high smoke point. He then added an egg. I told the Missus, "man, I wonder if that's how brik is supposed to really be made?" I then asked the woman waiting for her fried dough  and a couple of those with eggs by pointing to the dough floating around…..she confirmed it was indeed brik.

Folks were buying this stuff in quantities of four to six. The prices were also pretty cheap, something like 0.4 Dinar (25 cents) for a hefty sized piece of fried dough and 0.6 (35 cents) for one with an egg. Soon the woman had her order filled. The guy behind the pan spoke to another man asking for his order…..he pointed to us, basically informing the "chef" that we were next in line. Folks here in Kairouan were more reserved, but very gracious. So, of course we had to have some brik.

After handing the cook some dough, the young man waved us to the counter in back to have a seat. he also showed us the sink in case we wanted to wash our hands. In a couple of minutes, our brik arrived, steam rising…..

The dough was crisp, light, but still with some substance, and not greasy at all. We soon discovered a very nice thing about the dough, it was studded with caraway seeds, which just brought it up another notch.

The egg was wonderfully runny, it seemed to have been poached. You eat this with your hands, when the young man saw us digging in, he kindly brought us a few more napkins!

This is why we travel….I mean the sights are great and all that, but having brik in the back streets of the medina in Kairouan, well that's like the cherry on the top of the most wonderful ice cream sundae……

 I hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

 

After taking our morning walk we headed back to the hotel to have some breakfast. Not much to say, it was nourishment and the woman working there seemed much more interested in getting the television in the corner working so she could watch something on it, than making sure everything got out to the buffet station. On this morning the coffee was ok….the next day it was like mud.

We usually sat outside on the balcony……..the best place to actually get some decent wi-fi reception.

While eating and going through emails, we made some preliminary plans for the day. We try not to plan too much. For us, it's better to enjoy what we're seeing in rushing through things. We really weren't feeling in the mood for what craziness the Medina would hold once business was going full tilt. It was however, is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. We decided to check it out early before the crowds are pushing you along and the vendors are grabbing you back……

We walked back down Avenue Habib Bourgiba for what seemed like the tenth time in just under 24 hours……

I snapped this photo of the Municipal Theatre of Tunis. The facade is distinctive of the Art Nouveau movement and the building was completed in 1902. It's still a functioning theatre as a later photo would show.

Most of the shops in the Medina weren't yet open when we arrived….just as we had planned. The romantic notion of a maze of warrens and paths do add an air of intrigue…..

The Missus and I do look at things differently. She was drawn to the brightly colored doors. Each one seemed unique, though we would find that you could learn a lot about who actually owns or lives behind these later on. It seemed that the Missus couldn't help but stop at every colorful door, and there were many of them, without snapping a photo.

I, on the other hand was fascinated by what was above ground. All these buildings were multi-story, blocking out the sunlight in areas.

You got glimpses of some stunning and impressive architecture just by looking up. The combination and contrast of colors are a photographers dream…. I just wish I were a better one!

There are passages that are covered….they can seem kind of spooky at times, but most of them held coffee or shisha (hookah) shops with older men sitting around. It was here that we saw two men in a little shop prepping couscous……

He stood over two large bowls….slowly adding water until he got the right texture……

 Then it was off to be steamed.

In the middle of the Medina is Zaytouna Mosque, the oldest in Tunis. It's a fairly large building and the Minaret can be seen from quite a distance.

We managed to walk completely through the Medina and out to Place de la Kasbah at what is the western entrance on the Medina. Apparently there are some government buildings here as we again saw armed soldiers and placed cordoned off with barbed wire. Still, we saw happy children being dropped off for school….teasing and laughter all around.

Here's a photo of the monument in the square.

Things were starting to pick up in the Medina so we started back the way we came. We ran into a very talkative gentleman while we were looking at Zaytouna Mosque and somehow got talked into checking out the view from on top of one of the buildings……..

Here's the minaret of the Zaytouna Mosque.

And another view from above……

So we did the requisite sit through of the carpet dude, then even went to the guys "cousin's" fragrance shop and actually bought some pure citron oil…it would come in handy in warding off mosquitoes later on. Then when we got back to the mosque we offered the guy 10 dinars(about $6.25)…I mean, we know he was getting a cut of the 30 dinars we were paying for the scented oil and all….and he had the nerve to ask for 40($25 US)?!??!! We tried to bargain, but he was adamant on getting 25 dinars($15.50)……in the end, we told him to go get his money from his "cousin". The shops were now open and much of the cobblestone was covered in stuff. It was time to beat as hasty retreat.

On the way back up Habib Bourgiba we decided to stop at the very busy…even for this time of the morning Le Grand Cafe du Theatre, right next to the Municipal Theatre for some "cafe express" (espresso). It was a good cup and the service here was quite nice. Since it was still early, the Missus and I decided to check out the Bardo National Museum. We understood that the place was still being renovated and the revolution probably leaves much up in the air, but we'd probably not be back this way again anytime soon, so why not. We asked our Server about getting to "le Bardo…metro leger". We didn't understand much French except for his pointing and the part about "Place Barcelona".

I could handle "place Barcelona" and unlike Rue de Yugouslavie, it hadn't changed its name! It was also easy to ask about. Place Barcelona is one of the major transfer points for Tunis's métro léger (tram) system. It was easy to ask for the ticket counter and find the gate for the right tram.

We had noticed something a bit earlier….young women, those that looked like high school or college aged, and dressed in more western attire seemed more likely to speak English. And even if they didn't they tended to be nicer, without some "racket" going on. We asked one young lady and when we came to the Le Bardo stop, she made sure to let us know. We actually made it across the busy street looking for the museum…..we walked its perimeter, pass the tents of folks who seemed to be demonstrating or protesting something, only to find out we had gone the wrong way! We back-tracked and made it to the dusty parking lot of the museum.

We found the ticket window and found that tickets during the renovation were only 4 dinar (about $2.50 US) and the usual 1 dinar "camera permit" was waived. It was basically half price. We really didn't expect much as we put on the shoe covers(we didn't know that you'd be walking on mosaics), but our visit surely exceeded the price of admission. There were only mosaics on display, but many of them were beautiful, like this one of Neptune and the Four Seasons from Dougga.

It's hard to put into photos, but you can see how large some of these mosaics were to the right.

One funny thing was that we asked the security person to take a photo of the both of us….he really got into it and ended up moving us form mosaic to mosaic, directing and posing us, taking photos. The Missus and I couldn't help but crack up! It was odd, yet very funny….of course we tipped well, in retrospect, I'm sure this is another source of income for him during these lean times.

One of the most striking objects was the baptismal font from Sbeitla, a site we'd be visiting in a couple of days.

In the end, it was well worth the price…though we'd be even more impressed with the mosaics at another museum a day later.

We decided to catch a taxi back to Ville Nouvelle, the area we were staying. Would you believe we'd done all of this and it was only 11am? We got back to Habib Bourgiba and decided to grab some lunch. After the last couple of meals, I wanted to go "high end"(relative in terms), and the Missus agreed. So off we were trying to find Chez Slah…the address I had was 14 bis rue Pierre de Coubertin. Now finding Rue de Courbertin was fairly easy……but finding Chez Slah took a bit of work. We finally settled on a small industrial looking side street…….

Next to what looked like an auto repair stood a pretty entrance to a courtyard…….

We saw a young man basically scrubbing down the patio area…..man, folks in Tunisia were really clean…..the restrooms of almost everywhere were so clean. Anyway, apparently it was before opening time. The gentleman who opened the door pointed at his watch….we'd have to return at noon. Well, the mall is fairly close by, we took a walk and rehydrated…..and returned at noon.

The dining area is fine, nothing really special……when the wait staff found out that we spoke no French…well, they took our drink orders, but we had to wait for the waiter who spoke English! It was both humorous, but also humbling in a way. We eventually got our orders placed….and the plate of harissa, olives, etc, arrived along with the bread.

The Missus actually loved the piece of "thon" tuna, provided. She also jumped at the chance of finally being able to try some Tunisian wine and order a half bottle of the rose(meh) and the blanc, which was fairly decent, the crispness stood up to the Tunisian influenced dishes.

The Salade Mechoua was pretty good, the best we'd had so far. The Missus; "man, what is it that I'm liking so much?" Me; "they actually have salt in this…."

While it would not hold up as the trip went along, it was the best we'd had to this point……simply because it was seasoned well.

The brik we didn't enjoy too much, the egg was overdone and it was on the greasy side.

But man, the grilled calamari was very good. The amount of salt was right on, there was a distinct flavor, smokey and nutty, that I would later find was because it was grilled over olive wood.

There was a good amount of tenderness and even that slight hint of what I call ocean sweetness, ever so rare in the calamari we have here in the states. Even though I'd have better later on, this was my favorite dish to this point.

I decided to order the mussels; the Missus isn't a big fan of mussels as most of what She's had are dry and tasteless. These were simply done, sauteed in white wine, they were also tiny, but were packed with flavor and almost melted in your mouth.

We didn't enjoy the side dishes very much. I had been excited to try the Tunisian version of shakshuka…expecting eggs poached in a harissa. tomato, and red pepper sauce. This was basically a mechouia base with tomato….eggs were added in and mixed looking like scrambled eggs…sort of like if your were supposed to temper eggs, but screwed up and they ended up scrambled. This was also surprisingly bland, considering the other dishes.

The frites….well, what can I say? How about soggy and greasy? I'd about given up on having decent potatoes here in Tunisia….after just one day!

Unfortunately, we had also ordered grilled "fresh" fish. Going though the offerings, I wa assured that the best bet was the "dourade"……which our Server, who actually knew more Japanese than English told me was "madai"……Sea Bream, which is really good stuff, I've had some awesome madai nigiri. Strangely, because I told our Server we'd be sharing the fish, they ended up chopping it in half! Giving the Missus the back half and me the head! Oh, and it was grilled to death……add to that the slightly sour and fishy taste of something that didn't seem to be real fresh.

The Missus couldn't bring herself to eat more than two bites……..

 Still, the meal ended on a high note. We'd requested the seasonal fruit as our dessert. First to arrive was this rather large mixing bowl of what looked like whipped cream…..well it was whipped cream….very old school whipped cream. Ever had those dreams about having some strawberries as a garnish to awesome whipped cream? Well this was it…….

These are what I call "third world strawberries", small, but super tart-sweet and picked when perfectly ripe. I put a dollop of whipped cream on my plate, this was apparently a misstep as our waiter made that clucking noise and proceeded to grab the bowl and put three more huge serving spoonfuls of whipped cream on my plate! Man it was good, not too sweet, slightly sour and tangy….the real deal.

Our meal ended on a high note. Total cost 84.800 TND, about $53.75. To me a bargain, to the Missus maybe not. By the time we left, the place was full of French expats who seem to be their usual clientele. I'm pretty sure the regular person on the street can't really afford to eat here…….

We picked up some "eau mineral" on the eay back to the room. The Missus took a nap while I snuck down to the patio and I actually worked on a post or two. Evening rolled around and we took a walk….we passed a Zara store and found that the prices were the same as the US(She's got it memorized)! And yet, the place was packed! We weren't very hungry and stopped at one of those really cheap Pizza-Panini-Crepe-Pasta plces on the avenue to grab something small.

The Missus went with the crepe de fromage-ouef(cheese and egg crepe), which was pretty nasty but only 2 TND – $1.25:

I went with the Merguez Sandwich, which was not bad…..2.4 TND – $1.50.

The merguz were fine, the bread decent, don't know what to do with the olives since they still had pits….biting into one would have been a surpise had you not checked. The frites were standard for Tunisia. The harissa on the sandiwch worked quite well. Could have done without the guys smoking like it was going out of style, but hey, we're in their country, you gotta roll with it, you know?

Still. the Missus had already gotten Her fill of Tunis. I'd have ot think about something for the trip back!