Tube Tunisa. Series "With a backpack on Tunisia" – Tunisia, Tunisia – Tourist Blog

In their independent travels of ************* – that time has to be powered in various cafes, restaurants, fast foods, which in the country there are a huge set, which has come across the idea to continue the story about this country of the Mediterranean under a gastronomic angle of view. And I want to tell about Tunisian cuisine.

So, choosing from your hotel and for a distance of about 500 -700 m. You fall into the so-called "tourist zone", where, as a rule, there is a number of cafes and restaurants, which, in their concept, are aimed at servicing tourists and offering "European" and "national" kitchen. At the expense of European cuisine to the institution there are no questions. But with "National" there are many questions. Because almost all the dishes of Tunisian cuisine will be adapted to taste to the preferences of European tourists. Such restaurants will be you and the city center (in the places of large cluster of tourists). But what then is Real Tunisian Cuisine? We will try to figure it out.

Tunisia’s national cuisine has common features for the countries of Arab North Africa and are based on simple combinations of products, ubiquitous use of the Kuskus, abundance of high-quality spices. Tunisian national cuisine turned out as a result of centuries-old mixing of countless culinary traditions: Phoenicians, Libyans, Romans, Arabs, Turks, and then the French made their habits, foods, recipes and methods of cooking food. As a result, bright, distinctive and delicious national cooking was born.

Do not look for in the menu dishes from pork, as in all Muslim countries, the eating pork is strictly prohibited. Although several farms belonging to Italians grow and sell pork. But, as the tasting of such dishes showed, the meat is quite harsh and has a large number of.
However, I think the lack of pork in our diet will not adversely affect your health during your stay in Tunisia.
Among the meat diversity is mainly used, lamb and beef, as well as a goat, camel (as delicious) and poultry meat.
Meat can be purchased in pairwise in the shops (no freezing. ) or in supermarkets. The cost of meat for the local population is quite high and not bought every day.

For the preparation of various meat dishes, the meat is prepared, as a rule, on a strong fire in a pan without adding oil, and either finely cut (kebab), or is cut into portion pieces (as our kebab) or fed entirely. Puffs are taken for cooking meat gravy or sauces.

Traditional dishes include: a lamb meat in a pot, Schonba (Shorba) – acute soup with vegetables and veal, BRIC – such as Cebureca known to us from fresh dough with a filling of eggs, chopped meat or fish (yolk should not be baked); Fingering Fatima – Pancakes with chopped meat and eggs.

The kitchen is calm and soft in the nature of the tunisians possesses an assertive, sharp, sometimes explosive pronounced taste, which national dishes are obliged to saffron, coriander, anis, cinnamon and another ten all sorts of spices and spices, aromatic herbs and oils.

Since the appearance of acute red peppers in the Mediterranean Sea pool, Tunisians introduced it to their diet, and to this day they are wider than residents of any other country in the region. Burning pepper is part of almost all dishes of national cuisine.

Food in Tunisia plays an important role in society, carrying out a number of social and religious functions.

Rituals, rites and prohibitions are tied with food, reflecting the special relationship of tunisians to food. In particular, it is considered not very decent to look into the face of a person who eats, and also eat on the go or standing. As happened everywhere in Arab countries, there are many types of food that eating hands. In these cases, it is not customary to take the food with your left hand.

Islam prohibits alcohol consumption, but the ratio to the alcohol in Tunisia is relatively liberal. Despite the fact that alcoholic beverages are missing in the menu of most restaurants outside the hotels, the country produces beautiful wine, and more strong drinks. Attitude towards a fit one ***********************, and no karas threaten.

In general, the Tunisian feast can be viewed as an essential element of public life, and a friendly or family lunch or dinner can last for hours. Typical meal opens the Shorb Fric (Chorba Frik), looks like a lamb meat soup and wheat young sprouts, seasoned tomato paste, coriander and parsley. Soup languishes on slow fire and served with lemon slices.

And so, we found for ourselves a suitable restaurant, which offers a complete set of Tunisian dishes. Next, try to tell about the part of the dishes that you managed to try for numerous trips to Tunisia.
To begin with, let’s try snacks

Snacks is an important part of the meal. Local Analogue of Middle Eastern Mesa (Assorted Snacks) Here is called Kemia (Kemia). Lowned around meat kuskus, they play the role of a side dish, giving the cereal, meat and vegetables in the composition of this dish Additional shades of taste, color and texture.
In addition to nuts, olives, as well as extruded and sliced ​​slices of drum caviar, on the Tunisian table for snacks you will definitely detect olive oil and spices of octopus, squid and shrimp, Roman Salad, Portulak or Endivia. Pucked carrot, pumpkin or zucchini mixed with sharp pepper, spiced mixture, season with lemon juice and olive oil. A variety of pickled marinated vegetables (cauliflower, radish), sprinkled with ground pepper or decorated with olives and celery and mint leaves.

Sometimes Tunisian salads made of raw or ready-made ingredients, decorated with tuna, sardines, anchovy or egg, are not served as a preceding main snacks, but as an independent, albeit, dish.

Among the Tunisian Salads of Special Mention deserves widespread bias (Mechouia) from cubes of tomatoes, green and red peppers, welded by screwing eggs, tuna and capers, refilled by olive oil and lemon juice.

Required item of the traditional menu – Brick (BRIK), classic Tunisian snack. Brick outwardly reminds all of us familiar Cheburek. But this similarity ends. This is a triangular envelope from a thin crispy test with one hundred and a variety of fillings.
BRIC is used in food at any time of the day and sold at every step. Most often, the brick is starting with eggs, lackled parsley, tuna and onions. On the seaside north of the country, shrimps add to it, in the south – chicken meat.
After it is finished with snacks, Tunisian dinner can be considered the beginning.

Per dish of lamb, veal or fish should be stewed meat, which, in turn, replaces Tajine (Tajine) – spicy and juicy fragrant omelet, baked with chopped meat, vegetables and cheese.
Large, rice, vegetables and fruits in the most unexpected combinations are very popular as a garnish.

The most important place in the diet is occupied by bread – whether it is French baguette in cities, a traditional cake or fresh rustic bread, baked in the clay dome-shaped furnace of herd (Tabouuna).

Without freshly created ********, no meal costs. *********** Hands; it is not only eating, but also use as a spoon and plates, laying out meat and other dishes on a hunk bread or scouring them sauce. Such a picture can be observed passing around the market in a monstation where a whole range of cafes and shops are located along the street.

Popular Tunisian sauce Harissa Made from dried in the sun, unwritten red pepper, olive oil, parsley and garlic, it reminds Caucasian Adzhik, but more acute. Use it in food is pretty careful. Sometimes such sauce is used as the marinade ingredient to meat.

Kuskus
Couscous (Couscous) – cooked for a pair of small croup of wheat solid varieties – an indispensable attribute of any North African feast and one of the main products of the region. This is a very older dish; It is possible that it was invented by the Berbers, the original inhabitants of North African countries (Maghreba).
Tunisian Couscus is usually served with stewed meat (in the classic version – lamb) and vegetables – carrots, white cabbage, repo and chickpeas (Turkish pea). The dish has many regional and seasonal varieties, meat, chicken and fish variations.

Unusual in his taste sensations Fish Couscus from Jerb Island, which is prepared in a special three-tiered double boiler. In the bottom section, right above the fire, boils fragrant fish soup flavored with cinnamon and tmin. His fragrant couples rise to the middle tier, in which pieces of fish marinated in brine from finely chopped mint, parsley, mangold (leaf beet) and fennel leaves (Volosk dill). Finally, fragrances, fish pairs reaches the couscase grains on the very top. Such a dish can be tried on the market ******** not far from fish rows, where trading are held (peculiar fish stock exchange).

Couscous vegetable ingredients depending on the season may include Spanish artichokes (Cardon), beans or pumpkin.
Many types of Kuskus are extremely sharp: a fair amount of Harissa and a mixture of ground coriander, cumin and garlic is added to them. There are less burning, but at the same time there are much more exotic – they may include quince, raisins and an unusual mixture of dried ground pink buds, black pepper and cinnamon.

Meat dishes
As happened everywhere in Arab countries, in Tunisia love and deliciously prepare meat. In most cases, it is lamb, but you can find both beef, veal, kozdyatin, poultry meat. On ********** Sugar, food consumes camel. Often the meat is roasted on a strongly hot frying pan without adding oil. I can note that it turns out juicy and tasty.

Famous meat dishes: Guenaoia (Guenaoia) (meat, stewed with chili pepper, sweet pepper and cilantro); Cold Chakchuka Ragu (Chakchouka); Brokes (BROCHE) are small pieces of meat or chicken cooked on a skewer; Meshoui – Fried on a spit. In restaurants you can often find a dish called grade (Marka). The dish looks like a baked meat baked in tomato sauce. A steaming young lamb is baked in a pot on coals, which is then solemnly broken in front of the client. I liked this dish in a restaurant in g.Gabes near a big mosque (near the parking of luzzles).

Delicious thing – Felfel Mahchi (Felfel Mahchi), stuffed with meat sweet pepper; as well as Merguses, sometimes sounds like Merguez (Merguez) – small sharp smoked sausages. The most delicious, in my opinion, turned out in g.Raid. Probably it is difficult to argue here, because the raider is considered the capital of pepper.

A favorite way of cooking a lamb is called a Kush (Couch): The blade is rubbed with a sauce of olive oil, salt, chopping mint, red pepper and turmeric and baked on slow fire in tightly closed clay dishes.

Specialty of Monastir, Mahdia and Djerba – Osbane (Osbane): Lamb of a lamb with adding spicy greenery. In Monastir, the festival for the preparation of Osban is held annually.

Other attractions of local cuisine include sharp or seasoned Matthew Caftagi Meatballs (KAFTAGI) with tomatoes and fried peppers.

Fish and seafood
Seafood and fish occupy an important place in the diet of residents of the country. Assortment of port restaurants Tunisia is rich enough. Premuning an order, the host of the institution with pride will demonstrate to you an impressive tray with a fresh cattle – maritime language, mackerel, cod, sea perch, sea bream, sardines, octopus, giant shrimps, squid and juicy lobster.

Each lover of delicious and healthy food will appreciate the simple local recipe for cooking fish: Slices of freshly dried fishes are frying on the grill, then watered with lemon juice and olive oil. However, the fish here is also baked, fry in olive oil, stuffing and seasoned with Tmin. Changich – squid, cuttlefish and octopuses are prepared in a grain and served with lemon slices.

The menu is often found to indicate the "Fish" (Poisson Complet): The selected Rybina is usually roasted in a pan, grilled or in oil on a strong heat and is served with french fries and sharp Tastira Sauce (Tastira).
A special place is occupied by the Queen of Tunisian Fishes by the name of the Barabulka (ROUGET), which is frying either on the grill, or in a frying pan.
Well, of course fish at number one in the national fish menu occupies a tuna (Thon). Some believe that this is the country is owned by the name. Being one of the cheapest (along with sardine and skombing) of the seafood, tuna is part of almost all the dishes of Tunisian cuisine, from salads to baking.

Dishes from Yaitz
The large section of the national menu is egg-based dishes (OJJA). The characteristic dishes, no doubt, belongs to Tajine (Tajine), presented by many varieties.

The dish with such a name is distributed in other countries of North Africa, but those who are familiar, for example, with Moroccan Tajin (stewed in a pot with meat, birds or fish), should be taken into account that the Tunisian dish does not have anything with it except , perhaps, dishes: Initially, Tajin is the name of the clay pot of conical shape, subsequently began to be called and the dishes that are prepared in it.
Tunisian Tajin resembles a large cake based eggs with chopped meat or omelet, similar to pizza. The basis of Tajina is finely chopped and stewed with onions and spices (sometimes – with white beans, chickping or potatoes) veal or other meat.

Seasoning (mint, parsley, kinza) add to meats, then poured with eggs, sprinkle with cheese and baked in the clay dishes.

One of the numerous variations on the topic of Tajina is an omelet of the cut (OJJI), refilled by acute sausage of Merguez (Merguez) with the addition of tomatoes and garlic.

Other characteristic dishes from eggs include Shakshuk (Chakchouka). Looks like a vegetable dish resembling ratatoo and cooked from pepper, tomatoes and eggs.

desserts

No doubt, Tunisian sweets are worth looking into the nearest pastry. Among the tunisians a lot of sweets.

I would like to add that many desserts purchased in confectionery will differ significantly from those that you try in your hotel.
In the kitchen of Tunisia there are many sweet dishes and desserts, most of which are made from difts.

Sweet dishes rarely complete her dining meal: in Tunisian houses, they are usually served separately later, often treat them to the guests who came to the house.

The Turkish sweetness of the Baklava, or Pakhlava (Baklawa), which is sold at every turn. Tunisian option looks like a rectangular cake, grounded with ground and roasted pine nuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, almonds and honey syrup.

Honey Cupcakes made of manna cereals with filling from dates, cinnamon, almonds and orange candies are called Macud (makhroud), pea flour pies and cake beza (Bouza) from sorghum with a fillow of hazelnut and roasted seeds.
From the sweetened semolina with raisins and dates is preparing a sweet specification of Kuskus Dessert Meruff (Mesrouf), served with a glass of cold milk. Krucus cereals are also used for cookie cookies: graba (Graiba), makroud (makhroud) and Tunisian varieties of patchlava with filling of roasted almond. Cupcakes made of rice and nuts Malbia, North African cookies from honey and almonds Maulman and other local sweets enter the traditional sweet menu of any celebration.

At the end of the meal you will be offered Tunisian tea. Pretty tasty mint tea, very sweet and decorated with multiple floating cedar nuts, which give a drink light fragrance of resin. Tea fiery hot in miniature cups.
What can be said at the end of his narration? Do not be afraid to try, study and get pleasure from dishes that have a long and interesting history of creating. To be brief, then the Tunisian cuisine can be described as "Food amounted to the Sun". I hope that this short story will help you, being in Tunisia to choose a dish and will not disappoint your taste. And arriving home you can easily prepare for your home and friends a magnificent Tunisian dish, accompanying amazing stories about your holiday in this country.
Bon Appetit. thanks!