Cooking Couscous

Internet has been down this past week, so this entry is a little late, but I want to let you all know I’m one step closer to making you all really good Tunisian couscous when I return home!

I went to my friends house last weekend where I spent the entire day observing her mom in the kitchen, eating, watching TV, watching my friend’s wedding videos, and eating (actually the eating never really stopped).

When a Tunisian refers to couscous, they aren’t just referring to the granules of semolina, they’re talking about the spicy stew that goes on top of the steamed pasta as well. Actually they use a special pot where you can cook the stew in the lower half and steam the couscous in the upper section.

Luckily my friends mom only used two large wooden spoons of chili powder in this couscous, I really don’t think my stomach could have handled the four spoonfuls she usually uses. It was still spicy but very, very good. Much better than what I’ve tried in restaurants.

So there you can see the first course of the the day. Tunisian couscous, fried green peppers, a lovely cucumber salad, and of course some coca-cola.

Kairouan

Last week I made a short stop in Kairouan, Islam’s fourth most holy city after Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. My travel book explains how this city became known as a holy place…….

In 670 Oqba Ibn Nafi, advancing west, called a routine halt here with his army. A golden cup was found on the ground, which he recognized as one he had lost at Mecca; then a spring was discovered, and declared to be connected to the holy well of Zem Zem at Mecca.  (The Rough Guide to Tunisia, 2009, pp. 236) 

You can still visit the well that is said to be connected to the well in Mecca and many different holy Mosques and tombs. The Great Mosque of the city is one of the oldest, largest, and most important mosques in the whole country. It’s considered to be such a holy place that some people even say that seven trips to this Mosque is equal to one pilgrimage to Mecca.
I didn’t have the opportunity to go inside, we just had time to look at it from the roof of a rug shop next door. We did get to have a nice presentation of how beautiful Tunisian rugs are made though.

Kairouan is also known for their sweets. I can’t even begin to try to spell the name of this specialty, all I know is that every Tunisian I’ve met tells me I have to buy some when I’m in Kairouan. I’d actually tried some last year and didn’t really enjoy them, but this year both my housemate and I thought they were very good. Luckily my housemate was guiding a tour group that day so we were given a whole box for free!

Back to El Jem

I joined a Swedish tour group to El Jem this past Sunday. Being that I’d already been there twice it didn’t matter that I didn’t understand anything the guide was saying, I just enjoyed the scenery and took more pictures for my El Jem collection.

Saturday Fun

This past weekend a friend and I headed to the Saturday Souk (flea market) where you can buy just about anything. From fruits, spices, pots and pans, new clothes and used clothes you’re bound to find something to buy. There’s also a Sunday souk on the other side of town, but this one in Hammam Sousse is known for having good quality used clothes. With more than one hundred tables of used clothes to choose from, I did my best to listen to the prices being called out, and joined the other ladies treasure hunting at the tables that had items for just 4 dinar or less. I found a very nice burnt-orange sweater and plan to return again in the wee morning hours before all the best quality items are taken.  After our shopping adventure we decided to try out a famous chawarma restaurant that I’d heard about from three different locals. The techno music was a bit loud but the Tunisian burritos were very good. Hopefully I can learn all their secrets so I can make them for all my friends!

Bible in the Bathroom?

My Arabic teacher brought me and my housemate some stuffed chill’s and couscous the other night and as we were relaxing after enjoying the spicy meal she asked us “why do so many westerners have bible verses hanging on their bathroom walls?” She expressed how uncomfortable she feels as she uses the bathrooms in these homes, the most unclean room in the house, and is forced to look at a section of a holy book. If you didn’t already know, Muslims have great respect for their holy book as well as for other holy books, and feel they must be clean before reading them (they may do a ritual washing before reading, women may have their head covered while reading, women won’t read it while they have their period, etc.). They also hold their holy book with much respect as they read it, they would never place it on the floor, and only put up sections of in the nicest rooms in their homes. 
So why do so many Christians hang up bible verses in the bathroom, the room my teacher considers to be a very dirty room? I didn’t have a good answer but I was glad we didn’t have one hanging in our bathroom, and thought it might be a good thing for all of you to keep in mind if you ever invite a Muslim over to your home.

Sunny but Cold

Depending on where you are right now you will sympathize with me or laugh at me. Either way, I just have to let you all know that I am so, so cold and am jealous of my friends in the Dominican Republic. When I first arrived I had to use a fan at night because it was so hot (I don’t even need to use one in the D.R.), but just a few days ago the weather changed drastically. I may be living very close to the Sahara desert but that doesn’t mean that I can go around in light-weight clothes and sandals all year round. Actually, I had to buy a sweater today and am looking for closed toed shoes so my feet stay somewhat warm.

One of My Favorite Restaurants

After living in a barrio in the Caribbean for eight years the life and noise inside the Medina walls feels much more like home than the quiet neighborhood I’m living in. The original Sousse city is surrounded by a wall about two miles long and has everything you could imagine inside. The tourists flock to it for all it’s souvenir shops, but actually its small alleyways are full of homes, clothing stores, bakeries, mosques, sports clubs, bead and fabric stores, fresh fish and produce markets, music stores, hardware stores, restaurants, and so much more. There’s a small restaurant near the center of the Medina that I’ve fallen in love with. I went there with some other tourists last year, when the waitress realized I didn’t speak Arabic or French she took me into the kitchen and showed me what was on the menu that day (the menu changes every day). I’m assuming that very few tourists stumble across this place because when I returned this year both the waitress and the chef recognized me and invited me into the kitchen again. As soon as you sit down they serve you fresh French bread which you can eat by itself, with a side dish, or with your main dish (like soup).  So far I’ve just tried a lamb couscous and a spicy chicken stew, both of which I really enjoyed. The majority of the customers seem to be regulars who live and work in the Medina. Some eat alone while others meet up with their friends there. Two things that stuck out to me about the customers is that lots of the older men just eat the outside of their French bread, leaving large piles of the soft bread on their tables. Also there’s a few men that have large calluses on foreheads, which I found out is a sign that they spend a lot of time in prayer.

So overall, this little restaurant is a fun place to go. Good food and interesting customers, an all around great Tunisian cultural experience.

The Emotions of Living Abroad

Have you ever heard of culture shock? Well, according to Wikipedia culture shock refers to the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, uncertainty, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within a different and unknown cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country. The shock (of moving to a foreign country) often consists of distinct phases: the honeymoon phase, the negotiation phase, and the adjustment phase.

I have a theory that people living abroad (for 3 months to 1 year) usually experience an intense “expectations shock” together with the negotiation phase of the culture shock, about half way through their stay. A time when one realizes their spoken and unspoken expectations were too high, and that they won’t get close to meeting their goals before their trip comes to an end. This phase (usually weeks) seems to be marked by anxiety, home sickness, mood swings, disappointment, and depression.

So, am I experiencing “expectations shock”?  I’m close to the half way mark of my stay in Tunisia and yes I have started to withdraw a little bit and have lost some of that adventurous spirit I had when I first arrived. The fact that I can only say about three sentences in Arabic and still can’t recognize the numbers when I’m told how much something costs is a bit daunting. And though I thought I had no expectations of my time here, I’m realizing that I did. I expected to make a few Tunisian friends by now who I could visit regularly, I thought I would have learned how to make really good couscous by now, I imagined I would be able to communicate in Arabic a bit better, and I thought I might feel clarity about my future but all I feel is confusion. So yes, I am a little discouraged. Sounds like a minor dose of “expectations shock” to me! Maybe I should try marketing this theory!

“Expectations shock” or not, I find it helpful to be aware of the my hidden expectations, aim to make realistic ones, and keep going on little adventures even when I don’t feel like it. (I mean it’s a little embarrassing to get kicked off a bus because you don’t know how to tell the driver where you’re going, but then again it gives me something to blog about)!

My Teacher’s home town

Here’s a few pictures from my trip last week to my Arabic teacher’s home town. It’s a small town which is said to have the best fish you’ll find in the whole country, the most healthy people in the whole country (because they eat so much fish), as well as really beautiful beaches.

How far would I go?

The other day I was on a mission to find guitar strings. I was told there was one music store in town not too far from the Medina (the main tourist area). After walking a long ways past the Medina walls I started to wonder if I’d taken the wrong road. I stopped a girl who didn’t know any English, so I did my best to say “I’m looking for store” in Arabic  and then “music” in both English and Spanish hoping it might make sense. She was very kind and from her body language I could tell I was definitely going the wrong way. She then started walking with me back to the Medina and up a long hill. We probably walked for nearly twenty minutes together, mostly uphill, until we found the store. I had tried to tell her I was fine and could find the store on my own once I got on the right street, but she insisted on walking with me even though she was originally going a totally different direction.
Can any of you imagine walking about a mile out of your way for someone you just met, a foreigner who doesn’t really make much sense? I personally found it very humbling, I don’t think I’ve ever been that helpful to anyone.

El Jem- Roman Coliseum

If you day-dreamed your way through history class and never read a history book in your life, like me, you might not be aware of the Roman history in North Africa. Actually, here in Tunisia we have the single most impressive Roman amphitheatre in all of Africa, along with other numerous Roman ruins.

This past weekend I had the chance to visit El Jem where the large Roman amphitheatre stands in the middle of a quite town. It’s history  is sad and quite hard for me to imagine. Originally holding up to 43,000 people, the “circus shows” where a way the rulers kept their huge urban populations happy. In my Tunisian guide book I’m told  “the only disadvantage of the shows for the rulers was their in-built inflationary spiral. The more spectacular the show, the higher the expectations next time.” (The Rough Guide to Tunisia, 2009, pg. 256). It’s said that the day the Coliseum opened roughly five thousand animals perished. Then, as the taste for blood grew, prisoners, criminals, and bankrupts were put into arenas often defenseless against gladiators and wild animals.

You can walk up the coliseum steps where the spectators sat, as well as down below were the victims awaited their deaths. My tour guide told me stories of how there were underground catacombs leading from El Jem to Sousse where Christians used to hide, as well as be buried in if martyred. He says that they would hold up three fingers just before their death during the “circus shows” as a symbol that they believed in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When being put in their graves, their friends would bury them with their fingers bent in the same way to show that they had been martyrs.

Everything From Scratch

I had the opportunity to join my Arabic teacher to her home town this past Wednesday morning where I got to meet her family. Her mom is a very strong, hardworking women who, at nearly 70 years old, still insists on making everything the old way.

She had a large amount hot peppers drying in the sun while we were there which she’ll use to make her own chili powder and special red pepper paste called harissa (a mix of hot chilies, garlic, cumin, coriander, caraway, and olive oil). She also makes her own couscous but I really can’t imagine how. She sent us to a small mill with four large bags of wheat grains, when we brought back the milled grain she explained that she’ll boil it and do some other stuff to it which will take about 4 to 7 days. After that long process she’ll have enough couscous to last her all year!

She also gave us some really good Chakchouka, bread and grapes for breakfast. This chakchouka was made from some kind of beans (pictured below), onions, olive oil, tomatoes, chili powder, salt, and chilies. I’m going to try to make some this weekend, but I was told that I have to break off the hard outside of the bean which I’m finding extremely difficult. I’ll do my best though!

Chakchouka is one of my favorite Tunisian dishes. I didn’t notice last year, but Chakchouka has many different varieties; sometimes it’s made with just vegetables, other times they add eggs, and sometimes they make it with beans or potatoes. It’s  considered a poor person meal because it doesn’t have meat in it, but it’s so, so tasty. I didn’t know at first, but my teachers mom was embarrassed that she could only offer me Chakchouka…. little did she know that I actually prefer it to a meat dish! 

Working-Out in Tunisia

I knew women don’t go jogging or do exercise outside here but I had no idea how many modern unisex fitness clubs there were. I joined one just about 7 minutes from my house called Seven Fitness. They have different classes pretty much every hour (no signing up needed); aerobics, step, spinning, weight lifting to a beat, stretching, etc. I find it kind of hard to keep up with some of the aerobic and step moves (I’m not very coordinated) so I often resort to the running machine, the stepping machine or the exercise bike. Though I haven’t made actual friends at this gym yet, it’s fun to meet new people and struggle through the aerobic and step classes with the other ladies in the back row. I think most of the members are wealthy and fairly modern in dress and attitude. But there are a few ladies who workout with special exercise head coverings and disappear into the changing room during the prayer times.

Overall going to Seven Fitness has been a fun social type activity…. can’t guarantee I’ll get in that great of shape but I’ll do my best.

So Much Hospitality

I was going for a walk  the other day and decided to stop at a little corner store to get a a quick snack. Before I knew it I was upstairs in the owners home enjoying fruit, Tunisian sweets, tea, crackers and good conversation. The store owners daughter spent a year in Arizona as a high school exchange student last year. She speaks perfect English and has a very bubbly personality so we talked for nearly two hours about culture shock, life in the US, life in Tunisia, religion and food.

Can any of you imagine inviting a foreigner into your home after meeting them at the grocery store and then sharing all your best food with them? I can’t, and honestly people might be scared if I tried that back home, but it’s totally a part of life here.