I’ll admit that the extent of my knowledge about Tunisia was almost exclusively limited to the song, “A Night in Tunisia.” Thankfully, my exposure now extends at least to its culinary scene thanks to this article by Edward Placidi. During his recent visit, he discovered the essential ingredients that comprise a wealth of traditional Tunisian food options. 

Save this article about traditional Tunisian food to Pinterest. Photos by Edward Placidi. Graphic by RealFoodTraveler.com.

Hungry for more? Here’s Ed’s article about Central Asian food.

Tunisian Food: Culinary Delights Are Defined by a Handful of Key Ingredients

Tunisia is a food-loving country. Food is everywhere.

From the narrow lanes of the old medinas to busy shopping boulevards, numerous sandwich shops prepare a wide variety of concoctions, while street vendors cut pineapples into hefty slices, roast and sugar-glaze nuts and bag freshly made potato chips.

Tunisian street food stalls with sheets of nut-filled, honey dripping baklava and other sweets of many colors tempt passersby. People wait in long lines snaking down lanes for their bambalouna fix: the oversize donuts are soft inside with a crusty exterior and sweet sugar coating.

Sheets of Baklava and other sweets tempt passersby on the streets of Tunis.

Hungry customers wait patiently for a grilled chapatti ‒ a flat bread that may be stuffed with a choice of soft-boiled egg or omelet, ham, cheese, tuna and more ‒ or a malfouf, a wrap that can be plied with the same ingredients, and fries too, with the addition of a spicy seasoning or a version of 1000 Island dressing.

The Tunisians have so many beloved foods, from the signature dish of couscous and savory tomato-based stews to grilled fresh seafood and hearty soups. And people don’t mind waiting in ques for the snacks, dishes and savories that make their day so enjoyable – and make traveling in the country a tasty delight.

Couscous is a national dish of Tunisia.

Tunisia’s kitchen is an amalgam of its location and history. As a Mediterranean country, it has been greatly influenced by the region’s culinary traditions and abundance that run deep and delicious. The indigenous Berbers, Arab influences that originated with the Islamic conquest of the Maghreb and Ottoman rule stirred the pot, as did Italy to the north and especially Sicily.

What is so surprising about the Tunisian kitchen, however, is how just a small roster of ingredients is used to create most traditional dishes and street foods. It’s largely the same foods and condiments in most recipes.

The Tunisians can’t seem to get enough eggs, tuna, olives, tomatoes, potatoes and bread, as well as their favorite spice mix ‒ fragrant, spicy and slightly smoky and citrusy harissa ‒ along with cumin and garlic. It seemed there were more foods that included eggs and/or tuna than didn’t (canned tuna, that is: the annual catch of highly prized Bluefin tuna is so valuable it’s mostly exported).

Hungry for more? Read Ed’s article about the Food Scene in Oman.

Take ojja, a very popular stew which I sampled at Al Majlis restaurant in the capital city, Tunis. The stew was tomato based and, unsurprisingly, featured olives, harissa, a seafood mix of mussels, shrimp and squid, and two fried eggs on top. One of my favorite dishes here, it merged Tunisia’s tangy chief condiment, briny olives and rich stewed tomatoes – plus injecting an extra blast of flavor when breaking the yolks and allowing the yellow gold to flow down into the dish. It was the perfect meal to sop up with the fresh bread, a fluffy small round loaf dotted with oats and caraway seeds.

Popular tomato-based ojja stew combines olives, harissa, seafood and fried eggs.

Al Majlis’ kabkabou was a rich, tasty fish ragout. With some basic ingredients and preparation in common, it was similar to ojja. It was thicker though, with potatoes and no eggs, with a whole, perfectly steamed dorado floating in the sauce.

Kabkabou is a rich, tasty fish ragout, part of the Tunisia food scene.

My meal at Al Majlis was preceded by a complimentary garnish plate with several of the omnipresent ingredients: olives, olive oil, a harissa-tomato paste and bread for dipping. This is typical when ordering in restaurants:  a small appetizer plate arrives to hold you over, and stimulate your appetite, while waiting for the food.

Dar Belhadj is an institution in the old medina of Tunis with a sophisticated menu, tuxedo-clad maître d’ and musician playing a many-stringed Tunisian qanun (a plucked, zither-like instrument). The Tunisian Salad starter was a predictable garden party (the name was a dead giveaway of what was to come) of fresh and layered ingredients:  tuna, hard-boiled egg, olives, tomatoes and grilled eggplant, laced with cumin and dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. Couscous Royale was an extravagant version of the national dish of Tunisia, combining stewed lamb and chicken and shredded beef on a bed of the grain with zucchini and pumpkin strips, garbanzos, carrot and potato slabs, and jus on the side. It was more moist and juicy than the Moroccan version while not as intensely spiced.

Baguette sandwiches are popular and ubiquitous. The baguette farcie was a small baguette loaf brushed with butter, stuffed with a large quantity of ground beef along with onions, tomatoes and cheese cooked in a pizza-style oven.  The fusion of tastes and textures was heavily beef-forward, which was what the locals apparently wanted because there was a long line of salivating, willing-to-wait customers.

Baguette Farcie is one of the many baguette sandwiches of Tunisia.

The fricassée was my favorite Tunisian sandwich. It was filled with some of the usual culprits (tuna, potatoes, olives and onions plus harissa), but with a very special dough that enhanced the flavors of the ingredients: the small, oval sandwich was deep fried producing a lightly crispy exterior while inside it was extra moist, soft and fluffy.

Fricassée sandwich bread is crispy outside and soft and fluffy inside.

After some days in Tunisia, I went in search of dishes and tidbits that went beyond the same favorite ingredients used in most recipes. I was only partially successful.

Neptune Restaurant in Tunis is a working-class eatery popular for its home-style cooking and typical traditional plates. I noticed that several of the diners were having lentil soup as a starter. The waiter explained to me that lentil soup is a go-to food in the cooler months, and it comes in a variety of versions – such as with chickpeas or chicken ‒ with a foundation of onion, celery, garlic, tomato or tomato paste, and spices. Neptune’s soup was thick and satisfying, redolent of garlic, onions and cumin.

For my main course, I gobbled up a plate of charred, musky merguez, the earthy sausage of Tunisia. A lamb-intestine casing is stuffed with a blend of lamb (sometimes beef), garlic, cumin and harissa, sometimes also fennel and coriander, and grilled. Intensely flavorful, even somewhat gamey, it’s a Tunisian staple.

Merguez is the signature sausage of Tunisia and a national staple.

In Kairouan, the country’s holy city, I enjoyed the prix fixe menu at the city’s most heralded restaurant, Dar Abderrahman Zarrouk. Méchouia is the quintessential Tunisian salad, utilizing a typical list of ingredients:  grilled peppers and eggplant were chilled, chopped fine, arranged on a bed of lettuce, onion and tomato, topped with tuna and egg, seasoned with harissa and drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice. This méchouia was a mini-feast in itself ‒ enlivened with a hint of char from the grilled vegetables.

Méchouia is the quintessential Tunisian salad with grilled peppers, eggplant, tuna and egg.

The Fingers of Fatima (Fatima was a daughter of Muslim prophet Muhammad) are essentially a Tunisian version of egg rolls: buttered phyllo dough wrapped up with seasoned ground beef, parsley, potatoes, garlic and spices. Deep fried and brightened with a squeeze of lemon, it’s crispy on the outside, salty and savory inside.

Grilled seabream, simply prepared with butter, lemon and garlic, was mouthwatering because it was so fresh, perfectly cooked and moist. The Mediterranean fish was served with stewed potatoes and carrots in butter and parsley along with a delicious pilaf with blanched almonds, caramelized onions and sultans. Fresh fruit is a frequent closure to meals in Tunisia and at Dar Abderahman Zaccouk it was wedges of orange and tangerine plus succulent dates stuffed with roasted almonds – a perfect combo of sweetness and earthy nuttiness.

Grilled whole seabream fish with a delicious pilaf and stewed vegetables at Dar Abderahman Zaccouk restaurant.

In Sidi Bou Said, a quaint white-washed seaside village with blue shutters and accents, a small eatery called Raies Labhaar serves up traditional fried whole local fish such as seabass, herbed pilafs, salads – plus a brik for the complimentary appetizer rather the usual garnish plate. Brik is a national treat, a triangular-shaped pocket of dough stuffed of course with some combination of Tunisia’s favorite ingredients (tuna, egg, cheese, potatoes, etc.), then deep fried and often squirted with a little lemon.

Sidi Bou Said is a quaint, white-washed seaside village with blue shutters and accents in Tunisia.

I savored a brik here and there during my sojourn in Tunisia. The crispy delight reflects a Tunisian kitchen that serves up myriad delectables from makroudh, a sweet pastry made with semolina, dates and honey, to the staple homey soup called chorba concocted with parsley, celery, lemon, semolina and either chicken or fish.

Brik is a national treat, a deep-fried pocket of dough stuffed with various ingredients.

Even though the same few foods and condiments are used to prepare most dishes and street foods, they are foundational, salt-of-the-earth ingredients that are staples, even indispensable, in typical kitchens.

My last taste of Tunisia was a glass of citronnade, a popular drink and a unique take on lemonade. The juice and pulp of lemons are combined with sugar and the mixture refrigerated 4-6 hours. Then it’s diluted with water, blended until frothy and finished with some orange blossom water and a garnish of fresh mint.

While regular lemonade is light, refreshing and tart, Tunisian citronnade is smooth, sweet, thick and a mouthful with every sip. In the Tunisian culinary way, it just takes a few ingredients to create a delectable and enduring favorite of the nation’s kitchen.

-Story and photos by Edward Placidi

Hungry for more? Read Ed’s Article About Taiwan Night Markets.