What pasta is to Italy and rice to China couscous is to Algeria.

Tucking into the couscous at a wedding--Remind you of a Scaringe family reunion at all??

What pasta is to Italy and rice to China couscous is to Algeria.
This is available in the US, but they don’t taste the same. Here, the tiny grains, a lighter cross between rice and pastina, are steamed and served in great earthenware bowls or silver trays with wooden spoons. The heap of couscous is crowned with chicken, beef or lamb, decorated with strips of carrots, and squash then covered with a “sauce” which is really a soup of chickpeas and vegetables. The couscous must be steamed at least three times by most recipes so they are really light and fluffy. People here tell you that you eat until you feel full – but an hour later you will be hungry again because it’s all air. Couscous are organic and come in white or barley. People tell you the barley is good for your digestion. And they are served at all weddings – and funerals.
They are organic and their preparation requires great pots and steamers (couscoussieres) and I must try to buy one for Jo-Ann’s kitchen collection. As with pasta, you can buy commercially made couscous and younger people do, but hand-rolled couscous is a tradition.
Sunday (May 31) we drove an hour west out of town to Tipazia, a beautiful mountain-beach area of the coast beloved by Albert Camus – a fact that at least two residents told us about. Here is the site of a Club Med on the sea and a children’s camp where they were staging a Couscous competition. We met Axxam Lahlo, who owns a couscous restaurant and a small company that packages hand-made couscous for sale. Craig Smith of the NY Times wrote a feature about him last fall.
The other thing about eating in Algeria is the variety of foods available. In Uganda, the food was good but the same all the time. Here there are French, Indian, Lebanese, and Chinese restaurants. Pizzerias are everywhere as are food shops and markets selling produce. Restaurants near the bay offer wonderful fish or fresh fish you can buy and make at home.
Algerians also love sweets. As Said puts it: “Sugar is very big here. Algerians need two teaspoons of sugar every morning for their coffee.” But our boss insists he could become a millionaire with a Krispy Kreme franchise here, because “they don’t do sweets well.” The fast-food desserts here tend to be greasy and heavy. He says he’d open a store in a place he’d paint blindingly white and accessorize in chrome for the dazzle and contrast with shabby buildings nearby and he’d sell out his donuts every day.
(On the other hand, within a week of arrival we discovered Le Troquet, a cafe that serves the best tiramisu I’ve ever had anywhere and a chocolate cream cake out of this world.)