About Tunisia - Tunisia Guide & Information

Tunisia’s signature dish is couscous - served with a stew of chunky vegetables, meat or fish in a hot tomato sauce. The most popular recipe is lamb with vegetables and during cooking the couscous is placed above the pot so it absorbs all the flavour of the stew bubbling below. Another tasty dish is kamounia which is aromatic beef or lamb cooked with lots of cumin and other spices. Snacks you’ll find throughout Tunisia are the brik a l’oeuf (an egg fried inside a light pastry parcel) and Deglet Fatima (Fatima’s fingers); thin rolls of transparent pastry filled with egg or meat and then deep-fried.

Cheap and filling soups served with bread and harissa (a hot sauce made from chilli peppers, paprika and olive oil) are often on the menu. Chickpea based Lablabi broth is the most common, while Chorba is spicier, usually made with pasta or barley grains in a chicken or lamb stock. A spicy fish version is served in the Sfax region. Other dishes in coastal areas are grilled prawns and octopus and 'complet poisson' (a whole fish served with a lettuce, tomato and pepper salad).
Tunisian pizza is also popular and is normally served in slices, with the favourite topping being chunks of tuna. Tuna is also the main ingredient of salade tunisienne, mixed with crisp lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, olives and a sliced hard-boiled egg.

Tourist restaurants operate to strict hygiene rules. Local cafes and restaurants are also usually clean and tidy, as are pavement restaurants.