Tunis

Friday, September 3, 2010

The iftars just keep on coming!

Iftar. The meal at the end of every day in Ramadan. I had two this weekend, and can't imagine how anyone copes with 30 in terms of the eating, let alone the food prep. Here is the first:
A rare yellow door. Possibly indicates the home of a magistrate. This mansion was abandonned for years before it became a restaurant/museum.

Main dining room
Butter-stuffed dates
Kaloun player
 On Friday night, 20 teachers from the school had an iftar meal at Dar el Jeld, a wonderful restaurant/museum in the Medina. (A medina is the old walled city in any city or town in Tunis. The medina of Tunis was built in the 7th century and was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1979.) I would like to go back some time when I am NOT in a large group of foreigners, because I am sure they can do better. The food was good, but pedestrian. I believe they had gone to lengths to remove the spices. The meal started, as always, with a plate of dates - this time stuffed with butter. And before you gag, you go try it. They were fabulous. There was a choice of fish or beef soup, a brik, and some truly amazing salads. The main course was either lamb shanks or stuffed calimari on rice. Dessert was a pistacio cake, followed by - wait for it - mint tea! I will soon only fit into my caftan!

Mosque at the Tunis Medina

Small salon

 After dinner, we had a short guided tour of the median itself. Here again, I'll have to go back - many times, I expect.

One of the last true chechia-making shops in the Median
Weird scary African procession in a street in the Medina.

1 comment:

  1. What's a chechia?

    So enjoying the blog! but I need your address..... please send by email. I've also lost my computer to the techies -- it ceased to function dependably, and they are taking a LOOOONNNG time to fix it and I'm hysterical because I can't do anything easily. So.

    xox, Robin

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