Tunisian food combines Arabic, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and French influences. Bread and pastries are a legacy of the French, so you’ll find crusty light-as-air
baguettes and melt-in-the-mouth
croissants and
pains au chocolate. Dishes are cooked with olive oil, spiced with aniseed, coriander, cumin, caraway, cinnamon or saffron and flavored with mint, orange blossom or rose water; many are accompanied by
harissa, a chili and garlic condiment. Fresh fish and seafood are often splendid, as are roast chicken and baked lamb dishes.
Things to know: Although Tunisia
is an Islamic country, alcohol is not prohibited. Tunisia produces a range of palatable table wines, sparkling wines, beers, aperitifs and local liqueurs.
National specialties:• Couscous (ground semolina served with meat, fish or vegetable sauce).
• Harissa (chilli paste).
• Salade Mechouia (roasted vegetable salad).
• Tajine (a kind of omelette, served cold).
• Brik (tasty filling, usually tuna, egg, onions, capers and parsley, deep-fried in an envelope of pastry).
National drinks:• Thé à la menthe (mint tea), often served with pine nuts.
• Ahwa arbi (Turkish coffee).
• Boukha (thick aromatic spirit, distilled from figs).
• Thibarine (herb-based liqueur).
Legal drinking age: 21 years.
Tipping: Not a requirement, but waiters and taxi drivers are usually tipped a few coins; waiters in tourist restaurants are accustomed to 10%.
NightlifeThere are several theaters and numerous cinemas in Tunis, with plays and films in Arabic and French. In Tunis and the main resorts, many restaurants and hotel bars feature live music and/or belly dancers in the evenings from May to September, and there are numerous nightclubs, which tend to be either a magnet for wealthy young Tunisians or aimed solely at tourists; all mostly play mainstream house music. Summer is the season for arts festivals, when traditional and international artists arrive in Carthage, Hammamet and Nabeul. In late summer there are also several music festivals in Tabarka on the northern coast, with live music in the evenings. Yasmine, Hammamet, Port El Kantaoui and Djerba all have large casinos.
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