Tunisia

In 2019, I had a Tunisian Lyft driver for an hour-long ride in traffic from California Hospital to Burbank Airport. We discussed Tunisian history, Tunisian politics since the Arab Spring, language, his trips home to visit his mother, Tunisian restaurants, and cooking. He said Moroccan harissa is sweeter with carrots and sugar; Tunisian harissa is spicier. Tunisians use cous cous instead of rice, and their bread is thicker than pita but still round. He gave me directions to a Tunisian market - if you go west on Venice Boulevard to Culver City, it's the middle eastern market one block past Overland. He was friendly and open and I appreciated the depth of information that he shared.

I had already eaten traditional Tunisian food at Moun of Tunis in Hollywood with Karina - one of our first adventures together. We had the eggplant tomato appetizer (so good!), brik (eggs in a pastry shell served with spicy pepper sauce), harira (lentil soup), salads with mechoui (a lamb salad plus four more salads), brochette (we chose the beef skewer), b’stilla (chicken in pastry with powdered sugar and cinnamon), lamb with artichokes, couscous with vegetables and boulettes, mint tea and almond cake soaked in syrup. This was a great meal! I could have stopped after the appetizer, salads, and b'stilla, but the meal comes together as an experience and we had plenty of leftovers to take home. I highly recommend going!

More recently, I had upscale food with Tunisian flair with Kaitlin and Andrea at Barsha in Hermosa Beach. We had Tunisian bruschetta (tuna, chick pea mash, cucumber, tomato, egg), falafel sliders, tabil branzino with couscous risotto, succotash with tahini, moussaka, tabil mac, and rose trifle for dessert with lemon mascarpone, pound cake, rose water berries, and pistachios. Everything was good and I especially loved the bruschetta, the cous coos risotto, and the falafel sliders. The best part however was our warm and enthusiastic Tunisian server. This was such a fun evening and worth driving all the way to Hermosa Beach.

I have made a few Tunisian recipes because I love the food so much!

· Vonny, Kevin, and I made eggs for breakfast following this recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/shakshuka-north-african-shirred-eggs-tomato-pepper-recipe

· Anne Berit and I ate Tunisian Chick Pea stew on a movie night and didn’t even need to go to the store because I have all these spices from cooking around the world: https://www.feastingathome.com/tunisian-chickpea-stew/

· This tajine recipe is so different than the Moroccan tajines that I will have to try it: https://www.diversivore.com/tunisian-tajine/

· More Tunisian recipes can be found here: https://www.ourtunisiantable.com/

The story of Hannibal crossing the Alps with elephants and becoming a threat to Rome has so much more detail than I learned in ninth grade. One of those details is that Hannibal was from what is now Tunisia. Another is that Hannibal lived a long life and continued to provide his expertise to those who fought Rome. There are several books and movies about Hannibal, including these:

· Hannibal, Rome’s Worst Nightmare is a film dramatizing Hannibal’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCYLHTrZ_Z4

· Hannibal: Rome’s Greatest Enemy by Philip Freeman is a well rated book

· More about Hannibal and the Punic Wars can be found here: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/ancient-medieval/roman-empire/v/punic-wars-between-rome-and-carthage

I also chose some light reading. Benny and Omar by Eoin Colfer tells the story of two 14-year-old boys, one from Ireland and one from Tunisia. They don’t speak each other’s language but can communicate in ideas they both learned on TV. For example, the Dukes of Hazzard means outlaws, Marge and Homer Simpson means parents, and BeeGees means brothers. It reminds me of the time Captain Picard was stuck on a planet with another species and their language was based on metaphors.

For more reading:

· Hoopla has a play called Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied Tunisia as an audiobook.

· There is a collection of current Tunisian writing by women titled “We Take the Present in Our Own Hands” here: https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2017-12/december-2017-writing-tunisian-women-introduction-cecile-oumhani/

The Khan Academy has a module on Tunisia in The Art of Africa series: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/north-a/x1f9f8bff:tunisia/a/architecture-and-ritual-in-the-ghriba-synagogue-tunisia

Netflix has two Tunisian films, Ghodwa about a Tunisian man and his son and Aya a story of a girl and the difficulties of overcoming fanatical beliefs.

This video of a Tunisian pop up band demonstrates the fun and beauty of Tunisian music. If you want to continue hearing Tunisian music, more videos will play after this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEYPX4T8B8w&list=PLT1Vw5t8FIecaONuOAF91MtpyI8WolMqr

There are many beautiful places to visit in Tunisia https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-tunisia/ and yes, I would love to go! I hope for a time when broad travel gives us new perspectives. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Tunisia and throughout the world.

Photo Credit: Elena Mozhvilo https://unsplash.com/photos/78MC1uRvgS4