Ena Mhajer Khatat

So this week I learned that your mouth can get tired and sore from trying to pronounce words. In Arabic, there are three letters that make a sound like th in "this." Each is said in a slightly different part of the mouth, and are supposedly very distinct. As of now they all sound pretty much the same to me.
Besides pronunciation, Tunisian Arabic is going well, and I can even create sentences like "Ena Nikra Al Hawet," or "I am studying fishmongery."

I feel like I am slowly becoming a member of the family, and last night they even let me cook dinner. I was informed by my host dad that "it is good I am a contributer to the family, unlike Karim (my host brother) who just takes." Since I'm still an outsider, I still have everything explained to me, from what the call to prayer is every time it comes on, to why since the traffic is bad on one street we are taking another. I also get a play by play translation of every argument that occurs in the house.

Tonight I am going with my host brother and some of his friends to "Above and Beyond," who is supposedly the best trance DJ group in the world. I'm kinda excited, and have been trying really hard to enjoy trance music, so we'll see how it goes.

Tomorrow I am going to the south and the Sahara for the week with my group, so I will probably have something more interesting to post after we come back.

Tunisian Couscous With Fish

Couscous with fish seems to be one of the most popular traditional Tunisian dishes. Today, Nijet, our maid, showed me how to make it.

First, take a pot and add:
olive oil
3 or 4 shallots, chopped coarsely
2 or 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
Some yellow spice for which you can substitute saffron
Black pepper
Another unknown spice, I tasted it and was able to make out some red pepper and maybe coriander, but I don't know what else.


bring to a simmer for like 10 minutes, and then add

a handful of chickpeas
3 or 4 coarsely chopped carrots
2 peeled potatoes chopped into large chunks
A few large chunks of some orange winter squash, also peeled

Add enough water to cover everything and let simmer for around 20 minutes

In the meantime, we took an unknown bean which kinda looked like a lima bean, but I think its something else, added some lemon juice to them, and put them in a separate pot with water to boil. All I can tell you about the bean is that it turns brown when it is cooked.


Next, take some whole white fish (I don't know what kind exactly, maybe you can figure out from the picture), and rub them with
Cumin
Fresh crushed garlic
And Sea salt




The couscous itself we put in a pan with some olive oil and a bit of tap water, and let the water get absorbed.

We then added enough water to our vegetable so that the pot was around half full, and put the couscous in a steamer over the pot, and let it steam uncovered for around 10 minutes.


After that, we took some of the broth from the vegetables, and added it to the fish in a pot, just enough to cover them, and brought that pot to a simmer until the fish was cooked. We then put the steamer with couscous back over the vegetables, adding salt and pepper.

Once the fish was cooked, and the couscous partially cooked, we put the couscous in a bowl, and added a few tablespoons of butter, and a couple of cups of broth from both the fish pot and the vegetable pot. The green beans should still be cooking, and start to be shriveled and brown.

Once the couscous has absorbed the broth, add the beans in with the other vegetables.

To serve, put the couscous in a bowl, pour the vegetables with their broth over it, and top with a piece of fish. This dish is usually served with fermented milk, which is kind of like a thick unsweetened yogurt drink.

Enjoy

Hopefully I'll post more recipes in the future

I Have Internet

So the internet has been down at my house since my host father stopped paying the bills, but he knows someone who works for the company and now we have temporary internet access.

It was in the mid 70's the other day, so I went with some other people in the group to the beach after class. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so I don't have any pictures. It was really nice though, and the water was warm enough that we could get our feet wet.

I think that I can accurately say that Tunisia has the worst drivers in the world. Every time I get into a car I fear for my life. There are very few stop signs, so people just go and hope that no one is coming from the other direction. Most of the lane lines have faded, so people move around in order to get where they're going as fast as possible, never using their blinkers. My host mother likes to do this thing where she stays in the middle of the road, so that no one can pass her, and so that as cars in front of her slow down she can swerve into whichever lane seems to be going faster. Also, Tunisian believe that seat belts are only necessary on the highway. And drunk driving doesn't seem to be looked down upon. When I was at my host brother's friend's house, someone else there downed an entire bottle of wine and then drove home. When I asked him if he could drive he said, "after the second bottle, I have to think about it."
Tunisian have the highest rate of deaths per accident.

Everyone here listens to trance music, and teenagers are really into Tektonic dancing, which is kinda strange, you should watch a video on youtube. I can't suggest a link since youtube is blocked here. I might go with my host brother to an Above and Beyond concert, who I guess is a really popular trance DJ.

I'm making challah for dinner tomorrow.

My family owns some olive groves and makes their own olive oil, here is a picture with Najet, our maid:
















In Tunisia, trains will start moving even if the doors are still open, meaning that kids like to hang outside while the train is going.

Shabbat Shalom

I moved in with my host family today. The house is beautiful and pretty new, with marble floors. The family has a maid which does all of the cleaning and most of the cooking. She only speaks Arabic, which is nice because it will force me to learn.







My Room







Tunisian food is ridiculously cheap. We went to get sandwiches today for lunch, and the most expensive one on the menu was 2 dinar, or $1.75
a cup of coffee or tea at a coffee shop will cost you around 300millim, or $.25

Arabic lessons are going well so far. Its been really helpful knowing Hebrew in terms of remembering the words. One thing that I found particularly interesting, is that unlike in Hebrew where when referring to mixed sexes you use the male, here, the male is barely used in everyday conversation, and everyone is referred to using female pronouns.

no picture yet

I met my family yesterday. They seem really awesome. My dad is an engineer who works for tunisian air, and before that he designed amusement parks. My mom is a bank manager. I also have a 21 year old brother who is studying some kind of computer data something and is really into clubbing and trance music. They seem really friendly and liberal, and the father told me that I should point out to him everything thats wrong with the country before I leave. I move in with them on friday, so more on that later.

Tunisian pizza is really good, possibly since its so close to Italy.

We also had our second survival Tunisian class where we were all given names, mine's Halil.

I'm in Tunisia

and google switched all of the links on my blog to Arabic, so I had to click on each one hoping I was clicking on new post. Thankfully I got it on the 4th try.

I have nothing exciting really to report yet, except that the weather is really nice and I'm exhausted since I watched transformers on the flight instead of sleeping. Also, I had quail for the first time, which was kinda exciting.

Tomorrow we go to the US embassy to find out how to not get killed, and then we get to meet our host families.