Couscous
 

Hello

It is today the third time I take US friends to eat a couscous who had never eaten a couscous.
They - up to now - all like it

So in case you are like my friends unaware of this great North-African specialty, widely eaten in Paris (and France), here is a link to what it is :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couscous

Here a few addresses in Paris where I had a decent couscous :
Jaafar Sommerard Cluny
Marrakech Rue Amaillé 8e Etoile ?
Omar (chez) Bretagne, 47 4e temple
Petit bleu Muller 18e

For me the best one was at le Petit Bleu, but even for an European, I found the service ... rude !
Chez Omar is well known, in a nice brasserie style art nouveau. Couscous is excellent.
Marrakech is 'higher' style, and more expensive. Better seated.
If you know couscous, forgive me and go read another post !
Enjoy your meal.

Thanks for this. We will be there soon. Which is the best on a low budget?

petit bleu. At the foot of the stairs of Sacré Coeur.

Ate couscous in Sicily. Found it disappointingly bland. Ate couscous in Morocco. Not much better and quickly became boring. Ate couscous in Moroccan restaurant in US. Same. So much else to eat in Paris.

Couscous on it's own is bland since it is a type of pasta. It is the stew or other topping which adds the flavour to it. Using a flavoured stock for the couscous also helps, especially if you want to use the couscous in a salad.

I have never eaten it in a restaurant but use it to accompany tagines and vegetable dishes a lot.I have never tried it as a desert. I shall have to give that a go sometime.

I much prefer my grandmother's goulash. . . almost except for the semolina, the same ingredients. However, harrisa!!!!
That's the best heat there is.

I was considering a Polenta holiday but now....

Couscous is very widely known and eaten in the Northeastern US. I used to buy it at the supermarket when I lived there, now almost 20 years ago. I would imagine that it's well known also on the west coast, but maybe not in the vast hinterlands.

Actually, though, I'm pretty sure I've seen it at my daughter's supermarket in Indiana. Maybe it's just chance that you met three Americans who didn't know about couscous.

When as a child in the vast hinterlands, I ate couscous, it was called Cream of Wheat or was just plain grits served with greens, of course. The wheat thingie isn't the deal. It's the stew that's put on top of it.

<b>Couscous</i> is recognized in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Swiss Romandy and Italy (perhaps Spain as well) as a stew dish of which the semolina is an important but relatively minor ingredient.

Most other countries only think of the semolina, which I will admit is the technical translation of the Maghrebi word 'couscous.'

I absolutely cannot imagine why people in the other countries actually eat the semolina all by itself and think that it is some kind of food. It's about the same as saying "I fixed sesame seeds for dinner."

Here is a couscous that I made at home recently, and you can see that the semolina is not the most important item:
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...mouton%203.jpg

WoinParis, tip:

Chez René et Gabin on Boulevard de Belleville: Jewish-Tunisian cuisine. A real institution. Never fails to please.

In Australia we would have it as side dish much as you might use rice wth a curry.

thursdaysd; ??? we must not be eating the same couscous

It should be mentioned that couscous (the stew dammit!) is the second most popular dish in France (after <i>magret de canard</i>) and there would probably be riots if it did not appear regularly on school and company canteen menus or at the local café.

France without couscous would be like the United States without pizza.

We love couscous. I don't know anyone who just eats it plain. It's always accompanied by a fragrant stew of some kind. I've had it in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and all over France, and yes, Chez René et Gabin does it wonderfully.

How would you rate l'Atlas in the 5th?

I love the Shakshuka at Chez René etc too

Lol. I really wondered about the devil you were going on about until I got to the dish explanation.

Couscous (the semolina) is my parent's new favorite "ethnic" food. Don't ask me why. Mom will actually eat it plain! I like it with stew over it, it soaks up flavor well, but I don't get it as a side dish which is how it's served out here a lot.

My French in-laws (ex) loved to make tabbouleh - which she said was made of cous-cous but not cooked but saoked in olive oil, fresh tomatoes and mint. Good on a hot day.

Be careful of the use of cous cous. In some cultures it gets the same reaction from Brits when Americans mention a fanny pack.

Please explain, IMDonehere.

And PalenQ, be careful with taboulé/tabbouleh. The North African version, which is the most eaten in France, is indeed mostly couscous grain with tomatoes, mint leaves, olive oil, lemon, etc. But the Lebanese version is dominant in the world and it is mostly chopped flat parsley (called Italian or Lebanese parsley) with tomatoes, mint leaves, onion and just a tiny bit of couscous or bulgur.

I like both kinds, but claiming that one or the other is the "real" one can bring many people to fisticuffs.

Grits are made with corn, not wheat. They don't resemble couscous in any way, other than the size of the grain. In my opinion, they're even better than couscous. Love them with just butter and grated cheese. Cream of wheat as eaten in the US is very different from couscous; I'm not sure why, because it's also made with semolina. Maybe it's ground finer, or maybe it's just cooked longer.

I thought tabbouleh was made with bulgur wheat rather than couscous, but I'm not an expert. Bulgur is coarser than semolina, and always whole grain. It's another grain that I prefer to couscous.

I mostly used couscous for quick meals, especially if I had some left-over stew or something. Since it has little taste of its own (like rice) it goes well with many other flavours. I've tried it since living in Italy, but my husband doesn't care for it; he thinks that anything that's good with couscous would be better with rice.

Bulgur and grits have a taste of their own. Cream of wheat doesn't, but I can't see cream of wheat used as a base for a stew. We always ate it sweetened, for breakfast. It was a preferred early food for infants.

Thanks for the grits correction. I realized my mistake after I hit the submit button . . .but thought no one would catch it. I should have known better.

Couscous (in France at least) is sold "fine" or "medium" - medium is only a bit finer than bulgur.

It is steamed, never boiled (except by idiots).

I often just poured boiling water over my couscous and let it sit for a few minutes, as someone mentioned above doing when making tabbouleh.

By the way, Kerouac, are those chickpeas in your couscous?

Please explain, IMDonehere.

Cous cous can be a vulgar euphemism for a female's anatomy.

<i>By the way, Kerouac, are those chickpeas in your couscous?</i>

Yes, chick peas are an integral part of the dish.

Have never heard that about couscous, IMDonehere. Which culture says that?

I have only eaten couscous from CROUS. Admittedly you can't ask much for that price, but the student memory is so strong it tainted my conception of couscous. Not in a positive way, apparently. Perhaps it's time to move on and try Le Petit Bleu.

Have never heard that about couscous, IMDonehere. Which culture says that?>

Nor has Google it seems -IM's culture is small I guess.

I suppose Donald Trump may know?

He might, since he visited Israel last week.
Just half of that word, yes. But the word has been reclaimed by women, I use it myself sometimes.

It is Israel but also a vulgarity in some Arabic societies.

Google told me in less than one second that 'kus' is the vulgar word for female genitalia. If some people need to snicker when just one syllable of a different word sets off their dirty minds, they should just get a job telling jokes in a club in Peñiscola, Spain.

'If some people need to snicker when just one syllable of a different word sets off their dirty minds'

Exactly.

US and Brits spend their own time telling the world they have a small one : 'A little bit ... '

The river Kwai has to be pronouced properly too.

Eine Kunde is not exactlty a client in CZ.

etc.

Wonder what Tagine might mean in Swahili ...

Of course elevated French life forms, never laugh or raise an eyebrow at an unexpected double entendre. Wait that is the language origin of that phrase?

This is after all the year of the cock for the Chinese. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Double entendre ?

Probably a US origin - means nothing in French as such.

It's another one of those bizarre invented terms. WoinParis, did you know that "à la mode" means "topped with ice cream" in the United States?

It is Israel but also a vulgarity in some Arabic societies.>

Thank Allah I have been boycotting Isreali couscous they sell at my local Co-Op -who knows what may be in it?

As long as on phrase origins -where did the Americanism "pardon my French" for swearing or saying something obscene come from?

No Kerouac, I didn't.

Ils sont fous ces américains...

copyright Obelix respected :

http://www.legorafi.fr/2013/08/12/as...ande-dessinee/

merci, WoinP. I wonder if we're no longer allowed to say that "all roads lead to Rome", or "when in Rome" or is it just the mildly derogatory phrases they object to?

I never knew that Italians are so sensitive.

While we're talking about linguistic misunderstandings, the Rolls Royce Silver Mist never did catch on in Germany.