Authentic experience

Eating out

Authentic experience

An authentic dining experience: Dîner chez l’habitant
“Dîner chez l’habitant” is a French expression that means “eating at the dwellers’ home”. For visitors wanting to escape the Western restaurant culture for a taste of authentic local Tunisian homemade cuisine, “Diner chez l’habitant” is a great taste of Tunisian culture.
During your Tunisian vacation tour, our travel agency can arrange a lunch or dinner with a local Tunisian family that will invite you as guests and treat you as friends. Take the time to enjoy their hospitality and see how traditional dishes are prepared and cooked. As an optional excursion for half a day, tourists to Tunisia can also partake in a cooking session / lesson with a family. Guests will spend the morning discovering and buying ingredients for the luncheon feast, then learn how to prepare authentic Tunisian recipes and dishes, before enjoying their meal.

Getting a private chef
Some of our customers have combined both the Tunisian culinary experience with a VIP treatment in the form of a personal chef. We can hire a personal chef for a day or for your entire stay. He will make you discover the intricate use of Tunisian spices and fresh ingredients, all the while alleviating you from food duties
Our Desert adventure customers that spend a few days in the Sahara desert in their Bedouin tents enjoy the services of a private chef that prepares a feast every night. Traditional fire pit techniques are used to cook the “Mechoui” or half lamb as well as traditional honey desserts and other fresh dishes.
So let your travel assistants know and we can arrange a private chef for you.

The Hidden restaurants of Tunisia
Every tourist to Tunisia should have an unforgettable Tunisian feast in one of the rare hidden restaurants. Why hidden? A handful of traditional palatial homes have been restored to their past luxurious glory. They are hidden behind hand carved doors with very little or no signage. Most tourist just walk by these doors without ever imagining the luxious decorations and exquisite dishes that hide behind them. Granted, certain tourists might stop and take a picture of the door, but generally never stop to think what lies behind them.
Batouta Voyages can arrange for a private car and driver to take you to one of these extraordinary restaurants. At little more cost than an average Western restaurant, you will be able to feast on a wide selection of traditional Tunisian delicacies.

About Tunisian Cuisine
Traditional Tunisian cuisine has many influences; it is a Mediterranean cuisine with Greek, Roman, Berber, Punic, Arab and Turkish influences. To say nothing of course, of the influence of Italian and French cuisines.
Some traditional Tunisian dishes include:

Couscous: The traditional Tunisian Couscous is made of fine granules made from semolina flour. It is traditionally steamed over a pot of boiling water. A light sauce made with cooked vegetables is eaten with it. There are many variations of Couscous, vegetarian, different kinds of meat or fish.

Kemia: Traditional starter which comprises many small portions of olives, tuna, salads and spicy sauces.

La Brick: or the “Brick” are often small thin filo pastries, deep fried and stuffed with various ingredients which can include ground meet, eggs, tuna or seafood.

The Mechouia: Starter dish made of roasted red and green peppers and peeled, grilled tomatoes & onions, seasoned with olive oil and salt.

The Chorba: Thick, rich traditional soup with crushed wheat and meat.

The Chakchouka: Tunisian version of the French Ratatouille, made with tomatoes, peppers, onions with an egg thrown in at the last minute.

The Tagine: You have to be in Tunisia to enjoy a real Tunisian Tagine. Unlike its Moroccan counterpart, the Tagine looks more like a baked omelet, with a variety of fillings including meat or poultry, beans and other vegetables, and always eggs.

Sauces: Sauces are a big Tunisian secret as they come in many varieties and are often the key to many successful recipes.